Removing broken needle parts
I was embroidering a hat and broke a needle. My fault I had hooped the hat too close to the rim. I carefully removed the hoop and could not see the broken parts. I carefully removed the bobbin plate and saw a part on the feed dogs. I was afraid to use tweezers in case I dropped it so I cut a small piece of duct tape and laid it on the piece and picked it up. The point was still missing so I took the plate off and saw it sitting on a flat area. Again I used a piece of duct tape, laid it on and pressed lightly with tweezers and lifted it out. I laid the needle and the two parts together on the tape and I do have all of it.
This worked this time but my question is, how do you lift out broken parts of a needle? I am always afraid of a needle getting into my machines. I never change a needle without fabric laid on the machine but I would appreciate advice on dealing with broken needles.