My Brother PC-420 defaults to the left. When using my 1/4" piecing foot, I need the needle to be in the center. This has resulted in a few broken needles when I have turned the machine off for the day, and turned it back on the next day and forgot to reset the needle position. Now I am good about removing the foot from my machine when done for the day. Having to put the foot back on at the beginning of a new day reminds me to move the needle over.

One thing I hated about the Babylocks is that even if you move the needle to the center, all the stitch plate markings are off because the default is to the left. I understand that the newer models have changed the position to center, but I have not actually witnessed it. It made the difference between buying a Janome or a Babylock for a machine to drag back and forth to classes.

My Baby Lock defaults dead center.

I have a Brother CS6000i and if you hold the + sign while turning it on, it will set the default position permanently to the center (or until you manually do this again to change it back to the left). I was changing it to center EVERY time I turned it on until I read my manual and discovered I could change the default position from left to center where I need it to be every time. Check your manual -- if you have an electronic machine you can probably easily change the default position!

Check your manual -- if you have an electronic machine you can probably easily change the default position![/QUOTE]

The default on my Babylock cannot be changed. I asked the sewing machine doctor to change it for me. He tried, but my machine is old enough that it doesn't have the option of center needle dafault.

Gramajo has a very important point -- most likely only the newer electronic/computerized machines will have the ability to do this. I wonder if they had so many requests for the center needle default position that they started making the newer machines with this ability? It's possible on mine (Brother XR1300 which is the Costco version of the CS6000i without embroidery/monogramming feature), so it might be worth it to check your manual if your machine is fairly new.

My Bernina and Brother both default to the center. I wonder why other machines have needles that default off center? Seems a bit odd that machines would come up with an off center setting when the most common stitch is straight stitch and often done with the needle in the center position.

Depends on my machine, my sq[9050 is the left, my espire was the center, and my dreamweaver is the center, and my xl-3500i is mechanical so it was wherever the hell I left it, center right left, had no default, all machines are brothers except for the espire which is made by brother and has babylock's name on it. I actually hate that it is left on my sq-9050 because i forget to change it and my needle hits the 1/4" presser foot.

All three of my Babylock default to the center needle position.....and I am able to change that if I wish.

FYI, go to your settings, you can change the default setting to the center. Or you can just move the needle using your width control to where you want it and then save it in that spot. It will always be there.