An Update on Matilda (my longarm)

I posted last week that my longarm became damaged when I was doing some ruler work (the ruler flipped up under the needle as it was coming down).

Ouch!

Part of the needle sticking out of the casing - I can't get it out!

As much as I tried, I couldn't pull the broken needle top out of the casing.  I took the machine to Howard (the dealer I bought it from) and he hasn't been able to get it out, either.  Looks like the casing unit will have to be replaced.  Fortunately the quote Howard gave me to do the repair isn't too awful (I was certainly imagining much worse), so now we just have to wait until the part comes in (probably being shipped from the US).