Cowboy 3200 can’t insert needle

[Bagmaker99]

Hello,

I purchased a cowboy 3200 about a year ago but I’ve been busy with my day job and haven’t had much chance to use it until today.  I used it when I got it for an hour, and it sewed nicely. Fast forward to today, I oiled the whole thing and then started sewing and after a couple stitches the needle broke. 
 

I quickly realized it wasn’t threaded properly. I forgot to thread it through the hole on the needle bar. So I went to change the needle and it wouldn’t come out. 
 

I completely removed the set screw and put a few drops of oil in the needle bar and I was able to remove the needle with pliers. But now it requires pliers to put a new needle in!  Also, the needle now rubs against the back of the hole in the foot. It was not perfectly centered before, but I don’t think it rubbed, which it now does. 

Btw I’m using the needles provided with the machine, and I double checked and they are the correct size. 
 

So does anybody know what the damage is?  Is the needle bar bent?  Can that easily be replaced on a cowboy 3200?

thanks in advance

[Wizcrafts]

Contact Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines, at 866-362-7397 about replacement parts for Cowboy sewing machines sold in the USA

[Cumberland Highpower]

That's a bad day....

It sounds like your machine just had poor QC.  Did you insert the original needle in your machine or did it come installed? It may have been a tight fit from the start.  That's poor qc in that case, but it's not hard to fix.  You can clean up any burrs in the needle mounting hole.    If your needle is rubbing, something is out of adjustment, bent or poorly made.   Skipping the hole in the needle bar had nothing to do with your needle breaking or anything else.  Your needle was probably under allot of stress because of the misalignment and snapped after a couple stitches.

20 mins looking it over and making some adjustments should cure the problem.  At worst you might need to replace an out of spec part.