Longarm Design Flaw?

With everything else that had been going on in my life, I'm not sure that I had officially mentioned here on the blog that over the summer we were building a new house. I like to think that it was because my longarm was too big and I needed a bigger sewing room, but it was for many different reasons. Fast forward to December when it was time to move Peggy.

{Side note: Yes, Peggy is now the name of my longarm. When I originally named her Eliza from the musical Hamilton, I had joked that maybe I should call her Peggy, just to be funny, and wouldn't you know it, that's what she really wanted to be named in the end. So she has been rechristened}

It was finally time to move Peggy, my HandiQuilter Avanté. Per their instructions, you should pack it in its original box anytime you need to move it, but first, you need to remove the thread mast, something that should be hand-tightened onto the top of the machine and take no effort whatsoever. One simple turn of lefty-loosey and this is what happened:

Ummm.... great. Now what do I do?  After getting my machine and the frame moved to the new house we see if there's enough on the top of the machine to grab with some pliers to unscrew:

Just barely, IF the metal wasn't so incredibly soft that it doesn't allow you to grab onto it. Grrrrr... Plan B is a call to my local dealer who originally set up my machine for me. They called HQ Headquarters and the recommended drilling it out with a special drill-bit so this resulted in my taking my machine to the dealer (about an hour away).

The technician tried drilling it out but the metal was so soft that even with the drill-bit, it wouldn't catch and drill out. He said that it's not the first time he's had a mast snap but it didn't happen this low before and that he's noticed that they seem to be made of softer metal. That sounds to me like a quality control issue. It got to the point that he was reluctant to try and drill any further without damaging the machine casing so he stopped and called HQ Headquarters.

Onto Plan C -- My entire machine is now being shipped back to their headquarter warehouse where they will probably have to open it up and drill it out, up from the inside and then put in some sort of plastic dowel inside for the mast to screw into (kind of like a wall anchor). Luckily this all covered under warranty but it seems like this is a bit of a design flaw for just a thread mast that can possibly break at the base of the machine. Have they not thought that screwing in a permanent small U bracket (on its side) and then screwing the mast onto that would be a better option?

Good thing I have smaller projects and deadlines that I'm working on right now but it will be nice to have Peggy back and in working order. Once I do, I will give you a tour of my new sewing room. It's nice and she's no longer partially tucked in a closet.