Posted By Dave Daniel You need to consult the Knitting Federation's old and venerable "Red Book" of safety standards for the industry, taking care that parts are sadly out of date. the bent wire guards around the needle above the shoe are machine-specific and are available as spares I believe. All of the sewing rooms I've visited have been able to find them easily from their maintenance engineer. They seem to provide a fighting chance against a needle stick injury if your finger rides over the top of the shoe although sewing machinists don't like using them. There are also perspex shields advocated by some to prevent a broken needle hitting the eye. The "Red Book" comments that the incidence of this is extremely rare and given the difficulties of seeing the job (resulting in a greater risk of needle stick injury) does not advise their use, preferring to focus on good quality needles which don't break in the first place. Overlockers tend to have small fixed perspex shields mounted around the needle instead of the wire guard, but these again are machine-specific. hope this helps! Look in the engineer's box of spares! Dave Daniel