Tiger I think I could hold them in a small drill chuck in my lathe, take a shave off them to get the diameter right, then file them down to the length we need, a real pain but I don't see much alternative. I did say I try to keep this mower hobby thing cost neutral so it means I have to work hard to claw back the cost of the needles
There won't be any money in it but if we could get some specs/tolerances for needles that do work, it would save time. Then if you come across a needle you can quickly check it with digital calipers, if it doesn't meet the necessary tolerances you can discard it and move onto one that does meet the necessary specs.
