Help !!! power start button on birmingham Lathe

I just bought a Birmingham 12x36 gearhead lathe. Installed a 220v outlet in the garage. Plugged it in and looked for the power start button. the manual said there was one, but I could not find it. The only power button I could find is the jog/inch button. That button just jogs the lathe. If I hold it down it continues to run but I can't imagine that Birmingham had intended the operator to hold the jog button down to turn parts. There is a red reset button but that just breaks the circuit and shuts things off. There is a green power light that looks like a button but it is just a light. It can't be pushed. Were the heck is the button that lets the lathe run continually without being held down???? The manual is very unclear and amateur....Birmingham needs to hire a technical writer.

Kimball

Reply to
kimballt
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There should be a handle controlling a "forward-reverse" switch on the apron. Typically, down for forward, up for reverse.

Reply to
Robert Swinney

Hey Kimball,

On many of these lathes, the "spindle" control is a lever on the carriage. It is most easily identified if the machine has more than one long shaft low and tucked in behind the carriage across the front of the lathe running from the headstock gear-case full length of the bed to the end of the lathe bed) . In every case, the first rod is to allow threading, and if there is only one, then there must be some other place to "start" the spindle. I would be very surprised though if you have a "JOG" button and ONLY one long shaft (the lead screw). I suspect that you do in fact have three shafts..the upper one is threaded, and rotates when you want to do threading; ...the middle one is to drive the carriage when NOT threading, and is quite plain; ....and the lower one is connected to the lever on the side of the carriage to do what you are asking about... lift up for REVERSE SPINDLE (clockwise)...CENTER for OFF..and push DOWN for FORWARD SPINDLE (counter-clockwise).

One nice thing about the JOG button is that it shows that you have the machine wired up correctly.

Take care.

Brian Laws>I just bought a Birmingham 12x36 gearhead lathe. Installed a 220v outlet in

Reply to
Brian Lawson

Maybe they wired in the wrong switch on your machine? The one that should have been on/off is instead jog/inch? Normally there isn't a jog/inch switch on a lathe! - GWE

Reply to
Grant Erwin

Hey Grant,

Hmmmm.. I hate to argue, but I've got three lathes, and two of them have a jog button. In fact, at the moment, I have a fourth here for "repair", and it has a jog button also.

Take care.

Brian Laws> snipped-for-privacy@pacbell.net wrote:

Reply to
Brian Lawson

Reply to
Waynemak

You were right It was the handle on the carriage the 3rd shaft down.

Thanks to all !!!

Now I will start fiddling to find out how to do things. Already figured out the threading.

KT

Reply to
kimballt

Thanks to all for the help. I found it as one reply suggested on the carriage.. very long handle which conects to the 3rd shaft down.

KT.

Reply to
kimballt

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