wrote:
Are we really on our own when it comes to deciphering manuals written
in english by one of our overseas brothers? I've got a new Birmingham
1440 and the manual is little more than a comic book.

My suggestion would be to look over the offerings at other importers
for machines that look similar, then read their manuals.

I know these two both list manuals for most of their products:
www.grizzly.com
www.harborfreight.com

They've also gotten very good about using something much
closer to real English. Since these are for the American market,
you may have to adjust rpm's for the difference between 50 and
60hz motors.

HTH
--Glenn Lyford