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 Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.
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On Mon, 31 Jan 2005 07:25:54 GMT, wrote:

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