Enco 12x36 lathe

D

Dogdoc

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Jan 28, 2019
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Hello
l have a stupid question . About 20 years ago I purchased this lathe and used it for some simple projects over a couple of years. Life got busy and I put it on the back burner and forgot most of what little I knew. Fast forward to now and I have cleaned it up and got started using it again. Thanks to YouTube channels like Blondihacks I am quickly learning more than I ever knew. On my lathe there is the master on switch , the on/ off and direction switch on the carriage and a third switch next to the master on/switch which is momentary and runs the lathe in reverse only or clockwise when viewed from the tail stock When pushed in or activated. What is its purpose ? Getting gears to mesh when changing ?
thanks
dogdoc
 
There's no such thing as a stupid question here. I on the other hand am guilty of stupid answers occasionally lol.

I don't have the Enco lathe, but on my 12x36, the momentary button was a jog button to allow you to rotate the spindle in small increments to do as you mentioned. I never used the jog button for its intended purpose, I just did it with the direction lever on the carriage if I needed to. Since I have a VFD installed on my machine, I recently added a jog paddle switch that allows me to go either direction for jogging. That comes in handy when metric threading away from the chuck, I can position the tool at the starting point fairly easily.

Another YouTube page you will want to follow is Joe Pie, he is a professional machinist and has a lot of excellent methods of doing things that will make your life much easier when working on projects. He has a video on threading away from the chuck that I mentioned above, makes threading so much easier!
 
I believe the jog function is supposed to move the spindle CCW (normal direction) as viewed from the tailstock
your machine might be miswired- has the motor been replaced?
Does the direction switch on the carriage affect the jog direction? It does on some machines I think
 
Can you post some pictures and model of your Enco.

I'm learning too and mine is missing some control parts

Thanks
 
I have a Taiwan Generic branded Rhino/Peerless with that same button. I believe it to be for use when screw cutting to be able easily to stop the lathe at the end of a screw cutting pass by simply releasing the button. It also helps prevent crashing the tool at the end of a pass due to inattention as you have to keep pressing the button. Sort of like a 'dead mans handle'.
 
I think it's also useful when adjusting 4-jaw chucks
 
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