HIGH-NEUTRAL-LOW SPINDLE WITH BRAKE

Designed by us over 10 years ago, this has been one of the most popular features on our machines ever since.  When turning on a lathe, the operator often must stop the spindle to check the measurements of his part- the more precise he wants to be, the more times he must stop and measure.  In production shops, they cannot afford to pay a machinist to spend time waiting for the machine to coast to a stop before doing his measurements, and so those big machines have a spindle stop, often foot operated which stops the spindle while the motor continues to run.  Years ago we thought this would be a great feature on a combination machine as well and began working on various designs.  Once we had perfected and tested our final design, we put it into production and our customers loved it.  No more worn out switches and burned out motors from that constant starting and stopping, not to mention the tedium of watching the lathes slowly coast to a stop.  Our design has a convenient lever which has 3 positive detent points.  Shifting the lever up engages low speed, while shifting it downwards engages the high speed.  When you put the lever into the neutral detent position a brake stops the spindle while the motor continues to run.  Starting the motor under a no-load situation vastly increases motor life as well.

Please note:  Even thought the neutral has a brake and positive detent, it is only intended for measuring parts. ALWAYS stop the motor when changing parts in the chuck.