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Foot switch? I'd have to wire it as a three-way or I'd never be able to turn the lathe off after losing it when the roughing spirit is on me.

Where'd you find a rocker rated for a 1 HP motor?

George I understand the problem. When roughing the shavings do pile gigh, do they not? However, the lathe is plugged into the switch box so either the foot switch or the lathe switch turns off the lathe. No problem shutting down until the switch is dug out. I find a snow shovel to be a basic cleaning tool :-) The rocker switch is just a standard switch from the hardware store (Canadian Tire). It reads 15 amps at either 115 or 227 volts so that should handle a horsepower or so without any trouble.

Keep your eye on the switch. The amperage draw on startup is the reason switches for motors have sturdier contacts. Might anticipate shorter life, even though there's not a great amount of startup resistance in a lathe.

I've got a perfectly good way of keeping the area around the lathe clean, but when the spirit moves me, I sometimes move it to tweak something, and don't put it back.

George With the price of the switch and its easy replacement i just figured on going for it. If I can find an industrial quality rocker switch somewhere in the future, I may change it, but likely not. I like your method of collecting rough out shavings, I have one just like it in the shop. Still, it seems a snow shovel makes a great cleaning tool :-)