PEARL, INC. - FACILITY TOUR
This page provides an only cursory overview of our substantial capital asset base.

 

12", 20 Speed Delta Wood Lathe c/w Delta Compound Slide Rest

   
Fig. 1. Here's a Delta 12" wood lathe I bought as a "junker" and completely rebuilt. It was stripped to bare cast iron, the bed reground and the headstock rebuilt with precision, pre-loaded bearings. I built the cabinet and drivetrain in our woodshop.  

 

Rockwell 8" Jointer

       
 
Fig. 2. This is an 8" Rockwell long bed jointer bought new in the '70s and -- just for fun -- rebuilt in '00.

When new, the machine was disassembled for inspection prior to being put into service. It was discovered that the tables had been incorrectly ground due an incredible amount of swarf being present in the dovetails at the time of assembly, prior to final grinding. When Rockwell refused to honor its own warranty, the dealer from whom we purchased made it good.		  

  We sent the machine to Dominion Bridge, here in Calgary, who at that time had a huge Snow, surface grinder capable of working a 36" x 72" surface. What we now have is a very accurate machine.

Although not evident from the photo, the cutter knives are "back ground" to reduce the effective rake angle with respect to the work surface. It's not generally realized that most jointer and thickness planer cutter heads are machined so as to provide a rake angle optimized for working soft woods.		   When such a steep angle is used with hardwoods, "tearout" is a common effect, notable and problematic with burls. curly, crotch and "birds' eye" grains. When back ground to reduce the rake angle from 30 to 20 deg. such problems are practically eliminated and cutter life is greatly extended due the cutting edge being better self-supported.


Any discussion of cutting tools would not, on this site at least, be complete without mention of the life-extending benefits of cryo-treatment. While not common knowledge amoung audio folk, such benefit has been known in the metalworking industries for some time . . .
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Rockwell 17" Drill Press

 
       
Fig. 3. Here's a 17" Rockwell drill press bought new in the early '70s and rebuilt in '00.

Although it has seen a lot of hard use the machine has stood up well, the only problem having been a poorly designed motor-mounting bracket that allowed the motor some real latitude of motion. This repaired, the machine runs beautifully.		    

 
 

A Classic Holbrook C10 - 12" x 20" Toolroom Lathe; Construction No. 10573 - Built 1964, acquired in 1982

 
         
 

 
 
Fig. 4. This is one of the truly great British lathes and one I prefer to even the likes of the venerable, US-made Monarch 10EE. While I could go on to some length over these machine's manifold virtues I'll leave it to you to download from the list to the right.
To see something of a heart breaker, download the Holbrook H15-17-20 brochure and view it beginning to end.		   Holbrook Minor - A pristine, extant example.
Holbrook Minor - Operator's & Service Manual.
Holbrook C10-13-16 - Sales Brochure & Operator's Man.
Holbrook Major - Sales Brochure.
Holbrook D13-15-18 - Sales Brochure & Operator's Man.
Holbrook H15-17-20 - Sales Brochure.
 

 
 

Another Classic Holbrook C10 - 12" x 20" Toolroom Lathe; Construction No. 10599 - Built 1964, acquired in 2014

 
         
 

 
 
Fig. 5. Here's another C10, this one acquired in 2014, as seen on the premises of the seller in the UK. This one was daunting to get on the water as the seller unknowingly put me onto a freight forwarder who was simply dishonest. I had to involve lawyers in the UK and finally had my longtime friends at Modern Tool here   in Calgary get their UK-based shipping agent to deal with the fellow, all of which doubled the landed cost of the machine.
At any rate, both machines were built in 1964; their construction numbers are 10573 and 10599. Funny how the world goes 'round . . .
 

 
 

TEKTRONIX Type 570 Electron Tube Characteristic-Curve Tracer — Eight units we've owned

 
  Fig. 6. A few pages on the last of eight Tektronix Type 570 Electron Tube Characteristic-curve Tracers I've have owned.
Type 570 serial numbers started at 100 and finished around 005700. Amoung others not documented that went directly to such David Manley of VTL, Ei in Yugoslovia, Roger Modjeski and Hong Kong Bush, I've owned ser. nos. 215, 005189, 005372 as well as the one seen here, 005580, sold on eBay around 2000 and shipped to Japan.		   The other three were sold on eBay as well. There is some duplication in the pix from one sale to the next because, with the exception of ser. no. 215, the rest were so close to identical that all new pix were pointless.
All are in the hands of their respective owners and in the approxitamely 30 year span since we started selling these we've not heard one complaint of failure.
See this page on jacmusic.com regarding the demise of the Ei factory, scroll well down to see what happened to Type 570 ser. no 005548.		  
 

 
 

Rheometry & Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) — The Measurement of Polymeric Materials' Characteristics

 
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
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