Our new company included some veteran J&L comparator people; Steve Bromley and Frank Jarvis were the travelling sales people, and Richard Searle signed on as inside sales engineer. Dick had many years of experience with the J&L comparator product line. Bill McGrotty was the chief engineer, and I assisted when needed. But it soon became apparent that my main duties would be on the assembly floor. Plus, I inherited the casting of the bases; setting up the forms, bending the rebar, mixing and pouring the concrete.

The heart of the machine was the slide assembly; a two axis affair that included some innovative “space age” bearing material. Instead of machining precisely aligned parts, the vertical ram bearing was poured from an epoxy resin called Moglice. It was a low friction bearing material that would conform to the OD of the precision ground ram, and hopefully give us a close running, no-shake fit. Lubrication was from a low tech oil cup. We soon found out that this material was difficult to predict; sometimes it would turn out beautifully, other times the fit was so loose that the oil just ran out of the bottom. It appeared that the results depended on the atmospheric conditions at the time of the pour; I.E. humid or dry? Hot or cold? In the end we never really could count on a 100% success rate. It was just the nature of the beast. So chipping out Moglice and repouring was sometimes necessary.

Because the base of the machine was concrete, the comparator was quite stable. There was a cavity inside the base that contained the electronics. We offered two size screens, just like the competition, 14″ and 30″, although the 14″ was the biggest seller. I learned quite a lot about setting up the optics from Dick Searle, but never really got excited about this machine. Compared to a machine tool like a lathe, it was a pretty static product.

About nine months into the job Bob Jones announced that our wages would be increased by $1.00 per hour, and we would start receiving stock certificates in the company on a quarterly basis. I decided that this job would be only temporary, so I hung in there for about two years until something came along that would get me back in the action.

I got a call from a former J&L engineer who was working at Fellows Corp. in North Springfield. He said they had gotten a big order for gear shapers from Caterpillar Tractor and they needed engineering help. So I went in for an interview, and got hired. It was just up my alley. Even though I knew little about a gear shaper, machinery in general is all pretty similar. And living within walking distance of the plant was a bonus.