Spring 2008
Discussing the “black art” of precision grinding,Tim Middlehurst, President of Hi-Quality Carbide Tooling Inc., said, “I guess you’re just born with it.” He truly was; he began working in his father’s grinding shop at age 16 with his father and grandfather. “It was all three of us in the shop for a while,” he said, “I was fortunate enough that I had a couple of years of working with my grandfather and 15 years with my father, before they retired.” Tim and his wife, Wendy, bought the shop in 1997, then Hi-Quality Carbide moved to its present location in Orangeville, Ontario, two years ago. Tim and his tool makers Derrick Armstrong and Riguel Boodram work in the clean, 3,600 sq ft shop that houses 23 pieces of equipment, including some dating from the shop’s early days. The shop performs OD and ID cylindrical grinding, surface grinding, CNC turning, wire EDM and polishing.