Ive worked in quite a few North East Factories and every one had top class Fitters there.All Fitters could work the typical machinery in Fitting shops eg Lathes,Shaping & Milling Machines, Surface grinders etc and all could work to tolerances of 1000th of an inch.In Hebburn alone we had Baker Perkins, Pyro, Bitumastic,Whites,RW Transmissions, Reyrolles, Bushing Co, Leslies, Palmers and the Fitters there were all expected to work to precision tolerances.