The 5"" x 24" Plain Precision Lathe Model 5P was typical of the better class of machine tool offered by Holbrook until the late 1930s. Being comparatively expensive, and lacking backgear and screwcutting it was intended to compliment more sophisticated lathes and would have been of little use as the only lathe in a general-engineering workshop.
The deep and very heavy bed had strong cross ribbing and the V and flat ways were "hand scraped to a master plate". The headstock used a hardened and ground No. 1 Morse taper spindle that was lapped into conical bearings made from ground hard-steel. Adjuster collars were fitted to set the bearing-to-spindle clearance with the end thrust taken out in the (even then) old-fashioned way against a bracket bolted to the headstock's left-hand face. Three different headstocks were available: a special unit with a built-in thread-chasing attachment, a conventional one for 11/4-inch wide flat-belt (driven from a powered countershaft) and a lighter-duty, V-groove pulley type for use when the lathe was on the maker's "standards" (cast-iron legs) and driven by a round leather "gut" rope from a treadle-operated flywheel.  Betraying their late 19th-century design origins the headstocks were all of comparatively light construction and had the same 1-inch 10 tpi nose thread and ability to pass just a 3/8" diameter bar.
The compound slide-rest was the expected type for this sort of lathe having a 7-inch travel top slide thought formed, in this case, from an  unusually long casting with only two gib-strip adjustment screws. The top slide could be swivelled to any angle and its  base engraved with degree marks 45-degrees each side of zero. The unit was clamped to the bed not by the usual hand screw but by a long lever working an adjustable eccentric clamp. The feed screws were Amce form and ran through adjustable bronze nuts; however, as standard, no micrometer dials were fitted - though they were on options' list. The cross-slide ways and feed screw were both covered to protect then from damage by swarf.
Although not shown in the pictures, at the rear of the bed was a fitting common of the time: two useful lipped wooden tool trays mounted one above the other. The lower was 42-inches long by 18-inches wide and the upper 22-inches by 18-inches. In addition a wooden tool cupboard was slung beneath the bed on a pair of cast-iron  rails.
Like many similar plain-turning lathes of the period the Holbrook 5P could be fitted for light production work and was available with a self-contained, bolt-on "sub-bed" assembly. Mounted on this was a compound rest where the short 13/4-inch cross travel was operated by a toggle-action lever (with front and rear stop) and the longitudinal feed by another lever working through a rack-and-pinion. In addition the whole of the compound rest could be propelled along the sub-bed by a large, full-circle counter-weighted handwheel with the drive through rack-and-pinion gearing. A rotating stop was mounted on the right-hand side of the unit but, unaccountably, had just two individually adjustable screws - not the six that were required. Mounted on the top slide was a flat-topped and T-slotted 6-station turret complete with six tool holders: 2 for securing 1/2-inch diameter circular tools, 2 pillar "American-style" holders for conventional turning tools and 2 pillar holders for broad flat tools used for forming and broaching, etc.
The tailstock carried a 1 Morse taper spindle, locked by a proper screw-down pad, whilst the unit was secured to the bed by a captive handle working on an eccentric cross shaft. Supplied as standard with the lathe two sizes of T rest and 2 steel spanners and a Tommy bar. The power lathe came complete with a fast-and-loose countershaft unit for wall or ceiling mounting.
Accessories included a swiveling vertical milling slide with  7-inches of travel table, machine vices, a 9" x 8" saw table, a fixed steady in the form of an old-fashioned "cone-boring plate" and a wide variety of collets including ring and step types with a capacity of up to 31/4 inches..