Qualos Machine Tools Pty Ltd. was established in the north of Melbourne during World War 2 by John L. T. Pring, with administration and marketing skills, and Mr. Tod Waite as engineer to provide spares and service for machine tools. In 1946 the company became known as "MTI Qualos" and the two partners sent their separate ways with the original company becoming agents for a number of machine tool companies and organising the sales and distribution of associated products. The company still exists today as "MTI Qualos Pty Ltd - Machines, Tools and Instruments" and specialise in importing, selling, and providing spare parts, maintenance and repairs for quality machine tools, acting as agents for Mitutoyo precision measuring and inspection equipment and manufacturing, under licence, clear PVC swing and strip doors and vertical rolling doors. However, another element of the organisation appears to be "Fesca Pacific Gears Pty Ltd"; this organisation previously traded as "Fesca Qualos Gears" a company that itself had resulted from a merger of the "Fesca Gear Company" and "Qualos Gears", the latter being known earlier as the "Qualos Machine Tool Company".
The main product of the early lathe company was a sturdily-constructed 5" x 24" screwcutting lathe initially manufactured with a backgeared 3-step (6-speed) flat-belt drive headstock but later with what must have been an expensive-to-produce 6-speed geared headstock with a robust spindle clutch fitted as standard.  Screwcutting was not, however, through a wide-range Norton gearbox of the traditional type but instead relied upon a much simpler design with just 8 different feeds for each setting of the changewheels. The bed was of V-way form and carried a substantial carriage assembly which featured both power cross feed and a usefully long T-slotted cross slide. Power feeds were driven by a key running in the slotted leadscrew, selected by a quadrant lever on the face of the apron and engaged by a screw-in clutch operated by a large star-shaped handwheel. Whilst the clutch provided some protection against overloading it was impossible to engage or disengage the drive instantly, always a drawback when working up to a shoulder. The tailstock barrel had a No. 2 Morse taper and (at odds with the quality of the rest of the machine) was locked by the simple method of a bolt closing down a long slot in the casting.
Qualos geared-head lathes were extensively used by the Royal Australian Air Force with most bases having at least one machine in the workshops whilst the school of technical training (RSTT) at Wagga Wagga in NSW had around 25 installed for initial apprentice training.
At least one other model of Qualos lathe, the 8-speed V-belt-drive Junior was also produced; this was a very much more lightly built machine than the 5-inch and obviously designed and specified - plastic changewheels on some versions, for example - to cut costs and appeal to the amateur market..