Before using this site please read the site disclaimer. Also please note that any links provided may be part of an affiliate programme (viz. eBay, Amazon) which helps support the site as I will earn a commission when visitors make a qualifying purchase.
Continued on from part two!
I put a little bit of silver on the lettering:
A little bit of moly grease around the handle where it sits against the washer:
More on the back side of the washer where it sits against the slide:
Lube on the nut and screw, spring, washers and cotter pin installed. Reassembled:
After fastening it down to the bench the vice proves to be very nice to use - the offset feature is very handy for holding tall items vertically, and the vice has no trouble holding things VERY firmly. The handle movement is smooth and the sliding jaw moves as soon as you start moving the handle.
The jaws are very hard, sufficient to easily mar mild steel stock held - I intend on making some softer jaws out of bar stock as I don't generally need them to be as hard as they are.
So what's the deal with the SG moniker? Dawn call their SG vices Super Grade, as they are made out of ductile iron rather than regular grey cast iron or malleable cast iron. Another name for ductile iron is spheroidal graphite iron - so you can see where the SG comes from originally. You can do more reading about ductile iron on the Wiki page, but in a nutshell it's superior to regular cast iron in every aspect. Typical grey cast iron has a tensile strength beginning at 20,000 and topping out around 60,000 psi, whereas ductile iron's lowest rating is usually stated to be 60,000-65,000 and the highest figure is often given as 100,000 or higher.
Additionally, grey cast iron has a yield strength so low that it's not measurable - where ductile iron, thanks to the spheroidal graphite nodules contained within, has a yield strength of 40,000psi or higher. You can read more about yield strength on Wikipedia but essentially this means that the vice should not crack when subjected to a range of force that would cause grey iron to crack. It's a pretty good feature for a vice that might be subjected to, say, being accidentally struck with a hammer or being subjected to a lot of force from being over-tightened.
Being made of ductile iron, I would expect that this vice will cope with anything I am likely to subject it to. This one is definitely a keeper!
Browse the Dawn vices available on eBay AU or eBay US, or sometimes you will find different results with the alternate spelling of Dawn vises - eBay AU and eBay US.
Check out our other Dawn reviews on the tool reviews page!
In 2019 the server has had to double in capacity to support the growing site... please consider dropping the site a donation to help cover the costs! Check out our Patreon for support options, buy a shirt, buy our apps, use my NordVPN affiliate link to sign up to their service or donate via Paypal:
| Paypal $5 link ->> | |
| Paypal $10 link ->> |