Today I am refurbishing a Dawn 5SP cast steel engineer’s bench vice – this was the top shelf unbreakable model back before they moved to the SG line.
Unusually for the Dawns I have seen, the screw extends out past the end of the dynamic jaw:
Possibly a replacement from a different model? Anything could have happened in the 50+ years since it was made. Someone has worked on the jaws recently as well:
At some points the cast steel vices were painted blue, apparently – and it does look as though there is some remnants of blue paint on the dynamic jaw:
This is the first time I have seen this arrangement for a Dawn vice – the nut is held in from the bottom:
In the usual Dawn style you can unwind the dynamic jaw and the halves will separate:
Looks like these might be challenging to unscrew with a screwdriver:
The screw:
The washers don’t feel stock as they’re not a great fit:
Looks like someone has replaced the washers before and ground down an over-sized washer to fit:
Just under 8″ at max opening:
Cleaning off the grime and old paint, there are plenty of battlescars:
A couple of different colours evident:
Most of the paint off the sides:
The bolts did end up being removable after the channel for the flathead driver was cleared:
The screw was just under 45cm long and the shaft was 1″ in diameter.
The handle was 28cm long and 5/8″ in diameter. After a cleanup, fresh paint and grease – the paint was a little brighter than I had hoped:
As you might expect from a vice from Dawn’s unbreakable line, the vice is extremely solid and handled everything I asked it to do without issue. I’m guessing that the spring had been replaced at least once as there was minimal slop in the handle.
If you like a side of vintage with your vice and are in the market for an unbreakable Australian made unit then it may be worth casting your eyes around for one on eBay, Gumtree or whatever your favourite platform is.