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Thread: History of Dawn Tools
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1st Jan 2020, 10:34 PM #1Senior Member
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History of Dawn Tools
I'm at it again... realised that I had never done a deep dive into the history of Dawn and here's what I have dug up so far:
https://motofaction.org/tool-reviews...mation-coburg/
There's a few interesting tidbits from Trove in there, such as apparently one of the directors at one point was a WWI veteran and mayor of Coburg and one night he stayed back in the factory and caught a thief in the store-room after being given a heads-up that that was going to happen.
The more interesting info peters out after the 50s, and if anyone has a catalogue or brochure not shown in the above please let me know and I'll absorb the info into the article. Also open to interesting bits and pieces from those brochures that I have missed - like, say, when a vice appears to have been introduced or phased out that I have not mentioned. I have incorporated all of the downloadable items from Dawn's site.
If anyone knows of any good books about the trade tariffs and the changes that occured over the last century with regard to them I'd be interested to hear about it as well - many of the company histories I have been looking into have mentioned meetings between the directors and the government trying to figure out how to go about protecting local businesses with tariffs, and I don't know much about how that progressed over time - other than they were lifted at some point and many domestic companies struggled to remain solvent in the decades after that.
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2nd Jan 2020, 11:02 AM #2
Thank you J.C.
That was interesting. I never knew that Dawn was owned by Stanley for a brief period.
Last time I visited their website they had a really decent array of different products.
I hope they always will retain Aussie ownership and never succumb to having their products made overseas.
Thanks
Grahame
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2nd Jan 2020, 11:49 AM #3Senior Member
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They do have a number of product lines made in China now - I asked them about the differences between a few of their vices last year and those made in Oz have a specified rating for the cast iron where their Chinese made vices have no rating, but are cheaper.
I think some of their fabricated offset vices are now also made in China. I should make a list for those curious.
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2nd Jan 2020, 04:53 PM #4Golden Member
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Here's a Dawn add from the 1944 Australasian Manufacturer publication which lists the Sheppard St Address.
Australasian Manufacturer 1944 - Dawn.jpg
I have four of their broad base screw car stands which are brilliant. I got them for a slab from a bloke who worked for Dawn in the early 1990's.
Cheers,
Greg.
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2nd Jan 2020, 06:35 PM #5
Hey here is some info from Moreland city council. If any of it’s any good to you..
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2nd Jan 2020, 06:54 PM #6
When that sort of thing starts to happen it worries me.It was always re assuring in a way to know that Dawn was 100% Aussie.
It is sad that we are losing our engineering history, culture bit by bit. If they are made to ISO 9000 I wouldn't argue, but will they be?
It will be the slow reduction of standards that I will be most upset to witness.
Grahame
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3rd Jan 2020, 06:06 AM #7Senior Member
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Thanks for that pic, that's great! Really helps make the article less... dry... when there's some nice visual additions.
The City of Vices... heh. Thanks - that's definitely worth including, that's not something I have seen before. Thanks to your post I have hit up the Coburg historical society to see whether they have any information or pictures they can send me, and in a related new search I found a picture of the Mayor of Coburg (mentioned up in the first post) in the Dawn factory watching a dynamic jaw be machined. Added that too!
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3rd Jan 2020, 04:03 PM #8
winch
This is the Jeep with Dawn winch mentioned
Jeep Winch - MLU FORUM
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6th Jan 2020, 10:40 PM #9Banned
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More on the Dawn winch.
“Winch Charges Denied”...
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/a...ear2-date=1955
.
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6th Jan 2020, 10:51 PM #10Banned
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Dawn Manufacturing has a place in Oz history..
End of war 1945...
“...As he went to blow the factory whistle announcing the V-P declaration, he overbalanced and fell on to machinery...”
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/a...&searchLimits=
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7th Jan 2020, 08:17 AM #11Senior Member
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Thanks!
Both of those are in the article I wrote, though the first I merely pulled the data regarding the manufacturing and left out the charges. If you find any Trove articles that I have not included please do let me know!
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11th Jan 2020, 09:14 AM #12Banned
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11th Jan 2020, 09:20 AM #13Senior Member
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Oh all good, there was a lot of writing there... I will include some more pics to break it up a bit.
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