Thread: Dawn vice jaws

I have a 6" Dawn vice whose provenance includes a stint at Hasting Deerings workshop here in Bribane in the 60's.

As a consequence it has seen a fair bit of service and the jaws really show it. They are bolted onto the main body so I naturally thought I could simply unbolt them and turn them over to get pristine edges.

Well the edges are pristine alright ..BUT. the attaching bolts aren't quite centred and because they sit on a rebate it's not possible to turn the jaws over

My question is, are they meant to be "rotated" and do I need to grind a couple of mm off the damaged edge so they will sit on the rebate. The rub here is if I do grind off a few mm the damaged edge will probably come up OK.

So.. what's the go

Ian

Originally Posted by Ian Smith

. . . . My question is, are they meant to be "rotated" and do I need to grind a couple of mm off the damaged edge so they will sit on the rebate. The rub here is if I do grind off a few mm the damaged edge will probably come up OK.

I don't believe they are meant to be turned over but I can't see why they can't be adjusted to do so, and just grinding a few mm off the damaged edge is also a viable solution.

As an aside, the Dawn Vice I restored last year came with no jaws and I thought long and hard about what to replace them with and asked a few knowledgable folks what they thought. In the end I went with plain mild steel jaws and I am pleased I did. Firstly they have not suffered anywhere near as much as I thought they would and the idea that they would mark work much less than hardened jaws seems to be working. I do have another vice that I keep hardened jaws on so that is available if I need it.

Thanks for the quick reply BobL,

They so frustratingly close you'd wonder why they didn't just center them to provide the option.

Ian

Ian, you can get new jaws from Dawn, thru Blackwoods.

Thanks Pat ,
I'll give them a call tomorrow - at least to check the price

Ian

If I'm worried about marking something a few seconds bending up some bodgy soft jaws with some ally angle does the trick.

I do also have some plastic magnetic (clip on) ones when I could be bothered looking around to find em.

At least with the Dawns if u kill the jaws replacements can be obtained, unlike the elcheapo unit out back where I had to made up some mild steel replacements.

Originally Posted by jatt

If I'm worried about marking something a few seconds bending up some bodgy soft jaws with some ally angle does the trick.

I do also have some plastic magnetic (clip on) ones when I could be bothered looking around to find em.

I have sets of leather, galv plate, HDPE, brass and ally but I can never find them when I need em. and when I do find them they keep falling off.

I have leather jaws glued onto one of the chuck jaws for my ww lathe and also my WW bench vice, For soft stuff like ally and brass I'm sometimes just work at the ww bench.

OK, well I rang Blackwoods and, yes, they do have jaws for a 150mm vice......$60.00

I must be getting old. I naively thought maybe somewhere around 25-30 might be reasonable. Still, next time I'm out their way I'll take a look. It's unclear from their web site, but there may be some sort of jaw protectors included.

I'll be sure to take an old one to compare just to make sure the stud pattern is compatible.

Thanks to all for your responses.

Ian

$60 !

Here's my mild steel home made jaws made from a piece of scrap steel.