Thread: Fabricated vs Cast Iron vices

All I can add to this is: I busted about four cheap Chinese cast vises in a short time , they crumble as if made from clay. A friend gave me and old DAWN 3" off set and its never looked like breaking.....it's tough . Mike

A well made cast iron vice should be able to withstand greater punishment than a comparable size fabricated vice. OTOH cheap cast iron vices are probably less able to do this than cheap fabricated vices.

Unless you are going to pound the crap out of stuff on a vice on a regular basis then a decent fabricated vice will last a long time. I still have a 4" fabricated vice I bought as a kid in the 1960s and it is still in fair shape.

Dawn do a cast and a fabricated offset as well as a stainless engineers vice, fabricated is cheaper then the cast by a couple of hundered dollars, that said the fabricated ones are just as good like Bob said he's had one for ever and it's still good. The main big difference i have noticed between the two is that a fabricated vice does have give/spring in it when alot of weight is put onto the screw, unlike a good quality cast body which has none (what you want). much easier to repair a fabricated vice if you ever need to.

if i was buying another vice i would be buying a fabricated one . i have broke an old 6" dawn cast vice in half .

Unless your going to spend big dollars on a new cast one, or pick up a good old used one, I wouldn't bother.

I have had a fabricated one that was made in Sydney for 26 years, and my uncle had it for 5 years before that. It's still going strong and only showing normal wear.

Dave