Anvil Heater

[Mills]

Shucks Strine I don't pull a coat out until it gets to 0 C. :wink: When I do pull out a coat most folks start heading for that fire you refer to.

Bruce I would like to get my wife to agree to letting me get to work BEFORE she feeds me. Something about I get wrapped up in my work and forget it til lunch.

[bruce wilcock]

in Shetland its the wind chill ,minus 1 with a 60 mph N wind and after a day or so it feels like 20 below,there must be a way of working out the wind chill, all i know is it gets cold

[Mills]

When I was roughnecking it would get to 0 C or less and even sitting in the dog house which is all steel container, it gets cold. But you don't get to sit in the lap of luxury for long, cause inevitably the drill bit needs changing or some malfunction occurs and it is spitting rain with 30 MPH winds. I preferred that over sitting in a saddle with numb legs though.

Geez I am too young to be talking about "back in the day"

Just to be on topic a little bit, Since using the gasser I put a rivet block /cutting plate in front of the dragon which is 1"x4"x4" I'll lay that on the anvil when time, got to remember that it is hot though. ops:

[primtechsmith]

Thankfully in Central Virginia it never gets really cold. And it is also fortunate and lucky for me that Usually by the time I get to the forge Mike has a fire in the wood stove. That helps a whole bunch, not only heating the forge up, but lighting the forge with a shovel of wood coals.

I also lay my cutting block on the fire. I lay it on there right after I have it lit and have thrown some fresh coal on. I let it all soak a few minutes throw the thing on the anvil. And by the time I empty the ash dump, grab my hammer. I push the plate off and get to work....

Peyton

[Ten Hammers]

I really have no problem with heating tooling ( or the anvil for that matter ) until it gets cold ( single digits ). I have actually never heated the anvil. Tooling, yes. It gets cold here but not like Minnesota, Dakota or Canada. 20-25 below is max. I don't do wind chill. It's just cold. I understand the thing about factoring in the wind. I just don't consider the "misery "index of it ( cold or heat ). Weather guys and babes make a lotta folks cold before they head out the door by quoting these figures. Just like 10 cooks talking about making grape jelly, 10 smiths will give you different answers about things. Heating tooling before forging ( or using the first couple of pieces for this) is handy to prevent heat sink and thus speed the process up. When it's time to forge, I just forge and go on with it. If it's that cold, the tooling and anvil will get cold by the time you are done welding a piece or tending the stove and havin a quick cup. You will never get it to stay warm long. If I have to roll the sleeves down and wear a cap while forging, it's COLD. After a few pieces, I take the cap off mebbe. I have to really watch myself during these times. If I have a boatload of stuff to forge at 3º ( above or below) I need to pay attention very hard and keep dry towels handy to keep the head and neck dry. If someone comes in the door or I need to go out for wood, then sweaty head and upper torso ain't the thing to have. All part of learning. My feets go the quickest normally. As long as I can't see my breath in the shop, it's warm enough really unless the day is for cutting/welding/grinding. Then I want it a bit warmer. I AM close to the house though and sometimes I head in after a few hours ( dinner) and get back warm. You guys in Canada are a hearty lot. Minnesota and Dakotas too. Runnin a shop when it's 30-40 below outside ( even with excellent heat and good insulated shop ) would be tough. I do have a floating stock tank heater for the slack tub though. BTW, I HAVE spent time out in the wind when it's cold. Coldest I've ever been was on the drawbar of a WD-45 while one Schaffer boy drove and the other was on the toolbox. 6-8 mile ride. I was almost stuck in position and needed to be helped off ( ah the foolishness of youth ).

[elkdoc]

I've been using some strips of leftover railroad steel clips about 1.5"x3/4"x9". I heat them up and lay them on the anvil - one on the anvil, one in the fire. I alternate them a couple of times while I'm cutting out steel for my project or finding mood music on the radio.

The more I think about it, the more I like that block heater idea, Glenn. I think I'll look for one. I always know on the night before I'm going to work in my shop, so there's plenty of time to plug it in. Thanks for the tip, buddy! 8)

[bruce wilcock]

all this talk about warming anvils no -on speaks about working on big anvils that have taken up a lot of heat , its no fun the anvil got too hot to touch by 9 oclock and the rest of the day to get through ,the strikers can get away from it if you are working with a change of strikers two on, and two of, but the smith is stuck over the , block, and the day warming up

[ThomasPowers]

Hosepipe, one for ths anvil and one for the smith...

Thomas

[sandpile]

Cold weather and small anvils, some times don't mix very well.

In Mo. it had been colder than blues blazes for several days. The high for the last two days had -16F. it warmed up a little during the night and the temp before breakfast was -10F.

I had lost a shoe on a big saddle mare and needed to put on another. I put my anvil on its stand and started shaping the shoe to fit this mares foot. These were storebought shoes and all I had to do was spread them a little and turn the heels in. After spreading, I stuck the heel up from the bottom through the hardie hole and hit one good lick then a second hard lick and the tail broke clean and smooth from the 88* anvil.

This was an anvil that had been in our family for four or five generations. Made me sick. I have not hit another anvil in -10f temp since.

Chuck

[drason69]

sorry to hear of your loss sandpile

here in WI (former iowan) i have been keeping the anvil heating thing in mind when i do get ambitious and fire the forge. i have a chunk of 4x6x 1/4 steel with a loop welded to it. i put this on the fire as i set up my tools and ect. the little anvil seems to think its ok. im not using my 110 anvil yet, so the little 40 pounder works and is sufficient for most of my 'tinkering' stuff that i do. i do have the other anvil (with no horn) inside the garage for bigger stuff, but i dont use it much. it had been reasonably temped here lately, but the last couple of days have gotten down to the teens (F). i will heat my anvil in the 30 degree F range and below, should i get off my butt to do anything during the cold weather season...to many horror stories about anvils breaking to make me take a chance.