Let's do something about that HF ASO!

[NateDJ]

When I decided to take up blacksmithing as a hobbie I went looking for an anvil... before I went looking for information about anvils! I checked around at a few places and ended up at Harbor Freight. They had a 55# anvil on sell for ~15$ so I go it and brought it home.

The next day I was looking around the web for more information and found several sites talking about anvils and discovered what you guys already know! This anvil is not an anvil it is merely an Anvil Shaped Object. After I built my forge I tried to make a leaf key chain and found this anvil was great for that, the more you used it the more dished the face became and made it possible for you to use the face directly as a spoon/leaf swage... good if that is what you wanted to do... not if you wanted an ANVIL!

So I decided I had to build a new anvil and set off to the local scrap yard to buy some steel for the purpose. I settled on some forklift forks and grabbed some other stuff for later while I was there.


In the back of the last image you can see my first attempt at creating a forge. Think it turned out more like a smelter than a forge.

[NateDJ]

I started cutting out the pieces of my new anvil and found I was going to need a bigger torch tip!


So I decided to try and fix the HF - ASO...

I cut a piece of the end off the smaller fork, still 5" wide and 10" long and about 3/4" thick at the thick end, and put it with the anvil in front of my makeshift propane burner to preheat the 2 before welding. This was necessary because the ASO is cast "Pig" iron.


Once I noticed the face of the anvil starting to glow a bit I placed the "new" face down on another piece of iron and set the anvil face down on it. I used a 7024 (iirc) rod and welded the top to the anvil. I figured to "quench" it a little by pouring a bit of old motor oil over it...


And since I seem to like fire ... I had to give it a few more squirts.

[NateDJ]

I then finished cooling it down with slowly pouring 10 Gal of water over it and was left with this:



I have now sanded the top with a belt sander and knocked the burnt oil and paint off but the belt sander did almost nothing to the few scratches the new face had in it from it's previous life. These scratches are not deep and will likely be hammered out soon enough anyway. I Also took my grinder and clened up where the welds come near the face as well as putting a "Hardy edge" along the back of the new heel. It is only about 3/8" thick there anyway and my edge is only at a 45* angle.

Sorry no picture of the "finished" product but it worked MUCH better as an anvil, and I can still use the Pot Iron nose to cup my leaves

[adam cyphers]

watch those fumes from the oil man...NASTY STUFF in used motor oil.aside from that totally excellent job.