It followed me home

[meco3hp]

Hello,
Nice grab! What is it about anvils that they get broke in this manner? I've seen quite a few with the heel broke off. I don't ever remember seeing one with the horn broke off though. Any thoughts?

[one_rod]

Originally Posted by irnsrgn

don't know about the blob, but the shaft may be case hardened or induction hardened like the do hydraulic cylinder shafts before chroming them. you will be able to tell by a spark test, tho.

meco3hp,

I think irnsrgn is exactly right about the shaft. It's probably the damper shaft from a rolling stock buffer.
The company I work for chrome plates many hundreds of these things every year for the railway industry. It will certainly be made from medium carbon alloy steel, and just as irnsrgn says, it will be induction hardened.

This type of metal is great for making hammer heads and punching tools from. The odd one appears in the scrap bins at work and I always try to grab it before the bins get emptied.

The thermit sprues are said (I have never tried it) to be good for making knives from.
If the metal is etched with ferric chloride or a weak acid it will show a damascus-like pattern.



one_rod.

[meco3hp]

Hello,
One_rod, glad you said something about the blob. I was getting ready to pitch it in the scrap pile! I'll add it to the "future project stash".

[HeavyHammer]

Well this is the type that the heel is welded on as a entirely seperate peice. If the weld wasnt good or it was really really cold out it could break off really pretty easily. There was another smaller anvil there with the horn broke off i thought maybe he had $60 on it but he had $100 so i just kept walking. Horns can get broken off if you are really abusing it. Using the horn for really heavy fullering a lot ,for example, can really tear up an anvil pretty quick.

[ThomasPowers]

The old smithing books talk about repairing both horn and heels that have broken off.

I think the heel has a greater tendency since the hardy hole acts as a stress concentrator in the corners and folks tend to pound a lot on hardy tooling.

The heeless anvils are one of the best buys in smithing IMNSHO as they are generally *cheap*, have a lot of face left and have the horn which is a handy thing, you can hold hardy tooling in a post vise or make a socket for them that mounts on the anvil stump.

My loaner anvil weighs about 125# has a nearly mint face and no heel and cost me $40

I'd like to get a hornless anvil of old pattern to use for medieval events.

Thomas

[Glenn]

Sometimes when you visit the junk yard you need to look in the corners, behind things, in the odd areas.





Then you need to recognize what the underside, the ends, the odd angles of things look like. When I turned this over - surprise - it is a forge ! The pan is maybe 28" diameter with two side tables.

The rest of the story?
Seems someone cleaned out an old garage. The forge went to the junk yard alone with the rest of the rusty metal. One junk yard worker took 20 to 25 pairs of tongs to his father to be hung on the garage wall as decoration. Maybe that many more tongs were added to other scrap and shipped out. :cry:

[meco3hp]

Hello,
My buddy sent me home with some goodies here the last few days.

This is a chunk of small rail, about 48" long, but wore badly.


this pic is of a chunk of PTO shaft, a couple of rods, some linkage and a spring from a lawnmower deck, a couple of A36 stb axels, and a old saw blade.


this pic is of a 5/8"? rod, a chunk of 3/4" BP, and a mess of 1/8"x1" flats.


this is a pic of a galv. box for quenching, couple of rods, a clamp, and a ground clamp, a couple of rods of verious shapes.


this is the rest of the misc rods

[Nolano]

Blah. It seems like everyone has scored something cool at a scrapyard but me. I found a 25 pound vise before, but I had a better one already.

[meco3hp]

Nolano,
Always keep your eyes open! I find stuff in the trash out by the curbs all the time. Bed frames, old excerise machines, car parts, all kinds of stuff. Most salvage yards turn stuff real quick when it gets there, can't make any money if they don't. If you see something laying around go ask if you can haul it off.
Also tell everybody that your looking for scrap. You might get alot of stuff you don't want but go ahead and take it so they'll keep bringing it to you!

Thanks
Richard

[Glenn]

Nolano, best advice I can provide to to stop looking and start seeing.

There is metal all around us being thrown away at an amazing rate. You just need to locate someplace that uses metal to find the scrap. Let me provide you just one example to get your started - the local garage.

Anytime the garage makes a repair, what do they do with the old part? They throw it away, leaf springs, coil springs, sheet metal, stearing linkage, torsion bars, the stearing column, bolts, bearing races, and all sorts of things. Or they throw it into a bin for delivery to the junk yard.

The valves that are sometimes filled with sodium from what I have read. Leave them alone it is not worth the trouble.

Follow the trail to the junk yard and who knows what can be found there. Just remember that they do not hold on to the suff forever, you have to keep looking every time you pass the location.