Jump to content
I Forge Iron

Swiftden's Home made anvil project


Recommended Posts

Split this off from my forge building thread to keep it grouped where it should belong. Hope that is ok.

It weighs 139kg (305lbs) have been told it is cast steel not cast iron not sure if that makes a difference or not . I think it was a weight of sorts on the back of a heavy machine.
It is 28cm(11") tall, 83cm(32") across top, 70cm(27") at waist, the base half circle cut out is 15cm(6") across the bottom. Face is 100mm (4")wide

It has two holes in the top one at each end which i assume were for locating pins.

Plan is to use one of the holes as a hardy hole the other im not sure about yet.

Photo-0018.jpg

Photo-0017.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well went to the scrap dealer today and picked up all the steel needed to make my anvil stand and also my forge stand.
It got me thinking about my lack of a horn on the anvil. I am seeking some advice.
If i got a solid piece of steel and carved out a horn in the black shape of the picture below and then stepped the anvil down so it slid over it . i could then weld a piece of shaft through the hole in the anvil and the top and bottom plates of the "horn" I then thought about grinding out the joins and laying a good deep bead of weld around all joins on both sides. would this be strong enough that the horn would not move or crack my welds? what do you think?


anvilwork.png

Sorry about poor quality diagram i used paint !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If it weighs 300 plus pounds, I would carve the horn out of the block that you have, don't bother with the welding and pinning. For the most part you only use the top of the horn. Cast steel may or may not weld well, either way, you would likely need massive pre-heat, low hydrogen rod, and a lot more than a good deep weld, more like 50 pounds of well laid bead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Steel is *good* cast iron is *bad* and a simple spark test will tell you the difference.

Why not make the horn with a round tang and just drop it in one of the holes vertically? Actually I would suggest a series of stepped sizes of cylindrical pieces instead of a tapered horn for most jobs.

My main suggest is get to pounding on it and let what you do guide you for any modifications you want. Waste of time to spend a week making a fancy piece only to find you use it about an hour a year and yet something you would use every day gets botched up fast cause you spent your time on the other thing!

Now if it was me I'd make a removable bolster plate with various sized holes that would clamp to one end and rotate the plate with the holes over the large hole. I'd also see about taking a chunk of heavy duty square tubing and weld it into the other hole to provide a hardy for items you don't want to turn in use. That's all I'd do! (save for adding some HD angle iron tabs to the bottom of the sides to fasten into your stump---I've had to nail in my 515# anvil cause it will gradually move under heavy work! Just 4 fence staples to fence it in worked fine.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That should work just fine for an anvil- I would take a grinder and do the spark test as Thomas suggested. Build a stand and try it out, the horn is not mandatory but you could add it on later per your drawing I think it would be fine, grind a bevel on both sides so you can grind flush after welding, I would not get all crazy with preheat and lots of prep work, just make good clean welds and you should have no problem- you are not generally doing heavy work on the horn and with it pinned like that it can not fall on you foot if the welds do fail

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Swiftden,

A horn isn't required, in fact few of the early anvils had one, they used a stake horn.

My first "anvil" was a lot like what you have, just do the scrolls over the edge of the anvil striking towards yourself or with the work piece held at an angle to the top of the anvil. Much easier to figure out at the anvil then writing about it.

I would be tempted to cut/grind 2" or so of your anvil face into a 1/2" radiis bottom fuller for quicker drawing out.

Caleb Ramsby

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just picked up another *old* odd sledge head at the fleamarket today that would make a dandy double horned stake anvil: both bits taper toward the face and are rounded off octagons.

Real simple to heat and beat to a nice round taper, even possible to do it by hand!

Making the shaft is a bit harder as that tends to be a lot more forging if you want "pretty"; but could be done cold with a milling machine and then hot fit and riveted for the final go.

I may save this particular head for knives as it's a "Cast Steel" head and so should be good for fur trade era blades of the better sort, (shear steel was the regular sort...)

BTW I make all my students learn to turn a curve without using the horn and then with using a horn and then mention jigs to them as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Get a pick axe head if you really need a horn shaped object, that way you can forge into two points, one fine and round and the other not so fine and round or better yet get a RR spike driving hammer they make wonderful round mandrels for making stakes to go in that big old hole you got. That is a wonderful chunk of metal you got. B)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

wow thanks for the responses. Reason i needed advice straight away is that i have access to some tools over the next 7-8 days that i wont be able to access again for a couple of months. figures i could get the slot milled out on the horn part while here. Im building the stand this morning thankyou for all your responses.

I have already confirmed it is cast steel and not cast iron and is easily welded.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finally got busy today and started to assemble the anvil stand. I am going to cap off the ends of the "C" channel with some 10mm plate i have and then add a few angle webs to the frame. I will then weld some squares of 10mm plate to the base of each foot with a single bolt hole in each. The tops of each leg are open and i am going to fill them with sand and tap the tubes with hammer to compact before capping them off with some plate. Each leg has a bird mouth cut out of it so the "C" channel sits on it and is not just but welded to it. All leg tubes are 50mm x 50mm x 6mm thick . one cross brace and the middle brace are 40mm x 40mm x 6mm as i ran out of 50mm.

So far so good sits solid on the shed floor with no rocking.

IMGP3343.jpg

IMGP3341.jpg

IMGP3339.jpg

Any criticism or ideas welcome.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went for four legs for stability at 305lbs i need it. Also it is quite long so i don't want it to over balance and tip over. I have tried standing around it i don't think they will be much of a trip hazard especially once you get use to it. At least i hope not. I figure i need strenght and stability i treasure my toes lol.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am going to fill all of the tubes with dry fine paving sand and hit them with a hammer to compact them. topping them up until they will take no more sand. I will then seal them off. Then i thought i might cap of the base of the channel and then fill the cavity with sand too if it still is noisy. What do you think?

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Steel is *good* cast iron is *bad* and a simple spark test will tell you the difference.

Why not make the horn with a round tang and just drop it in one of the holes vertically? Actually I would suggest a series of stepped sizes of cylindrical pieces instead of a tapered horn for most jobs.

My main suggest is get to pounding on it and let what you do guide you for any modifications you want. Waste of time to spend a week making a fancy piece only to find you use it about an hour a year and yet something you would use every day gets botched up fast cause you spent your time on the other thing!

Now if it was me I'd make a removable bolster plate with various sized holes that would clamp to one end and rotate the plate with the holes over the large hole. I'd also see about taking a chunk of heavy duty square tubing and weld it into the other hole to provide a hardy for items you don't want to turn in use. That's all I'd do! (save for adding some HD angle iron tabs to the bottom of the sides to fasten into your stump---I've had to nail in my 515# anvil cause it will gradually move under heavy work! Just 4 fence staples to fence it in worked fine.)

i have an anvil and im not sure what it is made from, what would the results of a spark test if it was cast iron?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This might help you mate. The sparks look different

http://scrappingmetal.blogspot.com/2011/02/spark-test-and-spark-testing-metals.html


Also Thomas if i did not think it would make it too heavy i would fill all the tubes with molten lead and then cap them off. might do this to the "c" channel yet ? after all it is heavy anyway

Link to comment
Share on other sites


This might help you mate. The sparks look different

http://scrappingmetal.blogspot.com/2011/02/spark-test-and-spark-testing-metals.html


Also Thomas if i did not think it would make it too heavy i would fill all the tubes with molten lead and then cap them off. might do this to the "c" channel yet ? after all it is heavy anyway

thanks!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well bit disappointed. stand was very stable no wobble on my father inlaws shed floor brought it to one of my sheds and it wobbles as cement floor is not 100% level all over.
So i have had a rethink and i am going to remove two legs from one end and weld a 100mm square tube 5mm thick straight up and down . this will then be welded up to the centre brace. hopefully it will fix the problems i now understand the principle around 3 legs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Take a look at some other anvil stands and use that as a fabrication design, you want the legs to be angled out some for stability, rectangle tube 2 inch by 4 inch is a good choice for the legs
post-10376-0-08711300-1305727407_thumb.j
I know this would require a complete rebuild at this time, I would try to find a piece of heavy plate for the anvil to sit on 1 inch plate would be good, then weld the legs to this for a tripod stand. You could save the other stand and use it for a saw horse. I like to look at what other people are doing when I start a project and take that information into the design stage, find out what others are doing, if it works well I will use it

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...