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Homemade anvil heat treating?


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I've recently acquired an 80lb round stock of 4140 I would like to use as an anvil. It measures roughly 10 in round  by 3 in in height. My main question as of now would be should I heat and quench and temper the 4140 whole or partial or not at all? And If it would be best then what type of quench would give the best results? Last minute thought... Any idea on a decent stand? I can acquire pretty much any material I need and am not too shabby a welder.

Thanks for your time.

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Hey There

IMHO

Just cut a nice edge off, something like 3-4 inches and mount it on a sturdy stand. 4140 is way better than what they had in even in Colonial times. Just get going and have fun, in a year or so you'll be better able to decide what kind of anvil you really want. you'll be working hot steel so heat treating and such really isn't an issue.

You might want to drill a 1 1/4 inch hole towards one side, insert a 1" piece of square tube and weld it in there for a hardy hole.

Make your stand about wrist high and you'll be fine. A heavy sturdy stand will benefit you, an 80 pound anvil is a bit on the light side. Make sure your stock is long verical up to absorb the shock. Horizontal stacking is bad.

No need to spend big $$$ on  a "real" anvil.

Take care

 

 

 

 

 

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Welcome aboard Mcan, gad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the Iforge gang live within visiting distance.

Stand it on edge, it'll give you a much better depth of rebound, meaning it'll provide more resistance to the impact of the hammer and move metal significantly better than laying on it's side. I wouldn't bother trying to harden it, I think it's getting into the range of needing kind of special care and knowledge to heat treat.

If you took a little slice of one side to provide a flat base the arc removed can be cut in half and welded to the flat base to serve as legs though you can weld it to a piece of plate or build a stand. Another thought for the slice is to again cut it in half making two curved wedge things, shine them up a bit, radius the edges and weld one flat side up on the new anvil. Oh you have ANOTHER?! :o Grind that one more or less cone shaped and weld it on the other side. Now you have a double bic anvil, one round, one square. Handy things bics.

Take a look around at the ever venerable "Portable hole" if you need a hardy hole. Extremely handy things a portable hole.

Frosty The Lucky.

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