kpotter

I will just toss out my 2 cents again I like really nice tools I make smithing tools for a living and if I could have made a better anvil I would have hell I tried I made a 300lbs mild steel one with a hardface and it sucks compared to the peddinghause. I know that I dont regret buying mine I paid 1600 for it and I think they are more now, they probably wont get cheaper so go get one before they quit forging them and start casting them.

I have milled that type of screw on a K&T universal mill I wasnt making a screw press just a decrotive pattern for a steel container. I know my mill will cut threads like that with the powered dividing head and the thread milling attachment, but to actually make them to a tolerance would be real hard at least for me. I looked into making a fly press but they are so cheap it is not worth it.

I cant see putting a whole lot of time and effort into an unknown piece of metal, To take the time to go find this piece of mystery metal then to cut it and forge it into a useful object only to have it fail because you used a rusty piece of junk mystery steel is crazy. Steel is not all that expensive the gas to light a forge will cost more than a pound or two of it. I wont buy mystery metal and spend time machining it I get friends who come over and want to cut rusty crap on my band saw I give them good steel it is cheaper than ruining my bandsaw blade. I can understand not having any money but scrap is 30 cents a pound and new is 50 cents and I do not have to deal with scrape yard workers I know were I am buying mine.

I would get the peddinghause, for the money it is great however I would like to say I have a 500lbs anvil just for braggin rights, they are sort of like an extension, who has the biggest anvil, I saw that reflinghause 1200lbs and now that is what I want but it wont make me a better smith, heck I dont even use the one I got I press forge everything.

I just built a chile style forge I have asthma and the thought of breathing that stuff scared the crap out of me so what I did was use the rigidizer and the itc 100 nothing is coming out of that forge but heat. I had the same trouble as you I built a forge with lots of firebrick and three burners and thought oh yea we have built the gates of hell, well it sucked up fuel and didnt get real hot and took forever to get to orange. The new forge gets blazin hot and gets to yellow heat and burned my eyes while looking into it(not to bad) The kaowole is the ticket and coating it with itc after using the rigidizer made all the difference.

I have a 275lbs peddinghause, I was going to buy a nimba gladiator and I had saved all the cash and had it hidden in my shop I was getting the shipping arranged when my lovely wife broke a tooth and needed some serious dental work, now here is the delema fix the wifes tooth or buy the gladiator and sleep with it in the shop, or fix the wifes tooth and buy the peddinghause and be the hero. I think I made the right choice I didnt have to sleep in shop. I still get anvil envy when I see my friends nimba it looks like an aircraft carrier it is huge, but I think my forged anvil is a better anvil just not as big. Quality over quantity. I have forged on both and mine has more rebound.

The prices are great it is the shipping and the set up that will kill me. I am in my garage, I need more room but industrial space is still expensive around here I dont want to move my stuff into a rented building. There is a shop that shut down last year that has a big fly press I will go check it out and see if they might sell it, that would be cheaper than more tonnage, and faster. I was offered a 50 ton bliss for free just haul it away, yesterday but I maintained controll and passed on it.

I just bought a shizouka old as dirt cnc in great shape but have no clue how to run it,it does run I have used it a little but all my machines are conventional ww2 stuff. I have been machining all the stuff but have gotten interested in press forging since it saves so much time, I have converted most of my tools to forgings and hope to do the rest but I need more tonnage, I havent found any screw presses around this area so I will going hydraulic. I just built a hotter forge and that has helped alot but more tonnage will do the trick.

I make tools using closed dies and do it in a hydraulic press, I have considered using the punch press for this type of work but have yet to take the plunge, I use them for punching sheet but have not tried closed dies yet. I guess I would adjust it to kinda creep up on full closure and see how it goes or do multiple dies slowly progressing to the finished shape. My dies are made on an edm and then I put them in shoes and just swap them out of the 100 ton press, no drama no excitement just slow and boring.

I have bought from damasteel he sells stainless damascas as well it is heat treatable so plan how you are going to make it so it doesnt work harden, I machined the ones I have made but tried to forge one once and it was a pain when it came to filling it.

I have three anvils the first one is one that I made it looks like an anvil and is real pretty it is 300lbs and is mild steel with 1/2inch of hard face put on by a welding machine, when I drop a bearing on it it goes thunk and rings like crazy but the bearing doesnt bounce more than an inch off the face the second is a 200lbs buddin the bearing will bounce right back to your hand and ring the anvil, the third is a 275 lbs peddinghause and it will bounce the bearing right back to your hand and ring but not as loud. The buddin is like forging on a spring the hammer flies back at you and the peddinghause is similar but not as crisp and the anvil I built is like hitting a sand bag. The peddinghause is all forged solid tool steel the buddin is wrought iron with a tool steel face and the homemade is a36 plate with a hard face. The buddin is really hard the peddinghause is softer and my a36 is as hard as the buddin but it was welded on hardface wire not a plate like the buddin. I dont know why the buddin works so well.

I guess it is relative I have it setting next to a budden and have used both and you can feel the difference same with the peddinghause the difference is huge but if all I had was my home made one I would think this is awesome I rule. I did think that until i got the other two and started using them. the budden is harder than the peddinghause and the rebound is crazy. My Home made one is fine but if I actually had to pay for all the stuff it would have been a very expensive lump of steel since it cost me about 200 bucks it is a great anvil for the money but not a great anvil, at least I can say I did it.

How do you heat 300lbs? I bought a peddinghause 275 lbs anvil, I love it. everyone needs to get the anvil making bug out of their system one way or another.

I have done this and it is not worth it I would like to say trust me but I was told by others who had done this not to do it so I will just tell you what I did, and you can go ahead and give it a shot. I was given a 6 inch thick piece of plate it was A36 I paid to have an anvil shaped object cut out of it, it is about 300lbs then I milled and ground a horn on it. The anvil was looking sweet and I only had a couple of hundred in it then I milled the top and took it to a place where a friend of mine worked and we did the hard face on a big machine designed for hardfacing machinerey for the mines. I then ground the surface on the mother of all surface grinders to a mirror shine and milled all the sides of the anvil and polished the horn, this thing was beautiful I then did the ball bearing test and it goes thud, this anvil is so dead it has no rebound it is like hitting a sand bag. I bought a Buddin and a Pedinghause and use my anvil shaped object for a stand to spray paint stuff on.

Hey Bent iron I was just talking to you in another forum for jewelers, we should get together I dont live that far away. I am pretty new to the internet but these forums are great I dont know very many people who are into the same stuff I am. I think that anvil project might be doable but not as a burnout, lots of guys can get a block of steel but very few have the machines to mill dovetails and make dies so if you do the hard part and sell that as a kit I bet you could sell a few. I have sold some of my tools as kits for the guy that likes to weld and polish. I make stuff in batches of 50 and that lasts me a long time since there is not much demand for metal forming tools. I bet you could sell fifty of these, it might take a year or two but I am sure you could do a run of them in a couple of weeks and have a pile to sell through. I have all conventional machines I would do the dove tails in the shaper just for fun.

I have never posted before but I have been a lurker, I like your anvil I think that you could do it profitably if you didnt use a burn out I would sell only the top 3 inches with the dovetail and let them get their own chunk of steel and bolt your part to it or weld it on, it would save a fortune in shipping you could even do it in small chunks so it could ship flat rate. I make the T-stakes and planishing stakes that are sold by otto frei and I make them 11 and three quarters long so they fit in the big flat rate box and ship for 12 bucks. I think it might require to much machining but what about holding the dovetailed parts in with a cam like on the Aloris quickchange tool post or the kdk style ones. just some thoughts

I have made an anvil from a36 I got a piece that was 6 inches thick I had it cut into a 400lbs anvil shape then milled all the sides flat and hardfaced the surface the anvil is beautiful I blanchard ground the face and polished it and it sucks compared to a forged anvil the rebound is non existant you work real hard when using it and if I had not gotten it all for free it would have cost a fortune to make.

I have never posted before but I figured this was a good time to start. I started with a block of steel that I turned into an anvil it is 400lbs it looks like an anvil it is mild steel with a hard face but it sucks I then found a beautiful 275lbs budden nearly new and this is no exageration it is perfect no chips or dings and it hasnt been resurfaced, I decided I was not worthy so it is in the living room. I came into 2500 bucks and was going to buy a nimba gladiator but my wife needed some dental work so I got the 275 lbs peddinghause, because it was 1600 bucks and that is what I had left. The thing is great it has rebound like nothing I have tried I do mostly small stuff and it is more than good enough. I woudnt hesitate since they wont make them forever.