knots

I never discount outside the box ramblings of the mind. Lets just ask ourselves - if we had an extra old anvil with damaged face or edges, and not a candidate for refacing, what could we do with an upright or upside down anvil mounted securely on a stand or stump ? If it were a forged anvil you would have the beginnings of a hardy hole at the center of the up-turned base. I am going to have to ponder on this one. As stated by Krugan lots of different curves, possibly convert some surfaces for swaging. HMMMM

8 oz is a good weight to have. I would think it to be a keeper since the handle seems undamaged and is a good old american tool. There are plenty of unhandled , unmarked hammer heads around to reforge. One of my favorite reforged ball peens is a square or diamond shaped punch that I use to mark locations on forged work pieces. Turns out that a square punch mark shows up strongly on red hot iron where a round punch mark just blends in. Pretty amazing.

I think that I am seeing the shodowy edge of an unusually thick plate. What, maybe !/2 inch thick ? That one is a real prize.

Are you sure about the "O" . Looks like it could be USAC to me. If so that should narrow the list a bit. Could be WW2 military surplus.

I can't argue that point. If it is more cost efficient to purchase a new fine machine, then by all means buy it. For most of us serious part timers, making a tool is as rewarding as making anything else. But that is a different case. I bought my Wilton back in 1992. My shop, at that time was not adequate for a fabrication project ( I was in a rental house) but I needed the grinder so I bought mine. If I were acquireing another today I would build it simply for the pleasure of building it. But then I am not in a position where I need to be productive . Also a metal lathe is a basic part of kit for anyone who makes their own tools. So I would suggest that getting one anyway that you can is a good idea if you are really serious about tooling.

I am probably preaching to the choir on this subject, but just in case ----- . When I really want something flat and it is not convenient to throw it on the mill I use a regular ole wood working belt sander to mark the high spots of the surface, grind with a wheel or cup, touch it with the belt sander again to mark, grind with a wheel or cup, etc, etc, etc until I get the surface where I want it. Special metal cutting belts are nice but not absolutely necessary because you are really only using the belt sander to mark the high spots. Edit: But I doubt this would work well with hard surface rod.

Have a look at this universal stake holder. I would likely mount it up a different way but really like the idea. http://www.metalartistforum.com/maf/index.php?/topic/6248-universal-stake-holder/?hl=%2Bstake+%2Bholder

Interesting hunk . I kinda like it. If it were mine I would clean it up, profile the horn, and paint it up like Woody the Wood Pecker. Well maybe not the last. A while back I saw an interesting thread on an adjustable stake holder . If I can recollect where I will pass it on. If you have a swage block you might have a look at the square holes that it provides.

The amazing thing about building such tools as your grinder is that, considering the $3600 price tag for a new commercial grinder, you could buy a nice South Bend lathe and all of the parts and pieces and build your own and still have money left over. Not to mention having the lathe and grinder.

If you have access to a metal lathe they could be turned to 2" width. I don't know about company policy but where you work, but it sounds like there would be a machine shop . Alternatively careful application of a metal cutting saw and a file could result in an accurate trim to size.

Not that simple. If it were, Grizzley would have already made the conversion.

If I were to build a belt grinder featuring more than one speed I would use a VFD to convert single phase to 3 Phase power and to control the speed of/with a three phase motor . Either way I have had really good luck shopping for used motors at electrical motor repair shops. If you live in an industrial area or large city there are usually repair shops close by. They frequently have an over supply of electric motors in the HP range that you will be looking for and are usually glad to be see them go out the door. (Their commercial customers want new motors so the used ones tend to accumulate in their shops).

JMO - Use the anvil as it is . Chances are good that you will soon a-custom your work habits in such a way that you will hardly notice the presence of that hole. The principle use where I could see a problem is using the anvil with a striker. However since most of us do not have access to a striker it seems that this is unlikely to become a big problem. If after using the anvil for a while, if the hole proves annoying or of no use, you can always make the re-modification later. I am curious to hear if a tool that is snugly fitted but easily removeable would quite the anvil's ring.

Should be easy enough to work around . Forge a head bravely. Create a use for that extra feature.

I first saw this building material in Germany in 1998. Interesting stuff but not a refractory material. It is just a high tech concrete block. Its development came out of the need to build un-furred, insulated, masonry walls. Hebel markets this material internationally. If you really want to know about it call a distributor and talk to a rep.

Maybe the curious hole is a special use feature milled when they milled the top flat. You say the unusual hole is "in the middle" . Middle of the face ?

Try This. Maybe the link was to long. My search was "google books" - then - "Buffalo Forge Catalogues". This catalogue does not cover the current featured item but later calalogues should. Google books have archives of numerous old industrial catalogues of many manufacturers. Go to the 1896 catalogue and start scrolling from the last page. http://www.google.com/search?q=buffalow+forge+catalogues&btnG=Search+Books&tbm=bks&tbo=1&hl=EN

Have a look at this catalogue. Scroll from the bottom. The drill presses ar last in the catalogue.

From yet another source "Static conversion techniques in which the motor is run at less than full efficiency mainly on two of the legs of the three phase motor. Current is sometimes injected into the third leg with a capacitor or transformer arrangements that provide imperfect phase shift. In these systems the motor must be derated. "

When I look at a well worn anvil such as yours I cannot help but marvel at all of the hours spent making wonderful, useful, and artfull objects . That old warior has another life time or two left in it. Keep it in good company .

This article seems to express the consensus of opinion of static phase converters. http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Static_Versus_Rotary_Phase_Convertors.html

OK, Back when I was researching access to 3 Phase power I looked at rotaty , and static phase converters as well as VFD's . I eleminated static phase converters because I understood from the literature and on line conversations that motors powered by static phase converters did not run at full power. My understanding at that time was that they ran at 2/3 rds power. If my understanding was correct then there is a good chance that your 3HP motor is providing only 2HP when you need 3 HP. If that is true then your stalling problem could be the result. Based on that understanding I elected to build a rotary phase converter for my Vertical mill and use VFD's for four other machines. Since I am not an electrical genious, and only have a cook book understanding of the subject, you should confim the validity of this for you phase converter/motor combination.

In this case ugly is only dirt deep. Probably a lucky thing that the sellers did not clean it up before the auction. That anvil is a prize.

If the pump stalled I would look at the other components first. Did the phase converter come as apart of the package. Some static phase converters a little more than a starter circuit. After starting, the motor runs on two legs of the circuit giving 2/3 of the rated motor power (maybe).

Very true. If you look at each, the horn, the table, and the anvil face it looks as if the anvil saw very little use. The edges however have extensive damage. For that kind of damage to have occurred without damage to other areas indicates either abuse or early brittle failure under normal use. I have seen several Austrian anvils that had one side rounded to what looked like maybe a 1" radius. I have been eyeing those anvils because I like that feature, but would never consider altering one of my american or english anvils . However in this case It seems to me that a rounding of the edge of this anvil would be a good idea because it would likely stabilize an unstable edge. If it were mine I would probably start off with a 1/2" to 3/4"radius rounding of the damaged edge on one side of the anvil. If the underlying cast iron were really hard this might work nicely and reduce the likelyhood of flying shrapnel . Any radius should help reduce that hazard and work well for forging proceedures since the anvil still has a few good crisp edges.