MLMartin

Good lookin stands Mr Hoffman, that's a pretty awesome and scary bullet extractor! i dont have much thick plate around my shop and little money for it, no square tubing eather. but i did have some one inch square and half by one and lots of one by quarter and just a little for inch angle, so i thought this together was modeled off many stands i sall here on IFI. I still need to fasten the anvil down, but its a pretty darn tight fit so it dose not move anyway. ill probably add a little more to this stand, (expanded metal under the bottom that fits inside the braces on the legs). this is my first metal stand and im pretty happy with it so far.

did you do much shaping with a band sander? or on a grinder? did you do any of this after you had quenched and hardened it, if you did this after you quenched it you could have headed it to much just sanding it and softened it

so i see your anvil is on ebay already, tryin to make a fast buck i guess, cant really blame you, there doesn't seem to be enough money around anywhere these days. is there not a person in your guild or a friend that's trying to get into smithing that you could sell it to for cheep. so many people get anvils and just run the price up terribly, it makes it vary hard for some people to get them that are interested in smithing and cant seem to find one that appropriately priced. a long time ago when i first got into smithing and did not know any better, i looked and looked and finally found someone dealing anvils so just bought one, was not till way down the road that i found out i have been ripped off pretty good on a high price

wow must have been a pretty dry stump! iver herd of stranger things, also see a fellow that did not use his anvil for o maybe 4 or 5 months went out to it, took one large hammer blow and the wood stump just crumpled, terns out termites had a little fun with it while he was gone

The American College of the Building Arts This school has a 2 or 4 year program in Blacksmithing/forging. wonderful classes that start with all the basic hand forging then move into all the joining, all the way to modern tools in your last years, IE power hammer, arc welders. This school also has classes in drafting, drawing, construction history, and all your core class's, math, English, ext The American College of the Building Arts

if you have a house built buy a common contractor its almost a sure thing that your waster and dryer have 220 outlets, if there in your garage then your all set, im in college now so am always moving house to house, i simply make many different outlet plugs that fit all the different 220 outlets and have the same female my welder has, so i just go to any new house and unplug the dryer and start welding away. but i dont use a mig, i carry the little miller diynesty with me, wonderful tig welder, great stick, only about 50lbs so not huge but not so small that it would limit my welding. i have a old millermatic 175 but have never used it other than the 5 minuets at my buddy's shop just to see if it worked when i bought it from him. have used smaller millermatic at old job when we were on the road, was desent but took a fair amount of skill to get a good bead, had a few millermatic 200's and a 300 at the workshop, there absolutly wonderful, some of them were pushing 15 years old and they all welded like champs, the millermatic mig welders have always been great welders in my opinion.

I have also gone the route of welding up heavy plate and blocks to make an anvil, near 200lb, if i were on the clock it would have been well over a few thousand to make it. but i did it in free time over about a year, few hours here few there and so on, all the parts i believe there were 20 in total were beveled to a point for full penetration, and as said before, a huge pain in the butt, lots of chipping lots welding, i dont have a needle scaller, wish i did, would have saved lots of time, and i only had a little 220 stick welder at the time, so i was only useing little 1/8 inch rods, if you have a good size mig welder this will save lots of time, or a big stick welder where you can fun 1/4 inch rods, but this is pretty intense . in the end i came out with an anvil thats decently nice, but could be better, if i was to go it again i would have used a different hard facing rod. the rods will set you back an easy 300 or more to cover a face thats something like 4inch by 18inch. seem to be best in layers to, medium hardness then heavy hardness on top. have not worked on the thing in a while, why it can be called done and used just fine as is, i still plan to grind down the face and dress the hardy hole more. this process is very very slow and makes a great deal of noise, and huge amounts of dust. ovcorse this is just how it all worked out for me, many people will do it different ways, different results, but no matter how you do it, if done right it will be a great deal of work. if you find my gallery on this site you can see some of the steps to making my anvil, sorry not totaly in order just my thoughs o yess and about the time i finished making this beast, i found a 500lb with broken hardy hole for 500$ but otherwise the rest of the anvil was in great condition, so i bought it and now i hardly use the anvil i made at all, funny huu.

i know its a far jump but my grandfather has had a pacemaker implanted and also he was told absolutely not welding, so he actually has to run out of the shop when ever u start working. but he still welds himself, he has a old Oxy Act set that he uses. no electricity, GOOD. with a good bit of practice, most any metal can be welded with a gas set up, yes it is much slower than any arc welder, but it wont send the computer in your chest crazy ive seen some great welding with this little torch, i have one myself, there a little odd to get use to, but after just a few minets of use, i love the thing. you may find it named, the Henrob, Dillon, or cobra. Henrob 2000 Welding and Cutting Torch - $379 everyday! - FREE shipping

while it will support a great deal of weight i dont believe its there so much to hold the thing up as it is to keep the leg from burying into what ever it rest in. the above post sounds like a good solution.

well they made big tools, a large post vice i have is stamped IRON CITY, sorry i cant help you more than this

thats a pretty intense chunk of I Beam, how thick are the top and bottom plate, look to be around 2" i had no clue they were made that big!

before taking it and having it ground down, or welded how about posting some pictures of it. many folks seem to "FIX" there anvil because it dose not have perfectly sharp flat edges. if your actually going to use the anvil vary rarely will you ever want sharp edges on it, a nice rounded corner is your friend

pretty common thing i here about is the "cords or heater coils that are wrapped around engine blocks that you plug in over night to keep the old engine worm so it will start better, i use the same thing on all the pipes over ground that run to the pool so they will not freeze in winter.

don't think a 600 lb would break..... i have a 500 lb that's snapped off right at the hardy, some people can break an anvil with a rubber hammer!

i think you might be best getting a crucible and melting all the copper, then casting into a block/chunk, then forging the chunk. I actually take my tig welder and i simply melt copper wire into a big puddle on my work table, after it solidifies i pic it up with tongs and toss it in my Gas forge and forge it to shape

i have a 70 lb its great, some mean person used it to cut on alot, as in a few hundered cuts in the face, i tigged welded some tool still all over the cuts one corner that was chiped, has been a great quiet anvil ever sence, being so little i keep it realy high, for close up small work so i dont have to bend over

ive seen pictures of a Bronze stump anvil, the things well over 2000 years old, thats pretty darn old and rare considering you can barly forge bronze, so a bronze anvil dosent make a huge amount of seance, the thing has a wonderful mushroom from years of work, ive also been lucky enough to see a few rail yard anvils, there huge, around 800 to 1200lbs short horn, that ends in a flat, no point to it at all

beautiful, upside down , old hornless anvil, just buy it and ship it to me and ill tell you everything about it, it has a fith foot, must be realy old

the clay acts as a buffer between the metal and the coal fire, the fire will be so hot that it will heat up the cast iron firepot quick and its vary likely to crack and break. ive seen many people just use old red clay right out of the ground or any other clay they can get there hands on, im sure there are better clays ment for this, but i dont know them, and ive seen the pot covered with clay about as thick and half and inch up to about one inch. just line the firepot, or the bowl that the fire sits in, let the stuff dry for a day or two, then start a pretty small fire, and let it burn for a little bit to dry out the clay. if ya dry it out to fast it will crack off, but its just clay so no worrys this is just what i have herd and exsperanced, im no expert, just my thoughts on the matter good luck and happy forging

personally i have a great love for copper, so almost all of the bissness ends of my utincels are copper, i normally braze them to the iron handle

what type of tool steel would be the closest match for a steel face on a old wrought iron anvil, Peter Wright. i was thinking O1? anyone know?

who is the manufacturer of the this welding rod?

ok guys, yes yes my anvil is vary usable as is and i already use it alot. i understand the possibility of further damaging the anvil by welding. i have some exsperance welding anvils and lots of experance welding high carbon and low carbon steel. my anvil is a peter wright 500lber, broken at the hardy hole, almost flush with the start of the hole. i plan on making a heel as best as possible to match what use to be there. if i can ill use wrought iron, but have little hope of obtaining such a large piece. so im probably going to use mild steel. i plan to make the matching back end and electrically weld the mild steel to the tool steel face, beveled all the way for 100% penetration. after this is done i will cut the block to form the missing part of the party hole, then also beveling the made piece, weld this to the anvil, thus completing the anvil. my question is what would be the best match for the tool steel face on a peter wright. i have pictures under my gallery and i posted them on show me your anvil. Like always thanks for the help guys