stromam

What kind of hard facing would you recommend? Should I hard face the horn? How do you determine which side is the near side? I think I've decided I'm going to offset the anvil on the base to give me a big upset area, but I'm not sure how to figure out which side to set it on.

That was my plan, in fact I was just thinking about that today. What effect would dedening gaps have between the pieces? I was even thinking about maybe pouring molten lead on the face before welding around the edge, filling in any small gaps between them. Or maybe I could weld up three sides leaving a gap between pieces, then pour lead into the cavity and weld over that to seal it in.

Hey everyone, I'm finally getting to do something I've wanted to do since middle school... Blacksmithing! Like many of you I couldn't afford a great 200# anvil so I decided to build one of my own. I also like the idea of doing this kind of project because it connects me so much better to my work. I've so far designed, cut and rough shaped the anvil and I'll do a little walkthrough of my build, but I am also looking for any advice people can give me for finishing this little beast. I'm lucky that at my work I have access to a scrap piece of 3" steel I was able to use to cut out my blocks. Here I have the blocks roughed out with my colleagues track torch (one of the coolest things, cutting through 3" plate steel like a hot knife through butter). And here they are in all their glory. Can you tell its going to be an anvil yet? About 2 more hours of cutting with the track torch which required very methodical cuts because it can't cut an angled surface, the piece has to be parallel to the track on both planes. I also spend a few minutes cleaning up all the slag with a 4" grinder. And I quickly switched to the 8" grinder, the 4" would have taken probably 4 times as long. This is pretty much the shape I think I want it. I still have to install my hardy hole. For that I'm going to use 1-1/4" square tubing welded inside that rough hole i cut. And that is where I stand today. I'll put my questions and further progess in other posts. First of all, does anyone see any major design flaws in my anvil overall? I know I haven't put in my pritchel hole yet and need to radius at least one of the edges. It is also kind of hard to see from the picture, but the horn is not perfectly conical. It tapers back to more of an oval where it meets the step. Is that going to cause problems? If i try to grind it down to perfectly circular at the step, it will either be a much narrower cone or a much shorter cone. What about the base and the center piece? I cut the center piece a little big (actually accidentally cut the top piece a little small) so you can see it hang out a little on the corners. Do I need to cut the middle piece down to size or would that little oversizing make for a good corner to upsetting/etc? I need to do something to harden the face I know. I have a couple options. I can try to quench the face and even though its mild steel (0.25% C I presume) I theoretically should be able to get up to a 44-46C rockwell. Here is a post of a guy who got in the high 30s/low 40s with mild steel. http://paaba.net/Projects/ZWeekendMet.htm Would low 40s be hard enough for an anvil face? I know it wouldn't be very deep, but I think if anything that would help with the toughness/rebound/etc. My other option would be to weld a hard face material on it. We have hard facing wire at work, but I'm told it is so hard that it will crack if you hit it with a hammer (maybe because they didn't temper it after welding, I dont' know). Any thoughts? Any other comments people have are welcome, even negative ones. Thanks! And on a side note, anyone know what would happen to the structure of mild steel held at around 700-800 F for about 30-40 years? This steel came from a pot used to oxidize molten lead.