Avadon

Good advice as always on here. I was in the same boat you were in last year and I really researched this for about a week or two before I went cutting up hundreds of dollars of steel for my stand. After measuring, reading, listening to others, and trail and error working on different heights I came up with 32-5/8". That just seemed to be the magick number for me. I'm about 5'9". The anvil's face is about 1.75-2" above my knuckles. I primarily want to do blades, armour, jewelry work, and relic-making so I wanted the anvil to be closer to me. Of course there is an old adage here that if the anvil is to low you'll know it in your lower back and if the anvil is to high you'll feel it your neck and shoulders. You don't want to be to out of range. If the anvil is to low you can hyperextend/overextend your elbows wrist and shoulder as well as strain your back from the leaning over. If the anvil face is to high you feel like all crunched up in your shoulders and arms as if your in a constant flinch. Neither are fun. Seems though for the work I described doing many tend to be right below their wrist bones; right at that part where your hand narrows into your wrist, or just below your wrist bones. Or at least above the knuckles and lower than the wrist. One good thing I found was to take a block of steel and put it on my workbench using 2x4's or whatever I needed to prop it up to the anvil height I wanted. Then I lightly hammered on it to test my normal striking stroke. You'll know after many swings if it feels to high or low. I know anvils are expensive and hard to acquire but whatever you spent on the anvil you'll regret it if you don't put it on a very heavy steel stand. A good stand will at least have a 1-2" thick piece of plate it sits on and very solid 1/4" or thicker wall thickness legs. I mean if you can't make a heavy enough stand or do the welding a log is probably a better route. A log is much safer and less ring than an inadequate (or even dangerously constructed) metal stand. Good luck, don't forget to show us your pics when your done. B)

Wow, kudos to all the great advice. Yah i'd be looking to get tested in TIG Ferrous metals at first. But it sounds it's almost a catch22 with the certification. You'll get certified at the job, but they might not hire you unless your certified. Do people normally get certified first and then go seek a job? I can tig weld quite well. I've welded on everything from Anvil stands to jewelry to sheet metal and most things in between. I'm also a fairly good gas welder as that's where I started and didn't have the money for arc welding. I've been making smithing tools for years and was investigating getting cert's so I could pick up a 2nd job working for someone else. However it is starting to really seem like a career move rather than just an easy thing to do in a month or two. If I couldn't rocket into 12-15$ an hour it really wouldn't even be worth it for me and I have feeling (especially in this economy) I probably wouldn't. They would probably turn me down if I was being interviewed aside another guy who was equal in welding skill but had all the schooling and looking to make a living out of it. I want to make my living smithing, not welding so I guess i'm not willing to drop everything to pickup a welding career.

I was curious if anyone knows of a way I can become a certified welder from online courses? I know you need to have some training and then an inspector can show up at test you in your area the practical portion of becoming certified. I already know how to weld and have been Gas and TIG welding for years. So i'm wondering if I can skip the community college bit and just do some studying online and then have an inspector show up to test me.

WD-40 works fairly well but only lasts until a heavy rain. What I often use on my outside anvil is a thick lubricant/grease. Harbor freight makes a synthetic grease that's about 4.49 a tube. Kinda pricy but it's excellent grease. It comes in a grey tube. If you heavily coat your anvil when not in use it shouldn't rust. I also bag my anvil with a large plastic trash garbage bag. That and the lube almost stop all rust. Then when you start forging again just wipe down the top surface. Cheers! :lol:

Excellent, thanks John B. Really appreciate this info. The one's I've seen around looked somewhat around 3/4" to 1" but I wanted a second opinion before I start fabricating. Thanks.

When creating bending forks as hardy tools or when creating scroll wrenches what is a good rule of thumb distance between the prongs? (I am of course excluding from this question hardy's or wrenches that have adjustable prongs. I'm curious about fixed prongs).

That sounds like the trick.. i'm just curious how I daisy chain several plug boxes together. Do I take a 220V plug and plug that into the main 30amp outlet and then that cord goes to several recepticle boxes mounted together on a board? That's basically what your saying right? Just running the 3 wires to each outlet, splicing each green, black and white to as many outlets as I need?

Thank you all, this information really helps! :D

Hi Nakedanvil, Yah that is the smart way to do it. Both my 7.5hp 30amp vertical compressor and the KMG Belt Grinder both have 3 wire. Not much I can do about it. The ridiculous thing is i'm renting this house so I only pulled one 220v 30 amp line for my miller tig. The other 220v 30 amp I share between the compressor, the dryer and now my new kmg belt grinder. It's like ridiculous plugging and unplugging applieances. I need one of those 3 into 1 220v adapters. Don't even know if they make something like that. Then all I would have to do is make sure never two of them run at once. I just don't want to run anymore lines since I may move out this summer or next summer.

Well I had the fire extinguisher and everything ready just in case I plugged in it wrong. But I was definitely sure the green went center and the black and white went on the side prongs. Well I almost killed myself lifting it over to the plug to test it but I got it there. And now your moment of zen KMG Startup

Good call I just popped it open. Black and white are hooked up to L1 and L2 (i'm sure that's line 1 and line 2) and the Green is off on a seperate ground terminal. So the Green must go in the middle of that plug and black and white on the v shaped prongs.

I have a 220V 30amp KMG Belt Grinder sander I'm going to run on a dryer 220v 30amp dryer outlet. The machine does run on 30amps and I verified this with them. I got the right receptacle for that outlet from lowes but the instructions have black white and red wires connecting to the 3 blades of the plug. They show the white wire going to the middle L shaped prong and the red and black going to the v-shaped dryer prongs. I don't have that! I have BLACK WHITE AND GREEN. So i'm looking at this plug and wondering does the green go in the middle and the black and whites are the hot's? Or does the white go in the middle and the black and green are the hots?!?!?

I've done an impressive amount of googling already but it's hard to really choose the best option here. For quiet motorless airbrushing where there is no power, for film/makeup type airbrushing where very minimal psi is being done would the portable air tank hold enough? I know a cylinder holds a great deal of air. How long does it take for instance to go through a 5 gallon portable air tank at approximately 5psi? Would that give a day or two of work or would you be out in an hour or so? Filling up a 5gallon tank with an airpump seems like it would not be very fun. Seems like it would take forever, wouldn't it?

My friend is getting into airbrushing and she doesn't have a compressor. She's thinking about getting a compressor down the road a few months but in the mean time were thinking of using an alternate source of gas. Also we need an alternate in case she airbrushes at places she can't plug the compressor in at. So my question is what is the best tank/cylinder that's portable to use. I saw these little 5gallon - 120psi portable air tanks, normally for blowing up bicycle tires, pool toys, etc., but i'm figuring that for airbrushing such a tank would only last a day, maybe too. The only upside to those is I can fill those tanks with my 80 Gal 7.5HP vertical compressor. Only problem is I don't see her often enough for her to come by and get fills every day or two. So what am I left with? Should I get compressed air from airgas, or should I get nitrogen? This airbrushing is going to be on faces and bodyparts (Sensitive areas) for makeup type application so I don't want any gas that is noxious or toxic or dangerous around people. Also dry would be nice and cheap(relatively) as well. Also what kind of regulator do i need for compressed air or nitrogten? Will any gas regulator work? I couldn't find an "air" regulator. :confused: Halpz!! :)

Okay my first fear was that I made some to long for customers at 6". Now I realize that they probably don't mind the extra inch or two of steel. I can't seem to get hardies to go all the way through my gladiator anvil. Maybe the hole is still to new. Only goes about 4" down into the hardy. I guess i'll probably leave them at 5" long shanks. If they want they can hacksaw/bandsaw them off. Thanks for the help.

What is a good default length for a 1" sq hardy shank? How long should that shank go down into the hardy hole? What is considered standard length. I'm trying to figure out what is best for making hardy tools for friends and customers. I usually make them long like 5-6" but I wonder if i'm just giving them an extra chore to cut it down. My gladiator heal is about 6.5" thick under the hardy.

Wow that's some excellent information. I'm printing that stuff out. I've been at this metal working game for so long and i've tried every cutting oil and lubricant out there. Nice to see a comparitive test. I'm sure after reading this through some lubricants i'll probably stop using. I'll probably also try that oily rag thing as that probably helps keep some of the moisture out. Painting though is probably the highest protection.

How can I stop rust from overcoming my anvils outside. I've tried thick greases and oils and it always comes off in just a few short weeks. I just hate to see the face and sides of my anvil covered with bright orange rust. Does covering it help much? Should I use wax? Should I use silicone? Mostly I just want to cover the sides and then use something else to lay ontop of the bed that I can wipe clean. Any thoughts?

Excellent tutorial Hofi. Saved many of the pictures for future reference. :)

Love it.. looks great! The leaves are cool too.

hmm I would think natural gas is less noxious but none of those burners say "natural gas" they all say propane. I've used them before in very open areas just to get the radiant effect in very leaky open garages or outside. But in a more enclosed garage After about 30mins to 1 hr of running it started to smell weird.

Well how do furnaces work in houses? They are natural gas and people don't die? so wouldn't this work well?

I had a propane tank with a 3 Burner heater attachment on it for my garage but it seemed to give off kinda smelly fumes so you had to open the window, which obviously destroyed the purpose of the heater. How can I heat up a large garage quickly with gas. I'd rather not spend a fortune on expensive electric heaters. Can I put a double or trippler burner heater ontop of a natural gas can from air gas? Would I have less toxic smell, fumes, etc. from burning it in a enclosed space? The kind of burner i'm talking about is this click here

Horn always to my left. If I didn't have it oriented that way I'd probably rip a hole in space-time and banana pudding would come pouring out of my mouth.

Tell me about it!!! I've seen so many people forging without as much as single light pair of safety glasses. I guess these people have access to replacement eyes. :confused: I already had a doctor dig a random spark out of my eye for $600.00. I don't want to ever recreate that experience. There's a ton of videos on youtube of people not wearing safety glasses in their shop. It makes me nervous if someone even comes into my shop without them. I would never let someone work on anything without a pair.