pkrankow

Very handsome. Phil

Here's what some real anvils look like (jumpy camcorder recording of TV...) A well supported and fastened 30# (15kg) steel mass, higher carbon preferred, can outperform a 100# anvil simply placed on a stump. While there is no substitute for mass, good fastenings can help immensely. And ask everybody for an anvil, your parents, your SO's parents, the preacher, your teachers, your boss, the grocery clerk...someone may have just banged their shin on a perfect 50# - 300# Peter Wright, Trenton, Hay Budden, Other Big Name, and will want you to haul it out of their garage or basement, possibly for free. How do you determine the size of an anvil? One hand lift, two hand lift, team lift, get more help, machine required, and appraise the person you are talking to, and where they say it is located. Phil

Maybe I'm the one who needed a cookie. You are right, the whole system needs to be installed and work properly or it is inviting trouble. Phil

I think this thread need bacon. Everything is better with bacon. I don't see anything in this thread against using new material, just a preference for recycling, presumably for cost advantage. Phil

Steve, I think you need a cookie. Follow the link. The site sells the lightning protection hardware in addition to decorative elements. The part I found is exactly pictured like the picture in the original post. Phil

I have seen welds my brother has done in 1/2 inch mild plate with a Hobart 135 running self shielding flux core. PPP's Lincoln 135 will, eventually, get it done. Weld 2 minutes, wait 8 minutes...no fun...time consuming...weld, peen, wait... weld, peen, wait...weld, peen, wait... or if you do shorter welds: weld, peen, weld, peen, wait...weld peen weld peen wait... Lots of time consuming not very fun. Use a bigger machine if it is available! I don't know if your 90A machine will do this. Try it and see. For putting a solid 1 inch stem on a hardy tool it probably will do it just fine. For joining larger pieces together...maybe, maybe not. Phil

http://www.lightningrod.com/ornaments.php Google returns this, seems fairly inexpensive ($50) but this appears to be the decorative element, and needs the lightening rod and grounding hardware. Phil

Castcraft is a cast iron product made by Cigweld. The same company (or conglomerate?) also makes Stoody, Thermodyne, and Victor. I doubt that anvil is cast anything. Phil

Looks real. You will need to remove some of the face first as it is broken, but still attached. Do you have other views of this anvil? It appears to have a "grain" to the fracture which may indicate that it is blister steel, a form of wrought iron. Phil

I didn't go hog wild on that hammer. I don't have any "before" pictures. I couldn't find the ruined hammer (not that it matters much). I took a few pictures of the 4 that I use with some regularity, the one above included. left to right twisted 3# cross peen, 3# cross peen, 3# drilling hammer (pictured above), 4# drilling hammer (not completely dressed out) Pic 1 side (you can see the tape on the 4# handle marking length, and grinding flash off on the 4#) pic 2 faces (the twisted hammer is scarred because I didn't re-harden it.) pic 3 peens Pic 4 cutoff handles from these and others, the top one shows how the rubber boot was on the handle. The older hammers of this brand don't have the rubber boot, and the handle isn't split. The last 3 are just of the 3# modified drilling hammer from the previous post. pic 5 side view of 3# drilling hammer face on anvil, pic 6 side view of 3# drilling hammer peen on anvil pic 7 bottom view of 3# drilling hammer peen on anvil. in pics 5, 6, 7 there is a US quarter sitting on the anvil, but it isn't helpful because it is not in the same plane as the hammer. Sorry the pictures are fuzzy, this camera doesn't do macro. Phil

1 1/8 or 1 1/4 round or square will have plenty of mass to forge, upset, and draw out the desired features. If you are buying new steel then 1045 would be easy to hand forge and have reasonable edge holding on a hot cut. 4140 is what I used for my hot cut and 1045 for my turning fork. I started the fork with 1 inch square for a 1 inch hardy because spreading the tines provided the shoulder. I just split the bar a few inches, spread the tines, rounded them and bent them where I want. Phil

I thought I attached pics. I can see them on the end of my post. Would you like additional views? This was a pure stock removal process. Phil

Gonna be a while before I get up there...2 hours to my parents so they can have Grandparent duty with my daughter, then an hour over there...I can't do that very often. I started with a $7 3# Truper brand drilling hammer from Menards, wood handle, but has that stupid rubber collar on it AND it probably hides a split in the handle...buy a new handle at the same time for $5 the old one is quite short anyways. Cut the rubber off, and maybe the handle too (it is probably split and makes this easier anyways). Dress one face to "watchglass" where the center is pretty much flat, about the size of a dime, maybe a quarter, on that hammer, and then gradually transitions around the edges. Grind the horrible drop forge flash off for cosmetics (or not). Make a template that is a circle the size of the other face (about 1 1/2 inch diameter IIRC) cut it in two half circles, apply them to the top and bottom of the hammer as a grinding guide. Grind to the line, then dress the top and bottom "watchglass" but rounded. The sides should have blended in just fine going to the template. Tip: leave the swirls in a line in the center of the "peen" end so you know you are leaving as much metal as possible, then remove the swirls when you start to dress the head after shaping. Drift the wood plug up and out of the hammer; save the metal wedge. You can use a piece of 1/2 inch mild round as a drift for this. File the flash inside the eye (if needed) and relieve the bottom of the eye some so as not to split the new handle. Install the new handle properly. Use caulk (Sikeflex) if you want, but I didn't and don't see the need with wedges. Now get a spokeshave, draw knife, rasp, sandpaper, whatever and adjust the handle to fit your hand. Forge some, trim some. Don't be afraid of going too far because you can re-re-handle easily. MARK the handle at 10 inches below the head, I use a wrap of electrical tape so I can move the mark if I want. After you are SURE that the length mark is in the correct place cut the handle shorter. I had at least 3 forge sessions before making this cut. Congratulations! You just spent an hour or more making a $7 hammer into a usable forging tool! If you are careful about not removing too much metal, and keeping the metal cool, there will be no need to re-harden. These hammers are soft in the middle, but you have to take about 3/8 inch of material off. Yes, I have ruined a couple. The experience of taking a low quality hammer and dressing it to usable quality is well worth the time it takes. Phil Edit: I just checked, my hammer does not have an actual "dead flat" spot. It is very nearly flat for about the size of a US quarter, but still has a very slight crown to it. Phil

That's ok because the forge is putting a lot of heat in, so extracting a small amount of work from a tall stack probably would work...or cause excess smoke spillage. Phil

Water barrel, fun. Always wanted to try one, but too big and heavy for here and now. I have some canvass and PVC pipe (or is is ABS? The black stuff) that I plan to try air bags that you open and close with your hands (for real this time, not a kitchen trash bag). I am thinking 12 inch diameter 16 inches tall, no valves although with PVC you could just put a sump pump valve inline no problem. Threaded fitting to iron and Bob's your uncle! It is just cotton canvass dropcloth, and I have some undercoat/bedliner spray to air proof it. Phil

A solid fork will be darn nice to be honest. Phil

have a read through this Phil

recalescence. Strange, but cool, effect. Recalescence is cited as one of several means of determining the correct temperature to quench from for simple high carbon steel in old textbooks. It is caused by the phase change of the steel causing a release of energy so the temperature slightly increases. Phil

I twisted a peen on a hammer from cross to diagonal. The effort to do that was serious! If you can take a larger ball peen hammer and flatten the peen as desired you may like the result. Alternatively take a cheap drilling hammer and stock remove the peen you want on it. I stopped at "fullering" which is a really big radius on a cross peen. That was the hammer I was using at the open forge. Phil

Ever shave with a straight razor? Some reading, it is based on a particular type of hone, but the information is pretty generic across all honing methods. http://coticule.be/CSA.html It looks nice, but the geometry of the blade is just as important as the quality of the steel, or it won't shave. Phil

Building a power hammer anytime soon? Use them to add mass to the lower portion of the anvil. Lathe bed? Otherwise I don't know. They are useable for making light duty swages if you wanted to, say leaf veins and stuff of the like, but I don't think you will use six feet (or twelve feet if you have two of these!) Getting scrap rate might be best, especially if you have a yard that will trade. Phil

I'm hoping you are lucky Phil

Swearing at duty cycle is worse than swearing at small rods. Phil

POZ tongs. Universal tongs might be a ticket. They are an altered set of "pipe" tongs. Phil

The ac/dc tombstone is probably the ticket for this project. Get something that can run a heavy rod, 100% duty cycle, you will get tired of pushing 1/8 inch rod so see if you can get and run much thicker. Rod can also be used deep in a crevasse while no other process can get down there. Preheat is easy. Make sure the wife is away (or fully, 100%, for real, on board) and stick the clean pieces in the oven to bake for an hour or three at 400F or so. No need to bake all the pieces at the same time, start with 3, put 1 in when you pull 1. Phil