homemade beginner anvil

[Clam River Coal Forge]

Ok its the new kid on the block I just finished making my beginner anvil. Will it work have not tried it out if nothing more the block is nice. One thing is sure it will be better than a truck rotor laying on the floor.

It has a RR for the center, horn I don't know found it at work cast steel, and the 1x3x10 steel face not sure.

[Charlotte]

Looks like it will work. Keep the heavy strokes over the rail and you will be ahead of using a some of the ASO's floating around.

[Abenakis]

A good anvil will not absorb the impact and thus will act as a second hammer working the iron. Usually, the inner structure of the cast iron does not yield to that sort of help. It will not hurt but you might have to work harder than necessary like if you would be hitting a cooler piece of iron. It can also distort when a heated part is placed on it if the steel used for the plate is not of proper type. For beginning, however, you, at least, have something to have fun with!

Have a good time and come back often as everybody is very helpful here.

[CBrann]

Necessity being the mother of invention, why not? Life is a learning experience, good work to start with your own anvil.

Does it work well?

[Clam River Coal Forge]

just finished building the other day will try it out sometime during this coming week need a day without rain.

[Avadon]

Are you close to a steel yard? Do a little google search, superpages, search or yellow pages search for steel yard in your area. They will probabaly have 2-4" thick plate in scrap cut offs and you can get yourself something like a 4" by 8" x 12" piece of steel and use it upright. Weld some tabs to the feet for mounting it and you will have yourself a pretty decent anvil. Then if you want you can weld something like another piece of plate ontop. But I wouldn't use anything under 2-3". Your basically just trying to get as much mass under the hammering surface as possible. As said above, keep to right above the center of that RR track and that will be your best bet.

[Avadon]

You also might want to try

Alro Steel‎
707 Works Ave, Cadillac, MI‎ - (231) 775-9336‎

(not far from you) and see what they have in the way of large billets or thick pieces of plate. Just an option. A lot of steel yards love to get rid of cut-offs for cheap if you bring cash as most people generally don't need a small (under a few feet) of very thick steel.

[Avadon]

Oh yah Welcome to Alro's Homepage they got up to 12" thick plate. you just buy yourself a giant chunk of steel for cheap and be better off then most ASO's ^_^

[Frosty]

Not bad George.

The rail isn't cast, it's from a rolling mill, basically forged high carbon steel. Welding it on end makes it much more rigid than laying it flat so for what you had to work with you did well.

Frosty

[Sweany]

KEWL!

let us know how it works

[Rob Browne]

Looking good. Just use the main part of the face over the railway iron for your heavy hitting. The rest will be good for lighter work.

[Clam River Coal Forge]

First off I would like to thank all for the words of encouragment. I tried my home made anvil, and it sure beats kneeling on the floor and beating on that rotor. Made a hook for the bird feeder so we can hang suet. My main objective was to had a hood to my forge, and had to fire it up to check it out one can not waste fuel and a good fire. I want to be able to use inside. I will post some pictures as I progress. I share your words of wisdom with my wife. She says I found a whole new world of friends.