Here is a little advice for those of you that live in more urban areas. Don't, I repeat, Don't use an I-beam as an anvil. This is incredibly loud when you hit it. I live in very rural area with my neighbors a good 700 yards away and I still got a call about the noise level. So, do yourself and your neighbors a favor, and DO NOT use I-beam as an anvil.

700yds and you still got complaints? WOW.

Frosty

that sucker musta been LOUD!!!

How hard were you hitting it?

I know, I know! It was a 689yd long "I" beam!

Frosty

Wells when drawing out steel for tong reins or something like that I use a 7ibs sledge... but it's even really loud when using just my normal 3ibs hammer, ***** just dropping a piece of steel on it hurts my ears... to use it I have to wear ear protection or my head starts ringing lol... but it's just really loud... so all I can say, is if you enjoy smithing, you would like to stay on good terms with the neighbors, and keep your hearing... find another anvil lol

Edited June 24, 200916 yr by mod07
Language

I should think that if you're trying to draw down stock large enough to need a 7lb hammer then you need a proper anvil.

If you are holding tongs or stock with one hand and swinging a 7lb. hammer with the other, that is why they CALLED. I would have mailed a letter.

Ouch. A 7lb hammer is awfully big and likely to do your arm damage before your hearing goes. Find something else to forge on, a truck axle (as in semi) set on end flange up in concrete makes a fine anvil. You may need to dress the end with a disk grinder for a flat spot but it'll work so much better than a piece of "I" beam.

Enough better you won't need to abuse yourself with oversized hammers.

Frosty

When I lived in FL my property line was 700in in either direction. 700yds is over a third of a mile. Nice neighbor.
Ken

Sounds like has a nieghbor like mine. I affectionetly call her the wicked witch of the south.

Drifter

When I lived in Columbus OH, inner city!, I had one neighbor that liked coal smoke---it reminded her of her childhood with a coal furnace.

There was another that would call the fire department on me and so they would turn out in full array trying to wedge the large firetruck down our narrow alley. By the shear grace of a beneficient diety it happend *4* times when I wasn't forging but instead using my smoker BBQ grill---as cooking was a use specifically allowed for in Columbus city fire codes there were not amused. They would never say who called it in on me but I heard that after the 4th false alarm they threatened EXPENSIVE prosecution if they did it again...and so I had no problems the rest of the time I lived there.

The Bar across the ally and over slightly burned *twice*, the house next to mine burned, and 2 months after I left the detached 1920's garage my shop *had* been in burned; but I never had any fire problems!

disturbing my neighbor is a fun thing to do ...he is an ignoramous....so i position my forge that the wind takes the smoke his way...evryone around here wonders about the goof...so its a weird antagonistic deal

I'm a newb here but sometimes a fresh eye can see something different.

If you have a setup that works for you but you have a problem with noise then build a sound wall.

Many years ago I build the equipment that manufactured hollowplank fiberglass wall filled with chipped tire material as a sound deadening wall for freeways in California.

It would not be difficult and you could get creative as you want and build some moveable "sound" walls, styrofoam, old mattresses, egg cartons, even a stack of tires around your work area would create a sound barrier. Places that sell office equipment sell these, Graingers or even Costco. I like the idea of random styrofoam pieces like what you see in anechoic chambers.

my .02.

You could deaden you "I" beam by putting some wood in the web to eat up some of the noise. Blacksmithing at home is hard enough without you getting folk all up in arms about the noise. Please try to find a way to quite your anvil before you get the local authorities involved.:cool: