Welding gouges in an anvil?

[Dave Shepard]

I have two large anvils, 250-300 pounds, that have been abused over the years (before I got them). They have several spots where someone was cutting something on them and cut slots into the side of the face with a torch. I was wondering what I should do to restore them. The faces aren't in great shape either and I was thinking about taking them to a machine shop and having them dressed on a surface grinder. I don't want to make them perfectly square with sharp edges, just take the dings out of the face and get a few flats spots to work with. Can I just weld the gouges and grind them to shape with a disc grinder? I know that anvils are tempered, and I don't want to have to retemper them. Also if feasible, what rod should I use, 7018, or a higher strength like Stulz manganese? Thank you. Also both anvils appear to be solid, no signs of a steel face welded on, and at least one of them is a Peter Wright.

Dave

[HWooldridge]

I'm not trying to dodge your question but this has seen some discussion here and there may even be a blueprint on the subject.

I will say that most machine shops probably won't do this unless they have a Blanchard or something big that will take a good cut as it would take forever on a surface grinder. A right angle grinder works just fine for this type of work.

Many years ago, I welded up both a Fisher and an Armitage with high manganese rods and the color of the welds always stood out from the rest of the face. As I did more repairs over time, I eventually moved over to MIG with standard wire for hole filling. If you only have stick, 7018 will probably work.

[Dave Shepard]

Thanks for the reply. I will do dome searching, although I'm not very good at it. The machine shop I use will have whatever it takes to surface an anvil. When people ask what they do there, I tell them "whatever anybody else can't!". And that's no joke. They have lathes with 9' swings and 20' between centers! I just sold my MIG as I don't do enough with it anymore, but I do have stick and TIG which is more fun than MIG any day of the week. A friend of mine has put me onto using cupped grinding stones on angle grinders, much like surface grinders, and that may be the route I take. The anvils aren't unusable, but I would like to have some fairly decent spots for some of the finer work I do. I am on the lookout for a smaller anvil for this type of work. My next smaller anvil is 8oz., and then an aluminum 2oz. jewlers anvil (London pattern) which won't do me much good.:rolleyes:

[DocDrew]

I seem to recall some one talking about useing stoddy rods for resurfacing an anvil face. these are the rods used for hard facing cutting tools. basically, grind out the gouge, weld it in, with multiple passes if necessary, then grind smooth. good luck.

[irnsrgn]

repair anything but the top with 7018, for the top use a hardsurfacing UNDERLAY rod, it will not stand out, is usually high manganese to deter crushing and will work harden in use.

[aametalmaster]

I never welded one yet, but the question comes up all the time on other forums....Bob
The ABANA Forums: Anvil repair

[Site Admin]

A search of the I Forge Iron Forum yeilded 18 results.

A search on the opening page yeilded the following Blueprints
BP0101 - Anvil Repair
BP0249 - Anvil Repair

Both of these search engines are easy to use, just type in "anvil repair" and click go.

[oljoe]

I just finished repairing a Peter Wright anvil. This one was in bad shape. Peter Wright anvils are made from a wrought iron main body with a tool steel face, forge welded on. This anvil had half of the face gone. It appeared that it had cracked or come loose at some time and part of it was ground off. The half with the hardy and pritchel holes were solid and had good rebound so I decided to build up the side that was ground off. This amounted to about 8

[Bandicoot]

I've welded up several Peter Wright anvils in varying states of disrepair. As Oljoe says they are wrought iron with a tool steel face plate. If you plan to do a fair bit of welding on them I'd borrow back the Mig welder you sold, as it is surprising the amount of weld required to bring them back. The high deposition rate of the Mig is a massive time saver. The first thing I do is grind the dirt, rust and rubbish out of the area to be welded. This obviously increases the amount of weld you have to lay down to fill the defect but will ensure good adhesion of the new material with the old. Next get the oxy torch with a heating tip on it and play it over the surface of the anvil until it is warm to the touch. Basically take the chill out of it so when you start welding, the weld you put down is not chilled too rapidly by the mass of the cold anvil. If the gouge you are repairing goes throught the face plate you will be welding up the wrought iron which will probably fizzle and carry on with the first pass. It's not high quality stuff! Once a bit of the weld metal alloys into the wrought iron it will weld OK. On the edges build it up at least10% more than you think it needs. This allows for grinding back. Be aware that most anvils are crowned, so they slope gently from the centre to the edge. I never bother trying to square them up perfectly, rather I blend them back in to the original. The same goes for the face. If it is really bad it is a case of pad welding and grinding, and again, usually much more welding and time than first anticipated. If you really want to drive yourself nuts spend some time on the horn. They seem to soak up an incredable amount of time in welding and grinding. I do the whole thing with the Mig. Its a hydrogen controlled good quality weld. I personally don't like the idea of a hard facing rod which work hardens. Seems to me it will be far more likely to chip out over time. Providing you work hot steel on the anvil the Mig repair will stand up well to wear and tear. If it does get damaged it's easily repaired. I've done one anvil using just general purpose electrodes to build up the material and that has also lasted well. I'm not convinced that welding them up has to be complicated. Good luck, however you choose to do it.