hardchines Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 I am pleased to announce the arrival of our first 205 lb bouncing baby anvil. I have read in some anvil post about a fisher anvil with a cast in top plate (hard), can anyone tell me if this anvil is a Fisher, and is the fact that it has some delaminating on top surface mean I can not resurface this anvil? I have found no markings on this anvil yet, it appears to have a thin top plate on the flat surface that has separated at the front and chipped off a corner near the round hole. I see what appears to be a casting line half way up the side of the anvil, would this indicate cast iron or cast steel or is it just a normal casting seam? If anyone knows what brand and or year (decade) this anvil would be I would love to have this info. I paid 100 bucks for it with plans of welding up a new surface and machining it down to a new flat surface, did I pay too much for a bad anvil? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 It's not a Fisher. Fisher plates are MUCH thicker. That projecting top is a "false plate" cast in with the real plate that thin layer you mentioned. (the waist seam is a casting artifact as well.) Fishers are generally well marked too. It's going to be more difficult to repair as you will have to use cast iron repair material over the cast iron and be very careful with the preheats and postheats before you can go with the regular repair rod over the entire surface. At 50 cents a pound it's not a terrible price even as it stands but there is a lot of expensive repair work that can be done to it. Don't know if I will get a chance to look through AinA for it this week---working on getting the shop ready for the local ABANA Affiliate demo Saturday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hardchines Posted March 30, 2010 Author Share Posted March 30, 2010 Thx, so if I understand you are saying this is a cast iron, not cast steel anvil with a sliver of steel on the top surface that was set in the form prior to pouring in the cast iron when manufactured. How did they get the thin steel plate to bond to the cast iron, I would think that plate would dent the iron under it with use and come loose early in life. Do you think I could leave the false plate intact and weld a layer of steel on top of it then mill a new surface where the false plate is still in good contact with the cast iron. Sorry for all the questions, but the seller of this anvil would like to sell me another anvil, about 150 lbs. in better shape then this one but still not great, wants 100 bucks for that anvil also. If I can fix thjis anvil I will pass on the other, if not I need to act soon or it will be gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buell508 Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 It is cast iron,cast steel would be one solid piece with the face hardened. The steel faceplate would be heated to welding temp,then the iron would be poured the anvil upside down making a good weld at the faceplate.As for repairs i would look for an anvil in better shape. Good luck with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hardchines Posted March 30, 2010 Author Share Posted March 30, 2010 Thx, up for adoption to good iron worker, one day old 205 lb. baby anvil with "birth defects". :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 Can you get any info on what type of anvil that other one is? If it's an easier repaired anvil you might be better off with it and probably can sell the other one on if you need the money out of it. In general when they got around to making cast steel top sections of an anvil they just did the whole thing out of a hardenable material and didn't bother with forge welding on a face. The weld joint in that type will be at the waist unless you have one that they cast the entire anvil as a single unit. As far as repairability goes the cast steel are the easiest, followed by the steel face/wrought iron, followed by the steel face cast iron followed a long way down the road by the all cast iron. My Opinion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 Well it may look like an anvil shaped object dropped out of the north end of a south bound elephant but it looks like it may still have some useful face left on it. Is all of that face delaminated? If it isn't all delaminated I would just use this anvil till it was really just a pile of rubble and all the while saving my money for that near perfect Peter Wright or Trenton that is just waiting for you. If you have another $100 to drop on another so so anvil why not save up another $100 an go looking for something better. Until then you can do a boat load of work on this old, decrepit ASO. :blink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hardchines Posted March 31, 2010 Author Share Posted March 31, 2010 The only piece of the plate that is delaminated is the 4" wide leading edge just short of the horn, I hate to use this anvil as is and I hate ugly things, I feel compelled to fix this monster one way or other, I fully understand the logic of just getting a better anvil (and I may do just that), but I like to fix things no matter what (I like the challenge). As I see it I have limited options, build up the good area of the top with a layer of steel and mill a nice surface, (I have the access to the tools needed). Or maybe machine off one inch of material (removing false top and broken edge), then trying to attach a piece of hardened one inch thick plate to top of iron, not sure if I can maintain intimate contact after welding , but it would fix all the problems with this clunker if I could make it work. Anyone think this would work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Evers Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 The only piece of the plate that is delaminated is the 4" wide leading edge just short of the horn, I hate to use this anvil as is and I hate ugly things, I feel compelled to fix this monster one way or other, I fully understand the logic of just getting a better anvil (and I may do just that), but I like to fix things no matter what (I like the challenge). As I see it I have limited options, build up the good area of the top with a layer of steel and mill a nice surface, (I have the access to the tools needed). Or maybe machine off one inch of material (removing false top and broken edge), then trying to attach a piece of hardened one inch thick plate to top of iron, not sure if I can maintain intimate contact after welding , but it would fix all the problems with this clunker if I could make it work. Anyone think this would work? Here's a link to a thread showing new face welded over an old one. Beyond my welding skills, but may give you some ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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