Glenn Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 Background: There was a question in the chat room last night about building a light weight, but sturdy, well balanced anvil stand. With 8-10 blacksmiths present.....well....ideas were posted faster than you could take notes. Blacksmiths enjoy a good challenge. The Contest - Design an anvil stand: So, for the next 87 days (contest entries have to be in by December 31, 2007) the challenge is to design and build an anvil stand. * The anvil stand MUST be stable and not tip over under normal use. *Construction materials are of your choice, concrete, wood, steel, whatever, but should be accessible to others. *The design should incorporate a way to (easily) change the working height of the anvil so it can be used by different blacksmiths or strikers. * All entries should provide a list of materials, dimensions, and any additional information that is necessary or available so a person can build that stand. Shop drawings are fine. Photos are encouraged. *It is expected that the design will be anvil specific and adjustments will need to be made by the builder for different size and weight anvils the builder will use. One design does not have to fit all anvils. * This does not have to be a new design, if you have the perfect anvil stand already, show us how you built it. * If you use an idea from somewhere, please give credit as to who and where that idea came from. (If you don't recall, that ok too.) * Multiple entries are encouraged, but one design per entry. One design with variation on a theme is still one design. Three different designs should be three different entries. * Two or more blacksmiths working on one design is acceptable and encouraged as long credit is given to everyone. * All entries may be used on the I Forge Iron site and for any site purposes, including blueprints. For now, post your entries right here as a reply to this thread. Photos should be "attached" to the post or posted in the I Forge Iron Gallery and then the Gallery URL used in the forum. Get creative, use up some of that scrap you have in storage, and design the anvil stand that will become a classic. Depending on the entries, we may have to divide this into categories, such as portable stands and stationary stands. We could give extra points for simplest design, most creative design, ugliest, or whatever. We are open for suggestions. Post them here or contact me directly. The idea is to have some fun with this. I can even see a anvil stand incorporating multiple suggestions. Progress reports and open discussions are encouraged. Enter early and often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted October 11, 2006 Author Share Posted October 11, 2006 Both drawing and a physical stand would be best. That way we know the drawings work . If we get several offers for just design drawings, I may ask someone to build the stand if their interested, or may just make a drawings only catagory. Keep the questions coming so we can better define the rules. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Posted October 11, 2006 Share Posted October 11, 2006 Are schematics acceptable, or does it have to be a physical stand? I've got a good stand for my Budden, but I wouldn't mind taking a shot at designing an adjustable height stand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yesteryearforge Posted October 13, 2006 Share Posted October 13, 2006 Glenn I have a hard time building anything light weight / sturdy is no problem. I have several variations of anvil stands ( no stumps ) I havent built an adjustable stand yet though ( I think the range of adjustment would be to great ) Im 6' 6" so I require a rather tall stand to begin with. Can I use some photos from the gallery or do they need to be new photos ? Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted October 13, 2006 Author Share Posted October 13, 2006 Photograph the existing stands (or use photos already taken) and then add text and /or drawings to complete the package. The idea is to make a variety of stands, with construction details, available to everyone. This way the end user can choose what would work best for them in their situation. Let's split the anvil stands into the following catagories: * Light - intended for traveling, demos etc * Medium - intended for either traveling or use in one location * Heavy - intended to stay in one location and generally not to travel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rthibeau Posted October 13, 2006 Share Posted October 13, 2006 So what category does an All-In-One specialty fall in to? We need an "Open" or "Specialty" class for us.....umm.....less than conventional innovators. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rthibeau Posted October 14, 2006 Share Posted October 14, 2006 As an example of what I'm referring to: adjustable, portable, weight depends on the anvil sitting on it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyler Murch Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 Dude, looks like you got the fork lift fork bent...hellacious. You shop color is purple. roflmao :>) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easilyconfused Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 It looks like the wheels are removable apprenticeman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yesteryearforge Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 Glenn If this is a contest what are the prizes Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted October 30, 2006 Author Share Posted October 30, 2006 Richard What is the adjustment range of your anvil stand? yesteryearforge Not sure, let me think about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yesteryearforge Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 Glenn Just kidding Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rthibeau Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 4" adjustment range....I've had my big anvil on it for over a week now and have punched hammer eyes and done general forging.....it's stable and sturdy. Gotta get a lamp and hammer rack attached to the rear yet.;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted October 30, 2006 Author Share Posted October 30, 2006 Just finished my design of the adjustable anvil stand. 7" of infinate adjustment. Current limits of the anvil face is from 29" to 36" in height. You will have to join us Tuesday for the Blueprints to see the design. It will post here later for entry in the contest. What a reason to join in the Blueprent presentation on Tuesday October 31. Doors open at 8 pm eastern time USA and the show starts at 10pm eastern time.Click here to go to the Blueprints Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 Instead of adjusting the height of the anvil, how about the height of the blacksmith? With those bucket stilts, you could conceivably get different buckets for a wide range of adjustability. Just set your anvil at around 40" for the maximum effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blacksmith Jim Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 Excellent Idea Marc. You're really thinking out side the box .. err.. bucket even... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferrous Beuler Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 Glenn, I so want to get in on this... frustrating though as I don't have a scanner or digital camera. Was shopping at the X-Mart with the wife the other day and attempted to purchase a digital camera but the Colonel put the stops to it and told me she thinks Santa might bring me one. All I can do for now is be bad, very very bad so I wind up with as much coal in my stocking as possible:cool: I have a very workable design idea incorporating a bottle jack in the bottom of an angle iron frame. The top has a plate for the anvil and is integral to angle which parallels the four legs, inside each other. Slides up and down. Evenly spaced holes in the angle iron line up as adjustments are made. Pins are then inserted and the jack lowered so it does not recieve the stress of blows, it only serves to make adjustments. Hope someone can maybe use this for inspiration. It's a simple settup. Good luck and keep on hammerin'. DanDan, semd me the drawings and I will post them for you. Address is at the bottom of the IFI pages. Glenn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 Ferrous, I'd been thinking along similar lines meself, but using a scissor jack instead of an hydraulic bottle jack, with heavy duty pins to hold the box section (inside thicker box section) stand at increments of 1/2 to an inch. Hydraulics dont often fail but if they do then there's nowt stopping whats being held up from coming down, potentially a toe cutter or worse if your not quick enough with the pins. A scissor jack doesnt have that problem which is why I was thinking of using one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferrous Beuler Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 Ian, "Quick enough with the pins?" No worries mate, the pins is what's holding things up, not the jack. The jack only gets the weight up to where the holes line up and the pins put in then the jack is let off. I'm thinkin' PINS! - 1 inch or so, 25 mm. Some beef for the beast to set on. Two pins, one left, one right, each passing through two legs. No jack failure with things dropping in a hurry. I like the bottle jacks because they are beefy and pump up quickly compared to a scissor jack which is a cheap piece of xxxx. Why crank on one of those when a bottle is so much more dependable, quicker and has smaller space requirements? Also more capacity, better made and not likely to fail. With an automotive scissor jack the question is not IF it will fail, the question is WHEN it WILL fail. I thinksome things are better left in the junkyard because they are purpose built and marginal even in their intended design/purpose. Not to be jumpin all over yer stuff, but I've had headaches with those flamin' scissors- JUNK. Good luck on the World Tour. Will there be a leg in New York? Who's opening the show? Jackal? Keep on hammerin'. Dan:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irnsrgn Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 This is the Anvil Stand I have designed for my Grandson, it can grow up with him. It may be 3 legged or 4 legged when I actually build it, with legs at 20 degrees both ways. The legs are 2 inch square tubing with 1.5 square tube that slides inside. The are connected by 1/2 inch cold rolled pins with one end turned and threaded to 3/8 inch. 1/2 hole thru both tubes on one side and 3/8 hole on the other side so that the inside tube is pulled up tight so it doesn't wobble in use, holes are on 1 inch centers. Detail of fastener on the right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted November 1, 2006 Author Share Posted November 1, 2006 I offer the following entry BP0334 Adjustable Anvil Stand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted November 1, 2006 Author Share Posted November 1, 2006 I offer the following entry BP0335 Adjustable Anvil Stand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted November 1, 2006 Author Share Posted November 1, 2006 I offer the following entry BP0336 Adjustable Anvil Stand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 Dan, my worry about the bottle jack was when the jack is lifting or lowering the anvil BEFORE the pins are put in. Even I'd figured once the pins were in the jack would be let down! LOL Jump as much as you like mate, Tykes are built for the ruff stuff. As for the shodiness of scissor jacks... well I suppose everyone has somthing they're not keen on. I've used them a fair bit on various things without major hassle and thought about one precisely because they're so easy to get from a scrap yard. Hydraulic jacks, bottle or lever are much quicker and easier, no doubt, but unless your design lets you remove said jack from the stand entirely it seems a waste of a better tool than a scissor type. YMMV of course, look forward to seeing your design mate, thanks for the well wishes. America may be further down the line than I was hoping, we'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Salvati Posted November 13, 2006 Share Posted November 13, 2006 So who wins the contest? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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