what to do with this anvil.

[drako]

I went out and got two anvils yesterday one was a nc and the other is a fisher. well on the fisher the face is cracked off and i want to repair it i am going to pry the rest of the face off and resurface it what kind of welding rod do i need and what would be the proper size welder to use for this application. i think the anvil is around the 200# mark. also do you think i payed to much at 75 bucks for it.

[RLD]

at that price it could be a good club project. Maybe get a bunch together and forge weld a new face plate on. Just a thought

[clinton]

Attach a chain and use it for a boat anchor

[njanvilman]

The Fisher anvils are cast iron with the face welded on during the casting process. You will not be able to forge weld a new plate on. Do not pry off the rest. The only repair hope is to grind the steel back a bit at the break line, grind the iron top to clean, then preheat the anvil. After that, clean again, and lay down a thick nickel layer with nickel welding rods for cast iron. Then weld several layers of strong steel(I do not recommend any, speak to a welding supply store). Then careful grinding to restore the face. Hardness is not guaranteed.

I would never attempt it. A broken top plate is the biggest problem with Fishers. It did not happen often, but it does happen. Fisher offered a one year guarantee on their anvils. It it broke, you had to ship it back to Trenton and they would replace it if it was defective. Obviously, your anvil is long out of warrantee period. And there is a highway going right through the location of the Fisher plant.

I have several like yours in my museum. They live in the Fisher graveyard, showing what happens when they die. RIP.

[ironstein]

I recognize that anvil! Thats the one on ebay that the guy was asking a ton of money for. He dropped from like $600 to $75? If you can weld, give it a shot. That little nc looks nice.

[Rich Hale]

Lots of good ideas above. Think about this. A shop that does anvils on a regular basis and has a history of making them come to life would most likely turn down the task of repairing that anvil. Mostly due to the reasons listed above. That said: If you are really good and experienced with a stick welder you may want to tackle this. Think about the time involved and wot you might accomplish in the same amount of time working on other things. If you are new to forgeing the time could be spent at the forge learning hammer control and body mechanics. And as a by-product of that you may make some small items that you could look back on later with pride.
I have welded on well over a dozen anvils and they all came out nice and are useable today. I believe a reasonable estimate on how much time you will spend on that anvil would be at least a full week of full days. And that would only be if you are a real good welder, have the tools and a place to work and can use a grinder well or have access to a mill for final finish.

The other side of this is that you do not have much money in it and if you try the repair and it does not work out you will have lost time and price of materials but maybe you will learn much.
If it was mine I would try and find it a new home, perhaps with a decorator or at least another use in life rather than as an anvil.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

That Fisher is fixable in my opinion. Of course I have have the tools to do it, welders, mill, etc. There are several ways that it could be done, and be fully usable again.

Where are you located?

What tools do you have access too?

What skills do you have?

Personally I do not care for nickel rods like E99, and prefer others over it. The ones I have used in the past are in the $50 a pound range, and lay down like 7018. Some cast iron is very weldable, while some grades are not. You have to know what you are dealing with first. I would look more at a possible mechanical method of attachment myself.

[drako]

That Fisher is fixable in my opinion. Of course I have have the tools to do it, welders, mill, etc. There are several ways that it could be done, and be fully usable again.

Where are you located?

What tools do you have access too?

What skills do you have?

Personally I do not care for nickel rods like E99, and prefer others over it. The ones I have used in the past are in the $50 a pound range, and lay down like 7018. Some cast iron is very weldable, while some grades are not. You have to know what you are dealing with first. I would look more at a possible mechanical method of attachment myself.

I am located in northern Kentucky

i have access to 9 inch 4inch grinders and polishers mig and stick welders i can also weld very well i have every thing i need to do it except for the mill but i can use a grinder for that.

the thing is that i need to know what welding wire or sticks to use and need to know how you guys would recommend to do it.

I am very capable of fixing it if i knew what the process was to prep and so on what do i need to watch for and what is the best method of laying the welds to get them to stick do i need to preheat should i get rid of what is left of the face should i keep it and weld of that or gust weld a hole new face on it.

[drako]

Lots of good ideas above. Think about this. A shop that does anvils on a regular basis and has a history of making them come to life would most likely turn down the task of repairing that anvil. Mostly due to the reasons listed above. That said: If you are really good and experienced with a stick welder you may want to tackle this. Think about the time involved and wot you might accomplish in the same amount of time working on other things. If you are new to forgeing the time could be spent at the forge learning hammer control and body mechanics. And as a by-product of that you may make some small items that you could look back on later with pride.
I have welded on well over a dozen anvils and they all came out nice and are useable today. I believe a reasonable estimate on how much time you will spend on that anvil would be at least a full week of full days. And that would only be if you are a real good welder, have the tools and a place to work and can use a grinder well or have access to a mill for final finish.

The other side of this is that you do not have much money in it and if you try the repair and it does not work out you will have lost time and price of materials but maybe you will learn much.
If it was mine I would try and find it a new home, perhaps with a decorator or at least another use in life rather than as an anvil.

as for time i have plenty of that and i like to do things that most people would not attempt not that i am saying that this is going to be hard just time consuming but in the end i will have a nice anvil for a low cost.

[pkrankow]

as for time i have plenty of that and i like to do things that most people would not attempt not that i am saying that this is going to be hard just time consuming but in the end i will have a nice anvil for a low cost.

The price of the nickle rod and then the hard facing, or the plate to weld on will cost similar to a good used anvil. Check out the prices first, and I want to know what that rod BGD uses is too.

I would grind out the crack and cut the plate to match the grind regardless. This will stop the crack from propagating. Otherwise you have the "World's Largest" cutting shelf.

Phil

[ianinsa]

I recon your most cost effective solution is to cut back to square the face and then mount a section of thick plate say 2inch thick depending on what you can get easily and cheaply. Go visit your local profile cutting shop and see what they have you might even get hardface plate, they often have off-suts of thick plate that they may let you have at scrap value then attatch this mechanically ie drill & tap(min 16mm fine) the anvil and bolt through with countersunk bolts using an impact driver to securely tighten the bolts. then leadfill the gaps by warming the plate and the anvil and using 'spirits of salts' as a flux. Please mind the fumes they are toxic. Good luck on this. P.S. that other anvil was a steal.

[clinton]

Ok if you want to repair the anvil this will get you on the right track, although at $7.00/ lb for hardfacing rod I would think that it would be cost inhibiting ( I laid down almost 10 pounds on this anvil)
http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/16052-what-do-you-think-of-this-anvil-repair-approach/page__p__162456__fromsearch__1#entry162456
You may want to reconsider the first option that I gave you

[draco 1]

I recon your most cost effective solution is to cut back to square the face and then mount a section of thick plate say 2inch thick depending on what you can get easily and cheaply. Go visit your local profile cutting shop and see what they have you might even get hardface plate, they often have off-suts of thick plate that they may let you have at scrap value then attatch this mechanically ie drill & tap(min 16mm fine) the anvil and bolt through with countersunk bolts using an impact driver to securely tighten the bolts. then leadfill the gaps by warming the plate and the anvil and using 'spirits of salts' as a flux. Please mind the fumes they are toxic. Good luck on this. P.S. that other anvil was a steal.

well seams like i can not use my other account for some reason to reply. but anyway i can get a hold of hardened tool steel in any size and thickness do you think that would work.

[draco 1]

here is another anvil that i picked up last night for 60 bucks its in the 200 + pound range any one know who it is made buy it has 1883 stamped on the side of it.

[jmeineke]

For that Fisher, you may want to try something like I did here. My results were really good, but YMMV. If you go the route I did, you may not need to do any buildup - it looks like the plate thin enough that 2 or 3 (max) passes of HF rod would do it, but I can't be sure.

[pkrankow]

here is another anvil that i picked up last night for 60 bucks its in the 200 + pound range any one know who it is made buy it has 1883 stamped on the side of it.

DANG GUM! It's positively RAINING anvils around you!

Use the fisher as a glorified cutting plate or carve swage shapes into the cast iron now that you have extras.

Phil

[don't tread on me]

Cut the plate back until you have a straight edge then bolt a plate of the same thickness on top of the cast iron ,welding it to the old plate, then lay a plate on top of both of those and weld them together.

[Mainely,Bob]

For that Fisher, you may want to try something like I did here. My results were really good, but YMMV. If you go the route I did, you may not need to do any buildup - it looks like the plate thin enough that 2 or 3 (max) passes of HF rod would do it, but I can't be sure.

Aren`t Fishers cast iron bodied anvils?If they are then the biggest difference is that your anvil looks to be a wrought Iron body judging from the mushrooming of the edges.
Two completely different animals if one is cast and one wrought.Completely different procedures needed for welding and I could be wrong but I don`t think cast will support a relatively thin face of just welded on HF rod without fracturing at the edges.

Instead of looking at the Fisher as a start for a reconditioning project why not look at it as a base for top tools or as an anvil shaped stake holder?If it were me I would cut the missing face back along the fracture line and then drill and tap the body to accept a thick plate that would hold tooling.If later on down the road you hit the lottery,retire with tons of both time and money and are looking for a headache/challenge then you can unbolt the plate and try a repair.
BTW-one of the older accepted methods for repairing some cast iron was to drill and tap and insert studs and then weld so the studs will help hold the repair in place if it fails at the weld line.

[jmeineke]

Aren`t Fishers cast iron bodied anvils?If they are then the biggest difference is that your anvil looks to be a wrought Iron body judging from the mushrooming of the edges.
Two completely different animals if one is cast and one wrought.Completely different procedures needed for welding and I could be wrong but I don`t think cast will support a relatively thin face of just welded on HF rod without fracturing at the edges.

Yeah, you're right - the one I did was solid wrought. I didn't realize Fisher's were (might be?) cast.

[ianinsa]

Hi, I had proposed the bolt on plate solution based on the presumption of it being a cast anvil, also using lead rather than the weld solves the problem of the plate cracking loose from the anvil due to hammer blows, and it softens the 'feel' whilst giving good 'bounce'. P.S. have you thought of becoming an 'Anvil Trader' most of the guys I know struggle to find used anvils? Anyhow anything over 30mm should work (sorry for the metric)If you have acsess to a large drill press then go for something a big thicker.

[BM454]

Most people don't know but, you can weld cast with 7018. That being said and the fact you didn't give much for it, I would build it up with 7018 and put 3 or 4 passes of hard surface rod on it. Would not cost that much. As long as you clean it well before you start there should not be any problems.

[ThomasPowers]

1st anvil; pass it on to an armour maker or re-work it to hold various shaped swages using bolts.

(Yes you can use an awful lot of work, electricity, and cost for consumables (rods, grinding media, etc); but you will still probably end up with a sub par anvil at a price considerably higher than you can find a good working anvil at.)


Dated anvils: only manufacturers that dated their anvils that come to mind were William Foster and Fisher: Check the base to see if it's WI or cast iron. Is it stamped in or is the date proud of the background?

[Bentiron1946]

Looks like you now have two usable anvils so sell or give that poor old Fisher to someone else that is have no luck finding an anvil. I agree with Thomas on this, it ain't worth the time and consumables to make it whole again, you have better things to spend your money on and better things to do with time. Life is short enough without spending it on projects that lead nowhere. Now "wkn4alvn" had a good sound wrought iron base to weld to so it made some sense to fix that one but no matter how nice a whole Fisher is a broke one is not near as nice being that it is cast iron.
Find another project to spend your time on, like go build a nice forge or if you have that a nice fire hood or vise stand if you just got to weld something together. :P