GE F&A's ongoing anvil project

[Golden_eagle]

hey everyone, golden eagle here, a while back I decided to ditch my Cast ASO and get a real anvil, but after many moons [a week] of searching I still failed to find an anvil in my price range [Roughly $40, I spent all my money on hammers steel propane leathers wood [mt.dew and tic-tacs]...] So now I've turned to my sizable [mediocre] steel reserves [heap] with intent on grinding, welding, beating and cutting a new [old] shiny [rusty] 200 lbs anvil outta them. this is the recording of this monumental [pitiful] feat [attempt] so that others may learn from my example [mistakes].

the plan:


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more updates as the week month year [unspecified length of time] goes on interspersed with random bits of truthful humor.

[Timothy Miller]

If you were anywhere near me I would give you an anvil in exchange for grunt work around my shop. You got a lot of moxy kid.:rolleyes:

[kpotter]

I have made an anvil from a solid block of a36 it weighs about 350lbs it looks beautiful just like an anvil I had it flame cut out then I machined it and hardfaced it. It cost more than a good used anvil I understand the attraction to this I am going to do it again but I am building a hornless anvil.

[pkrankow]

You may be better off making a small stake anvil to sink into a large log. You only *NEED* a space a little bigger than your hammer face for the face of the anvil.

Phil

[Golden_eagle]

You may be better off making a small stake anvil to sink into a large log. You only *NEED* a space a little bigger than your hammer face for the face of the anvil.

Phil

That would probably be easier, but I've never gone for easy.

[Timothy Miller]

For what you will spend on welding rod and grinding disks your half way to a used anvil.

[pkrankow]

I am curious about that resource pile and if the contents are large or small, and if they are more interesting materials than mild structural steel.

You may have an anvil like object already and not know it.

Phil

[Golden_eagle]

Its fairly sizable, about 150 pounds of useable steel, mostly agricultural steels ranging from 1040 to 1085, with some railroad steels, Axles, rusty hammers, a 70-100 year old 90-100 pound tractor weight made out of forge welded steel, you can still see the steam hammer marks, unused rusty horseshoes, Ect.
I also have access to a HUGE dumpster of mild steel scrap. which is what I'm gonna build the base out of. for the longest time I used the tractor weight as a anvil, and my varying sizes of steel rod as 'horns', but the tractor weight was to hard to fasten down, and the round rods liked jumping out of my hand-me-down leg vice and on to my toe.
so I caved, and started welding the rods to the tractor weight. I've almost got a cone now, after I finish the horn I'm gonna weld the Hardy hole on and a 1 inch thick piece of cold rolled sheet to the end for the toe, and fill the back with mild steel.

[and now to what I was going to post before Inventorying all the steel I have set aside for the anvil project,]

I started today by testing the 'body' of my 'anvil' for rebound, I dropped a 32 oz ballpein hammer 10 inches onto the face of the 'body' and it returned to 2.5 inches, giving it a score of %25, next I started looking for something to strip the 'rust' that had accumulated on the 'body' I checked in all the usual places you would find somethin that would eat rust, the storage room, the machine shop[i'm building my anvil at a local community collage.] the grinding room, so on and so forth, yet I couldn't find a single bottle of WD-40 or other rust dissolving spray any where, then it hit me the BREAK ROOM! low and behold, a shiny, fresh container of the highest grade rust stripper! unfortunately, it was already marked for a different use


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so, undaunted, I moved on to mechanical means of removal, taking my little 4.5 inch angle grinder I started to strip the 'rust' from the steel, after about two seconds of grinding, I noticed something strange about 'rust', It was flaking off like 2/8th of an inch thick chunks, leaving behind clean[ish] steel! It wasn't rust! it was PAINT! old paint, lead paint... I'm drinking a tall glass of milk now...


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rebound after de-painting - %55, next I cut the carry loop off and preheated the body to 400f, and, using the largest rod we have set really hot, began welding a bit of axle to the place the carry loop used to live, then Railroad lagbolts to the sides of that, then filled in all the gaps, and started to make it look like a real anvil horn! then my instructor walked up behind me, tapped me on the shoulder and said "Roper, class has been over for 20 minutes, I'm going for lunch, clean up and close the door behind you."....

At the end of the day:


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I apologize for the bad resolution, it was taken with a camera phone.

rebound at end of day, %55.

[pkrankow]

Milk does nothing for metal poisoning other than keep you hydrated. Please take the time and use your PPE so you can be with us a while longer.

Phil

[pkrankow]

Interesting start. One one those RR axles may have been a better choice than the mild steel block, but only if they were big enough.

I think you are going to have a fine piece of metal to beat upon, Just remember that looking like an anvil and being an anvil are not necessarily the same things.




Phil

[Golden_eagle]

Milk does nothing for metal poisoning other than keep you hydrated. Please take the time and use your PPE so you can be with us a while longer.

Phil

it makes me feel better about breathing lead dust, and it gives me an excuse to drink milk from a cup in the middle of the day. perhaps the fact I had the filters and air evac hood running should give me more comfort then drinking cow milk.
but yeah, I should probably get a under-mask respirator...

and the axle is 3 inches in diameter, and about 2.5 foot long.

[evfreek]

Your intermediate product does not look much like your initial sketch, so it is hard to tell where the welds are. Remember that the weakest part of the "cone" is the attachment point to the block, so make sure that you have full pen there, not just a weak blob. It looks like the rods are kind of backed up on a step, so that may be workable.

[pkrankow]

it makes me feel better about breathing lead dust, and it gives me an excuse to drink milk from a cup in the middle of the day. perhaps the fact I had the filters and air evac hood running should give me more comfort then drinking cow milk.
but yeah, I should probably get a under-mask respirator...

and the axle is 3 inches in diameter, and about 2.5 foot long.

Sounds like a decent anvil stood and secured on end. Axles are a medium carbon steel, about 45 points or so is a safe bet.

Even a good quality paper mask is better than nothing, but you gotta be shaved unless it is a positive pressure mask. Setting up dust removal can be very effective too, but remember that shop vacs tend to pass the most dangerous particle sizes.

Are you working in your school's lab or something?

Phil

[Golden_eagle]

yep, if I could do all my work there it'd really simplify things as we have a 150 lbs Fisher&Norris eagle. but alas, I only have classes m-w-f, and I'm looking at having an apprentice next year, which in and of its self is daunting as I only consider my self a journeyman smith.