reivertom Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Hello Folks, I recently bought an old PW 102# anvil and it came with a hardy. The hardy doesn't fit the hardy hole very well and is real loose. Can I wedge pieces of hardwood shims or something around the hardy to make it not rattle around or even pop out? I would want something removeable. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric sprado Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Is it loose enough to sleeve with a piece of thin walled stock? Weld it on then grind to fit.. Done it lots of times.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KYBOY Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Dont fool with wood. Use metal shims, weld and grind to clean up.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrankow Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 How loose? You can make a sleeve or bend a piece to take up space on 2 sides. The hardy tool may be for a different size than the hole is. I have a 3/4 inch shank cutoff that came with my anvil with a 1 inch hardy. The wear marks make it obvious that they were used together for quite some time. I made a properly fitted cutoff. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Einhorn Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 ..... I recently bought an old PW 102# anvil and it came with a hardy. The hardy doesn't fit the hardy hole very well and is real loose.... The answer depends on what tools you have available to you and what skills you have. If you have a welder, then adding metal either in a sleeve or weldment then grinding down is a possibility. If you don't have access to a welder, then one possibility depending on the hardie and the hole might be to forge the stem slightly so that it is a bit wider from front to back and a tiny bit narrower from side to side. If you live near a blacksmithing guild/club then you could bring it to a meeting and receive assistance at the meeting in making adjustments. Posting what state/country you live in would help folks here with providing advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peacock Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 If it's not too loose I heat the shank put it in a good vise and upset it till it's a little big then forge it down to fit. If you don't have a vise you can dull the edge a little get a helper to hold it on the anvil to upset and fit then resharpen. If it's hardened you may want to re heat treat, but I never heat treat mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry H Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 make a new one, after all,...you are a blacksmith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reivertom Posted February 22, 2011 Author Share Posted February 22, 2011 Thanks for the ideas. I'm a rooky at this stuff and I really appreciate the help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marksnagel Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Here is something that I had read somewhere else so I will neither take credit for it or take the blame. If your hardie tool is too small for the hole you may be able to take a piece of angle or square that will fit tight into your hardie hole and give you the necessary "fill" and cut it along the bends. Fold the flaps over to keep it in the hardie and your tool should fit tighter in the hardie hole. Measure everything first to see if it will work for you. This is not my idea and sorry for the cheezy drawings but I'm at work and have to get back to work. If it works great, if not, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Just a quick fix. hardie filler.bmp Mark<>< Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhblacksmith Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Here is something that I had read somewhere else so I will neither take credit for it or take the blame. If your hardie tool is too small for the hole you may be able to take a piece of angle or square that will fit tight into your hardie hole and give you the necessary "fill" and cut it along the bends. Fold the flaps over to keep it in the hardie and your tool should fit tighter in the hardie hole. Measure everything first to see if it will work for you. Mark<>< From personal experience, this method works quite well. I have two anvils in my shop of significantly different sizes. Most of my hardies fit the smaller one having got that about 5 years before the big anvil. Instead of making a whole second set of hardy tools, I took a piece of angle iron as described but instead of leaving tabs on the top, I ground a slight taper so it wedged in the hardy hole. Do some measuring so you get the right thickness angle iron. If necessary for a good fit you can grind it down slightly on one or both sides. Once the hardy plus the thickness of the angle equal the size of your hole, cut the sides of the angle to fit the hole. The piece only needs to be about 3-4" long. Leave the top 1" a tight fit and angle it below that like a wedge. Mine has been in constant use for 25 years and never moved. The problem with tabs on top is that they make a very uneven base and the tool can move around. If you ever get larger tooling, simply take a punch and drive the angle back out from below. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marksnagel Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Found it! Thomas Powers gave me the idea. I knew my brain couldn't think of it on it's own. I found it on the 3rd page of tools, general discussion titled "Tools won't fit into hardy" I read it a long time ago. See Thomas, I read and learn! From: ThomasPowers Senior Moment Member; Master Curmudgeon To build on Glenn's suggestion: for large mismatches I like to use square tubing that just fits in the hardy hole and then saw down the corners and (hot of course) fold down the tabs created till they are at a right angle. You can then drop this in the hardy hole as an "adapter" and hardy tools will still sit flat as all sides have the tab between them and the face. I have 3 anvils with 1.5" hardy holes and so I even have a set of nesting tubes done this way so I can have a couple of them installed to take the 1.5" down to 1" My main shop anvil has two hardy holes and so one of them has the nesting set of adapters "stored" in it and I can use the specialized tooling for the big anvil or more standard sized hardy tooling. What I have been doing to make hardy tooling for the big hardys is picking up old mushroomed top tools and grinding the mushroom off and forging the eye end down to fit my big hardy holes---the screw press is great for this as I get nice smooth parallel sides. And damaged top tools are generally a whole lot easier to find than 1.5" shaft bottom tooling! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 That idea is simple and elegant enough that I figured that Tubal Cain came up with it; I just share it with folks. Just camped out for a week with 2 forges and my medieval anvil---no horn and no hardy. Dealt with the horn by making a stake anvil with a RR spike driver sledge head for the working end. Didn't miss the hardy except for when I wanted to use a swing arm fuller---I was asked to make a clapper for a hand bell as the cast iron one had broken and I wanted to take it down from pipe for which that fuller would be a help---I ended up yanking the medieval anvil out of the stump and dropping the stem of the fuller in the hole the anvil's spike had left. You can get some of the oddest requests taking a forge on a campout.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.