caotropheus Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Gentleman Yesterday I was at leafspring paradise! How much paradise? a lot of it! Leafspring of all sizes, shapes and ages, even long bits of brand new never used leafspring for scrap! Even straight in shape leafsprings I could find, not even arched! The most interesting is that the guy sells his scrap cheap! How cheap? For 100 kg of it about 5 to 10 USD! Since I live in Israel and since a good quality anvil is very expensive, something like 15 USD a kg for a used one, and since I could not find yet tines from a fork lift for a reasonable price, I thought on making an anvil from leafspring. The guy has in his scrap pile 30 mm thick leafspring, about 120 mm wide and as long as I wish up until 1 metre. I thought about making an anvil out of the big gauge leafsprings by welding them together. The idea is to insert some square stock between each leafspring to allow me to make full depth welding. I can even make a vertical anvil up until the floor with a set of round and a square horns in a "T" like shape. What do you guys think about the idea, how realistic is it and what are your suggestions for type of electrodes, heat treatment, this sort of stuff? Thanks for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bajajoaquin Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 It sounds like a lot of work, but if you have the time and the welding skill... I would guess that the best (only?) way it would work would be to orient the springs vertically and weld them that way. You might then use a single spring for the face. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfootnampa Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 At 30mm (about 1 1/8"+) and a meter long mounted on a nice stump you'd have a fairly useful anvil without doing any welding. Turn another one on edge for heavier work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bajajoaquin Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 At 30mm (about 1 1/8"+) and a meter long mounted on a nice stump you'd have a fairly useful anvil without doing any welding. Turn another one on edge for heavier work. Good point. I hadn't bothered to do the conversion, so i was just thinking about regular old truck springs. But those dimensions are pretty large. If you took three of them each a meter long, arranged them vertically, and welded them together, you'd have a 136 kilo anvil. That's pretty hefty. Cut in half, you'd have one that's 68kg, and 500mm X 90 mm X 120 mm (that's 150 lb, 20" X 3.5" X 4.75" for the Americans). Obviously, there will be more to it than just sticking it together, but the masses are viable sizes and weights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Welding medium through high carbon steels is a lot more difficult than welding mild steel. That's a LOT of welding on pre-heated material. Can you find regular mild steel to make up the body and then just use a piece of the leaf welded on for the face? Frankly can you just find a nice hefty piece of bulldozer, tank or artillery scrap to use as an anvil? I've used the broken coupler from a train car as a good anvil as it had a flat surface and a curved surface and was around 40 kilos in weight. My current Cone Mandrel is the tip of a ballistic missile. A good heavy chunk of scrap can have you doing productive work fast rather than spending time and money just to get started. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caotropheus Posted May 6, 2011 Author Share Posted May 6, 2011 Gentleman, I dropped the idea, thank you very much for your replies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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