Fixing Anvil Edge

[petef]

I have looked through a number of the posts in this forum and see a lot of information on resurfacing anvils, but I have a few questions I would like to throw out there. I have two anvils, 160# Peter Wright and 160# Hay Budden(?). They both are in fairly good shape but they both have a number of chips and gouges in the edges of the face. I would like to fill these in and then smooth them out and give them proper radius.

I have a Miller 140 MIG welder and a 4.5" angle grinder. I see plenty of references to using stick welders and specific rod types for filling and resurfacing. My questions are:

1. Can I use my MIG welder to good effect to fill in the edges on my anvils?
2. If so, are there specific wire types I should get for my welder?
3. Should I be concerned about pre-heating the anvil?

[eric sprado]

Larry Langdon of Monster Metals told me of a mig rod that he uses successfully to build up anvils. You can contact him through IFI or NWBA sites.

[CurlyGeorge]

I used 7018 welding rod to build up the edges of an old Vulcan, that I used to have. It worked OK, but after some time, I noticed that the "Fix" had started to get some hairline cracks along the edge of the weld and the anvil face. I think my mistake was that I didn't preheat the edges that I was repairing. It still worked OK. But I'd preheat it some, first. Also, you might do as mentioned above, by Eric. Talk with Larry, as that may be a better solution. :)

[Old N Rusty]

I would recomend E-7018 stick rod and peen (hammer ) each pass, pre-heat only a little don't get the face too hot.

[MLMartin]

Your MIG 140 is a 110 volt right? If so I would be vary worried about there not being enough power to get a good weld. Also I think you will find the hard facing wire that best matches the steel anvil face vary pricy. Don't just walk into a welding shop and ask for a hard-facing wire, If you do they will most likely give you a stainless steel wear resistant rod as it is a pretty common type for equipment. If you use a SS wire it will likely break off after a few years and take some of the face with it. I have seen meany people mess up there anvils this way

[pkrankow]

Mild wire is 60ksi both gasless and solid, I have been reading about 100ksi low alloy products for this purpose, but have not reached any conclusions to put my welding and money on my anvil. I need a welder too.

Phil

[HWooldridge]

Plain steel MIG wire (solid, gas shielded - not flux core) works on small spots and chips IF you preheat the anvil. You'll get some dissolution during the welding and the spot will harden from carbon precipitation but by "small", I mean dime-sized and under. Unfortunately, big repairs always seem to wind up as patch jobs, they are OK for a while but most seem to fail at some point - especially on edges.

The nice thing about MIG wire (and E-60XX or E-70XX stick) is that the deposit will be similar to the face as it ages and the repair will not be evident. If you weld with high manganese or other buildup rods, the weld will always show unless you keep the face polished like a mirror. However, if you don't preheat the anvil, the welds will most likely start cracking and eventually turn loose, regardless what type filler metal is used.

Preheating is more important than whether you use 7018 or not - because no repair will stick properly when the weld line chills too quickly. All of the traditional anvils having wrought iron or cast bodies (like Fishers), used plain carbon steels for the top plate that were similar to C1070-1080 in composition. The primary problem with arc welding high carbon steel is the chill line forms brittle white martensite, which is why the preheat is necessary.

[petef]

Thank you all for your input. It sounds like pre-heating is going to be important. The chips I have are all small - less than a dime in size - but they run all along the edges. I think what I will do is some grinding first to get some clean surface to weld to. Then I will need to pre-heat - sounds like a torch will be the best approach there. I seem to recall from other posts that I will be wanting a temperature of about 450 degrees F - sounds like a lot of gas will be used for the mass involved.

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

450 degrees F - sounds like a lot of gas will be used for the mass involved.

No more than 400º. A lot of gas...........or a few pieces of wood.

[BM454]

I would do small sections at a time. Get a temp stick also. Should keep it from losing it's hardness. You can also use 9018 or 11018 welding rods. They require preheat no matter what you weld on. Where it be harden steel or mild steel. I have found on harden steels, it helps to post heat somewhat.

Just a thought

Scott

[Dan P.]

My advice on repairing an anvil- don't bother.
The only lasting welded repair on edges I've seen is where the whole surface was hard-faced.
For filling in gouges, MIG is fine. For anything larger, bear in mind that the useable surface of an anvil needn't really be any bigger than the face of your hammer.

[Pault17]

I know that the anvil we use at the state fair was re surfaced using a 110-120ksi (?) mig wire. the anvil was preheated, welded, machined, and belt-sanded
no cracking and no loss of rebound. that was two or three years ago.
I also borrow that it was not a 120v machine

[evfreek]

We have a nice heavy Vulcan in the shop. An old geezer dropped by and said he remembered that anvil from something like 70 years ago. I don't know when the face was welded on, but someone really went to town on it, especially on the edges. Lots of undercut, poor color match, rough results, and decreased rebound. I've been hammering on it, along with a couple of students and enthusiastic interns for the past 6 years, and it is fine. It has seen some heavy work, with double striking using sledges. A little rough, and it marks up the work, but it is still intact, with no cracks/spalling.

[Patrick Nowak]

Contact Hobart for their procedure on reparing anvils. I just finished hard facing a fabricated anvil using their Hardalloy 58 and it seems to be decent. I know that the folks at Southern Ohio Forge and Anvil (SOFA) have used this procedure successfully on quite few anvils as well. I'm sure there is a wire similar to the Hardalloy 58 rod product I used. It is a 0.60 carbon, 1.2 Mn and 5.5 Chrome rod. It is NOT stainless nor is it extremely wear resistant. Rather it has a good combination of both wear and toughness. As-welded it should be between 45-60 HRc depending on the number of layers used and the pre-heat temp used. I used significant preheat becuase I wanted to make absolutely sure the weld depostists did not crack. I may have over-heated somewhat, but the only drawback to that is that the face may be a bit softer than it would otherwise have been, but I don't anticipate any problems. Be carefule when selectiong a hard facing rod becuase some of them are designed to crack. These would be the very wear resistant alloys whick may not have the best impact resistance anyway.

[ThomasPowers]

First: do not harm! works for anvils too...

As for preheating last anvil repair clinic the local ABANA affiliate had we used a propane weed burner and a barrel lined with kaowool IIRC. The weldor teaches welding at the local vo-tech and so had a nifty optical pyrometer; but tempil sticks---available at a welding supply store will work.

We use the Gunter method of anvil repair as that has been proven in over a longer span of time than some of the other suggestions.

We only repaired 2 anvils at that clinic---one had been milled perfectly flat and smooth and too thin to use, took about 5 hours of concentrated work to restore it to usability. The other was my 400+ pound Trenton that had a beautiful face---in between air arc gouges where it had been abused by weldors at a copper mine. I went for usability over "pretty" as our friend had spent so much time on the other anvil.

[Sask Mark]

I repaired my large Peter Wright with Messer MG740 rod (very impact resistant - not very hard facing). We did localized preheating with a rosebud tip and I covered up the welds immediately with a batt of fiberglass insulation to prevent it from cooling too rapidly.

Mr. Strasil provided me with this method (it is a blueprint here in IFI) and it has held up well for many of his repairs. It is also holding up well for my repairs.