iammarkjones Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 Hello everyone. I am trying to get back into forging again, I needed an anvil so i thought I'll just buy one and move on. HOLY COW! they are proud of new anvils now. I work in a fab shop and thought how hard can this really be. I did my design on auto cad and created a CNC program for the burning machine. Absconded a piece of 5" a514-T1Q plate and let the supervisor know he had a new job for the day. Here we are burning the blank Then drilling the pilot to burn the hardy hole Finished 5 hours of labor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshua.M Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 what are the specs? looks nice and handy i have never heard of that type of steel, is it high carbon? are you planning on hardening and HT/tempering it? josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iammarkjones Posted January 7, 2012 Author Share Posted January 7, 2012 Yeah it will harden out to about 52 rockwell ©. So far I have only done the fab work I have to pick up a load of coal before I can harden it. Its 30 inches long and about 13.875 high. I still need to finish the polish on the horn and break the edges on the top. I also need to round up a couple of helper to get it out of the forge and into the oil bath. I have picked up 100 gallons of used oil for a quench bath. That's puppy's gonna smoke like nobodies business when I quench it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pault17 Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Mark, where do you live? It never ceases to amaze me the luck others have getting hands on that kind of stuff. enviable to say the least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshua.M Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 if i was anywhere near you i would help just to say "i once got to quench an anvil" so how heavy is it??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iammarkjones Posted January 8, 2012 Author Share Posted January 8, 2012 I live in central Alabama south of Birmingham. You know sadly I passed a scale on the way to the truck when I made it and never slowed down. The theoritical weight comes to 350 pounds, that should be really close. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshua.M Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 wow that is so cool, on my bucket list, im in the great white north (usa's hat) so i couldnt help ya lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old South Creations Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 sweet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodge Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 What are you doing for feet? I cnc cut lugs from 1.5" plate and welded on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkunkler Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Yeah it will harden out to about 52 rockwell ©. So far I have only done the fab work I have to pick up a load of coal before I can harden it. Its 30 inches long and about 13.875 high. I still need to finish the polish on the horn and break the edges on the top. I also need to round up a couple of helper to get it out of the forge and into the oil bath. I have picked up 100 gallons of used oil for a quench bath. That's puppy's gonna smoke like nobodies business when I quench it. Wouldn't a water quench be more appropriate for something this size? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wpearson Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 A514 A quenched and tempered high strength steel used in structural applications where high strength and low weight are critical. We stock this material in Grades B, H, F & Q. Mechanical Properties: Tensile: up to 2.5” 110 to 130 ksi over 2.5” to 6” 100 to 130 Yield: up to 2.5” 100 ksi min over 2.5” to 6” 90 ksi min Elongation: up to 2.5” 18% in 2” over 2.5” to 6” 16% in 2” Brinell: 235—293 is typical, but it is not usually indicated on the MTR’sGrade: Grade B: Up to and including 1-1/4” Grade: H: Over 1.25” to 2” inclusive Grade F: Over 2” to 2.5” inclusive Grade Q: Over 2.5” to 6”. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iammarkjones Posted January 8, 2012 Author Share Posted January 8, 2012 Wouldn't a water quench be more appropriate for something this size? I must admit to not having done due diligence yet regarding hardening large hunks of steel. The oil was free and I needed the drums. But if water will produce a better result, I have no objections. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaughnT Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 That is truly amazing. I would love to have access to tooling like that to make my own large anvil!! Will there be issues with a steam jacket forming between the hot metal and the water/oil? Or do you have a tank with serious flow capabilities? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigred1o1 Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 i have to say i had been thinking that a way around the steam jacket and need for moving water would be to move your anvil you could hook a cable or chain to the anvil and swing it back and forth in a large pool/pond or if you are lucky off a dock this would require a boom of some sort but in general seems not to complicated as well there should be a good chunk of entertainment value in the anvil swing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshua.M Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 what if you atached one end to a chain and the other end to a tree, and chucked it in a stone bottomed creek? Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Nowak Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Nice job on the anvil. I'm impressed with it only taking you 5 hours to get as far as you did. I'd need to see the chemisty to advise on water or oil but based on the tensile/yield strength values reported above I'm thinking water is the way to go. You will definitly need mor than 100 gallons of quench fluid and you will need a way to agitate the fluid. My suggestion would be to find a large volum of water such as a creek, pond or swimming pool. Rent a coulple of 2" diameter high volume pumps and use them to blast the face of the anvil with water. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaughnT Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Ooooh, how about building a bonfire around the anvil on a nice beach. Then run a length of chain out into the water to a waiting boat that will take off when critical temp has been reached? You might need a buoy midway on the line to keep the anvil from going to the bottom, but you'd sure have plenty of quench and no worries about a steam jacket! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iammarkjones Posted January 9, 2012 Author Share Posted January 9, 2012 You know, nothing says I have to do the heat treating at home. I can easily go to the Cahaba river use a pulley on a limb with some 1/2" cable and dunk it after it reaches temp, and yes I will video if I go that way. This is gonna take one heck of a fire to get up to temp, followed by some well placed cursing and a monster steam cloud. I am liking the way this sounds more and more...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigred1o1 Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 just imagine the fish you might catch with a lure that size Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iammarkjones Posted January 9, 2012 Author Share Posted January 9, 2012 just imagine the fish you might catch with a lure that size Yeah and how many folks have caught fish already fried? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Just dunking it in a lot of water will not be effective. You need a forceful stream to pound through the steam jacket. Traditionally they used a flume or water tower; however when McRaven did his anvil he used a high pressure hose from a local volunteer fire department. When you get done please do a cost work up of what your company would have charged to make that for a customer---very likely new anvils wouldn't seem so expensive anymore. Getting metal for scrap and using your own uncharged time really makes a difference in the cost! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iammarkjones Posted January 9, 2012 Author Share Posted January 9, 2012 Thomas you are absolutely right, trust me if I had paid for what I did as an outside customer $2800.00 for a new anvil would be cheap. I milled the top down about 0.200 to remove the heat affected zone from the oxy-fuel cut. Also the material cost would have been a little over a dollar a pound (our cost) about 1.75 per pound cut (your price). then include an hour or two of machine time on the mill yeah its ugly. One of my perks for working here is the occasional government job. I live three houses down from a volunteer fire department and that is an option for quenching, I just like to do things myself when ever possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Hey; getting the local VFD interested in your smithing can save a LOT of hassle in the future. I'd talk to them and see if they would do a brown pop trade to do the job just to have their buy in when you go to making a big fire to heat it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric sprado Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 David Thompson and I quenched an anvil in the Willamette river a number of years back. We had a piece of chain wrapped around like a harness and rehearsed putting our piece of pipe through it and wading a few feet to a nice ,about three feet deep, hole. River was running pretty hard so it was a good quench. We put the anvil in a piece of culvert and stuck two propane weed burning torches in ends. We finally figured out one torch in one end would have been quicker! As it was it took a lot of beer before we,I mean the anvil, reached the right temperature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason @ MacTalis Ironworks Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Another option is to contact the local fire dept. often they will "test" hydrants if you ask them really nicely and they have nothing else to do... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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