FieryFurnace Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 I've got some potential hammer makers and other students here and there, and I'd just about rather blow my foot off than let most of them strike on my anvil. (No offence to you potential students.) After spending over a month with Brian Brazeal, you realize the quality of the investment in a striking anvil. Mods: I know this is more of a "fab" job, but it is an "anvil" of sorts which is why I'm posting here. If I'm out-a-line please accept my apologies. So a quick run to the steel yard today resulted in these parts. Anvil: A 16-inch long piece of 2-inch x 5-inch flat bar weighing 46 pounds. Judging from the softness during drilling, I'd say it's mild, but the area I got it from is labled as "unknown." Base under anvil: 3/4-inch plate. I got a 12-inch square but I will cut it out and make a plate slightly wider and slightly longer than my "anvil." Legs: 2-inch square tubing, 1/4-inch walls. Supports for legs: 3/4-inch square tubing something like 3/16-inch wall. Leg plates: 5/8-inch plate (This was scrap I had in the shop.) All parts except for the leg plates, I bought today, and it totalled just over $40. I'll end up with about a 100 pound striking anvil once everything is put on. By the time you figure drill bits, cutitng oil, welding wire/gas, and grinding wheel you can say a 100 pounder for $50. This evening I layed out and drilled the two hardy hole areas. I will be putting a 1-inch hardy and a 1.25-inch hardy hole in it. The 1-inch is for standard stuff, but the 1.25-inch will be for making tooling for my shop anvil. It'll save wear and tear on my shop anvil. Drilling was fun. I drilled a 1-inch hole for the 1.25-inch hardy and a 3/4-inch hole for the 1-inch hardy. The 1-inch hole took 16 minutes. The 3/4-inch hole took about 40 minutes. Something is messed up with my 3/4-inch bit.....it kept hanging up really bad. (Sorry for the fuzzy pics. I'll try to get better ones tomorrow.) I also got the leg plates cut out with the torch. They are 4-inch square out of the 5/8-inch plate. I'll be drilling 1/2-inch holes in these for concrete anchors. Tomorrow I will try to get the legs cut, the base under the anvil cut out and put together, the leg plates drilled and attached to the legs. and then the legs welded to the base plate and braced. Thursday, Chase is coming over from Bowling Green Ky. to help drift the holes. Which means I need to make my drifts tomorrow too. It aught to be fun to heat that 2x5-inch stock! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FieryFurnace Posted November 8, 2012 Author Share Posted November 8, 2012 So, progress went on as planned today. First thing I did was cut the 3/4-inch plate, for the base plate under the actual anvil piece. I used the torch to cut it out and touched it up with a grinder. The marked out square is the drop piece. The other two were welded, end-to-end to form a 6-inch x 17-inch base plate. The anvil is 5-inch x 16-inch so the base plate will allow me a half-inch all around for welding. Clamped for welding! Welded with an extra piece of 1x4-inch x 1-inch stock underneath, welded over the seam for added peace of mind. I cut two clearence holes for the future hardy holes that will be in the actual anvil. The clearence holes were torch cut and oversized so I won't have to do any filing. Ignore the round hole! It came in the piece of plate, and is not the prichel hole. The prichel hole will be drilled after the hardy holes are drifted......otherwise it would probably deform during drifting! The legs cut! I went with 22.5-inches for the legs with a 9-degree angle. Daniel Riffe (one of the Young Smiths 2012, that I worked with,) gave me the measurements off of his striking anvil which he got from Brian. I actually got my numbers mixed up, so instead of 24-inches total hieght like Brian's anvil, mine will be 26-inches. (Didn't realize it until all of it was completely welded! Daniel also provided me with the angle measurement! One leg welded! (Pardon the mess! I'm also still working on cleaning shop since pouring the concrete!) Here are the feet! 4-inch square, of 5/8-inch plate, with 1/2-inch bolt holes in them. As usual, I got caught up in working instead of thinking, and forgot to get any between pictures here. I filled the legs with sand after they were welded on, tack-welded the feet on, welded on the leg braces, flipped the hole thing right-side-up, finished welding the braces, and finished welding the feet. Now I needed something to support the big piece during the hardy hole drifting process. I cut some holes in some scrap plate, welded some things together and came up with this. Then I welded some more stuff together, nailed some things together, and came up with this. Temporary, make-shift swage block! With the anvil piece on it, it looks like this! Finally, also notice that I welded handles onto the anvil piece to make it easy to.....well uhhh handle! The piece weighed 46 pounds before drilling, so I put two long handles on it with cross pieces welded to the handles to make it easy to turn and move. I also scrounged around the shop storage area, put an old squirrel cage blower back together, wired it, got it working, and will hook it up to the forge in the morning. That will save me having to hand crank for an hour or more heating up the big stock tomorrow. Chase should be here around 9:30 or 10 tomorrow and I'm hoping to have the metal up to temperature around the time he gets here to make things go faster. He's bringing a sledge hammer, so we'll have dual strikers to drift the holes. (Even though his sledge hammer is a puny little 8 pounder.......Go strike in the nursery Chase!) :D Once we get it drifted I'll cool it with the water hose, drill the prichel, and weld it to the stand. Then we are going to bolt it down, and forge a hammer on it! (Barring any unforseen complications!) Chase and I will both be filming the entire process so hopefully we'll be able to present the membership of IFI with a video of two strikers drifting 2-inch x 5-inch stock! P.S.! I also got the drifts made! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pug}{maN Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 sweet ! looks good ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
56FordGuy Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Looks pretty good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfootnampa Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Looks... okay? JK :) it will no doubt be very nice Dave! I couldn't resist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Gaddis Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Dave...this is David G...the guy that welded the anvil for Brian and helped drift the holes. Our piece of steel was 3 inches thick! From start to finish the preheating, drifting, cooling and grinding the transport bars off took only 2 hours. 2 inches thick should be considerably less. Don't forget to drill the legs and fill with sand and oil as the noise reduction is well warranted. Your striking anvil will be a good investment for you. Carry on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FieryFurnace Posted November 8, 2012 Author Share Posted November 8, 2012 Hi there Mr Gaddis! I remember you! :D I think it took us about two hours, maybe a hair more, from the time we started to the time we bolted the finished product down to the concrete! We hit a few snags, simply because I've never worked with anything anywhere near this size. It took a total of 5 or 6 heats to get what I wanted! Pictures will be posted soon and both Chase and I got several videos so we'll put them together and get it posted ASAP! I did fill the legs with sand, but I didn't use oil! I thought I remembered y'all having said something about oil, but I didn't know what it was for. Oops! Next time maybe! I did enough finish grinding to the face of the striking anvil for Chase and I to forge a 2.6-pound Brian Brazeal rounding hammer. It turned out nice, but was a bit slow as I haven't made a hammer since YS 2012 and Chase has never made one. That was actually the first hammer I've made in my shop. Pictures of all should be up this evening! Dave...this is David G...the guy that welded the anvil for Brian and helped drift the holes. Our piece of steel was 3 inches thick! From start to finish the preheating, drifting, cooling and grinding the transport bars off took only 2 hours. 2 inches thick should be considerably less. Don't forget to drill the legs and fill with sand and oil as the noise reduction is well warranted. Your striking anvil will be a good investment for you. Carry on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Gaddis Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Well go unbolt that thing and bore holes in the legs...near the tops of course. Fill near the top with oil...slowly as it takes a little while for it to saturate. It does not take a whole ship-load either. Any oil will do...used or brand new, any weight, household or rear end grease. The oil messes up the harmonics of the steel. Brian showed this to me and I did a bit of research, via University of Backyard, College of Engineering. When you do the same you too will be amazed. oil treatment is well worth the trouble. Carry on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FieryFurnace Posted November 8, 2012 Author Share Posted November 8, 2012 Alright here are some photos! I found, assembled, wired, and attached this blower to my forge. Of course it was way overkill being a 12-inch squirrel cage, but I did some modification and made it work. The result was I heated a 2x5-inch piece of metal to really REALLY hot in 30 minutes. It was quite foggy this morning so I snapped this picture on the way to the shop. OK OK get on with! Let's see the anvil! There are about 70 pounds of steel plus the sand in the legs which is probably another 20 or so! Here are some close ups! The hammer we made was sort of Chase's payment for helping out. So, I didn't have a lot of extra time to do some serious grinding. There is still some work to be done! There are some deeper dents where Chase or I missed a blow! These will be filled with weld and then ground! Don't you just HATE straight edges! :D Happy me! Hammer time! We didn't get a pretty plug, but we got a really pretty hole! :D Chase got quite a bit of video on the hammer and maybe he'll grace us with some footage, but as we were pressed for time, I did not get a whole lot of pictures. We turned out a nice 2.6-pound hammer. I would have wowed the cheeks out quite a bit more, but like I said, time was short, and being the first hammer Chase has made, I didn't want to kill him either! He has the pictures of the completely finished product ( - the handle,) so I'll get him to post those! I'll get the videos in a day or two! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FieryFurnace Posted November 8, 2012 Author Share Posted November 8, 2012 Well go unbolt that thing and bore holes in the legs...near the tops of course. Fill near the top with oil...slowly as it takes a little while for it to saturate. It does not take a whole ship-load either. Any oil will do...used or brand new, any weight, household or rear end grease. The oil messes up the harmonics of the steel. Brian showed this to me and I did a bit of research, via University of Backyard, College of Engineering. When you do the same you too will be amazed. oil treatment is well worth the trouble. Carry on OK! I've got two 5-gallon buckets of used tractor oil! I'll have to unbolt to put lock washers and lock-tight on my anchors anyway! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fluidsteel Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 Ooh la lah! I'm getting close to making one of these. I have 15 or so pieces of 2"x5"x18" forklift tine cut-offs. :-) Thanks for sharing your work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FieryFurnace Posted November 9, 2012 Author Share Posted November 9, 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WQtcRqKkPwhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BQt7yqTPnE&feature=youtu.be Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trip Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 Not sure why, but my right arm is just a little sore???? ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pug}{maN Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 i got a block a tad thicker than that i need help with ! wish i was closer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FieryFurnace Posted November 9, 2012 Author Share Posted November 9, 2012 i got a block a tad thicker than that i need help with ! wish i was closer... Aww you're just 10 hours away! Swing on by! I'll help! Uhhh Chase.......I know why! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Gaddis Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 We did one 3 inches thick in two heats! It can be done and it really is easier than you may imagine. Dave ...your videos are just as good as your work. Enjoy having your friends and dad around, look around a few times and then they are gone.I know my dad would have liked seeing some of this stuff. Keep up the good work. Carry on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FieryFurnace Posted November 9, 2012 Author Share Posted November 9, 2012 We did one 3 inches thick in two heats! It can be done and it really is easier than you may imagine. Dave ...your videos are just as good as your work. Enjoy having your friends and dad around, look around a few times and then they are gone.I know my dad would have liked seeing some of this stuff. Keep up the good work. Carry on Yeah it didn't go as fast as I'd hoped! Perhaps if Chase had only brought a REAL sledge......LOL No! I, as the director, just ran into some stuff I didn't expect and that slowed us down. I think I could get a second one in two heats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Lodge Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 Good work guys! Thanks for the video's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 I don't hate straight edges cause none of the work I do requires a dead flat surface and some even is enhanced by a slight sway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trip Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 Yeah it didn't go as fast as I'd hoped! Perhaps if Chase had only brought a REAL sledge......LOL No! I, as the director, just ran into some stuff I didn't expect and that slowed us down. I think I could get a second one in two heats! Like I told you yesterday Dave, The only reason a person needs a HUGE sledge is becuase they don't have enough lead in their britches to move the metal them selves. :) ROFLOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FieryFurnace Posted November 9, 2012 Author Share Posted November 9, 2012 Hmmm more lead in your britches = more stress on your arm, which I think you mentioned was hurting today??? Less lead in my britches and more in my hammer.......my arm is feeling great! I've been hand tapering 1.25-inch solid round shock resistant axle with my five pound hammer. My arm is fine! :D ROFLOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trip Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 Hmmm more lead in your britches = more stress on your arm, which I think you mentioned was hurting today??? Less lead in my britches and more in my hammer.......my arm is feeling great! I've been hand tapering 1.25-inch solid round shock resistant axle with my five pound hammer. My arm is fine! :D ROFLOL But I shall point out that the only striking you did was on the anvil. I did ALL the striking for the hammer too!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FieryFurnace Posted November 10, 2012 Author Share Posted November 10, 2012 As I recall I spent a month striking not too long ago! I think I've got the endurence too! :D Without arm pain! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trip Posted November 10, 2012 Share Posted November 10, 2012 Yes, but if I remember correctly, I talked to you while you were out there, and you said that the first few day's your arm was killing you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FieryFurnace Posted November 10, 2012 Author Share Posted November 10, 2012 Yes, but if I remember correctly, I talked to you while you were out there, and you said that the first few day's your arm was killing you. That was back in March during the first days of my class with Brian where I went for zero striking experience to all day striking for hardies and hammers. It took me a while to uhhh get in the "swing" of things. Here are the pictures of the hammer with a handle. Chase did the handle job as we ran out of time in my shop. It looks like he did a good job. I did not have sanding strips so I couldn't soften the edges of the hammer eye. (Hence the wood shavings starting to peel at the base of the eye.) BTW Chase, Ace hardware carries those sanding strips...I just found out today. If you have to rehandle some time, soften the edges of the eye up a bit. Thanks to Chase for the pictures! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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