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Anvil restoration showdown


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I just read this artical about building your own anvil. It parallels the thinking of Rob Gunther's process of rebuilding

 

http://www.metalwebnews.com/howto/anvil1/anvil2.html

 

There are some differences though and I think most will be delighted to read and see his work. It is basic yet very informative as it tells there is no shortcut in the process. Furthermore it is hot and enduring.

 

Carry on

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In a hurry today want to get home and take advantage of a sunny day. I took photos and thanks to Pulse got em on photobucket but still have to do some organizing. I'll try to attach a few and a link to one to see what works. I'll probably come back to town tomorrow and mess with it some more, while as an engineer I design with autocad and other programs, I'm a kinda inept when it comes to social media.These two photos are of the Peter Wright I repaired 11 or 12 years ago and used hard for a while. I have not used this anvil for quite a while. It had some sway which I chose to just leave and I accidently swung around with a 9" angle grinder after grinding for a long stretch and hit the center of the face caucing a shallow gouge about 2" long. This was repaired with Eutectic HSS hard facing over either 11018 or BT UTP 65. One thing you'll notice is that the repaired areas stand out from the original metal as the new weld areas are different composition from the original. While taking these photos I found more I repaired over the years: an Arm & Hammer, a Trenton swelled horn farriers, a Hay Budden and another old PW. If interested I try to get pics uploaded so you can see. All of the above had been seriously cut up with O/A torch by idiots using them as cutting tables. I've had good luck with all the repaired anvils though I don't use any of them now. As someone noted grinding hardfacing rod is hard time consuming work and it is also time consuming to over build the edges to allow grinding back to a perfect edge. I always have then put a slight radius on the edges while finish grinding with a 80 to 120 grit flap disk. The link to Photo bucket is a Hay Budden, let me know if it works! Thanks for your patience and carry on with the test! I'd like to know how it works! post-39154-0-63598800-1364584667_thumb.jpost-39154-0-51962400-1364584733_thumb.j

http://i1274.photobucket.com/albums/y421/375HayBudden/DSC00102_zps6058fb67.jpg

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Very interested to see this thread progress as my poor broken Fulton could use some love. However, as I don't have any experience with welding, I have no notion about cost - any estimates on these processes? (ETA - just read the article linked by David. Awesome info) Of course, having no experience, I would undertake the adventure with a welder acquaintance....or learn real quick.

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Or go to the next anvil repair workshop that SOFA puts on in Ohio?

 

Last time I went to such a workshop put on by the ABANA affiliate out here I had to FORCE money on the welder to cover his consumables.  I was tickled pink to have an expert working on my anvil that had had a hard life at a copper mine in AZ; no reason that he should be out of pocket helping *me*!

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Thread bump. I hope the moderators can sticky these repair methods... :D??? Beebs did an awesome write up, I plan on using that same format for my attempt...

 

My victim will be that Trenton, as it's confirmed soft, as a ball bearing test puts dents in the top plate... 

 

 

I'll be using a 10# butter layer of Lincoln Wearshield  15CrMn (work hardened 40-50Rc), with a top layer of Stoody SELF-HARDENING (as welded 52-58 Rc)... 

 

I'll be happy with anything @ 50+

 

**teaser 

 

 

photo7-1_zps527e6626.jpg

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Avast. Thanks to the weather keeping me out of the fields, I have started my repair work this afternoon. I am facing a 99 lb HayBud with Messer MG710. I have 3 layers down, and here are my 3 observations ( I'm taking a break while the anvil cools a bit ).
1. Keep your head out of the plume--after 2 hours I was talking like Tommy Chong.
2. It doesn't lay as nice as other hard facing rod I've used, especially into the 4th layer.
3. I catch myself looking up at the bench, longingly, at my boxes of Stoody rod.
I will see this repair through, but as of right now am a little disappointed.

More to come...

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  • 2 weeks later...

post-23632-0-32042000-1367503859_thumb.j

 

Here is an example of a 70 pound all steel anvil with edges repaired with 11018.

 

The center is nice an lively yet the sides are dead as sand. The dings evident are from using this same light weight blacksmithing hammer with the pein on 16 oz copper  creating  flower leaves' texture.

 

To me this is an example of what not to use, as another anvil had been repaired with 7018 under the near same conditions. If you want a dead anvil then weld them with 7018 or 11018, but you can grind then easily to shape and appearance.

 

So now I am thinking about overcoating with one of the "harder" layers of metal. Hopefully someone will show a good example of repair that is still economical both in time and material.

 

 

 

Carry on

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  • 4 months later...

post-46419-0-74048100-1380561492_thumb.jpost-46419-0-90285000-1380561532_thumb.jpost-46419-0-69824000-1380561596_thumb.jpost-46419-0-19863000-1380561669_thumb.j

 

I have restored four anvils very successfully using the exact method described by Gunther and Schuler. Preheat, Nickle underlay, Stoody 2110 underlay, stoody 1105 top. Lots of work but all came out spectacular with super rebound. Before and after example photos attached.

 

I have had no issues with the restorations as far as chipping or sway backing.

 

Matt

 

 

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A few months ago I rebuilt the face of a young man's Trenton roughly following the Gunther method. roughly mainly because Stoody rods are order only around here and I didn't want to drive to Anchorage just to shop.

 

What I used is Washington Alloy 700 or Washalloy-700. It's a high impact rock on steel alloy with a finish RC in the 55-60 range. As some of you may know I'm not a huge fan of welding on anvils unless there's no choice and seeing as the young owner WAS going to "rebuild" this one I agreed to to prevent more damage than necessary.

 

The story is under the Alaskan Association section in the regional groups section. sorry it's not very exciting even though Eric thought so. I'm afraid I didn't get better pictures, Eric took the shots so they are what they are.

 

The edges had been chipped back up to 1 3/4" on both edges worse near the center and tapering to close to good at the step and heal.

 

I ground till there were no fractures or spalls and sharpened the margins where someone had done some grinding trying to restore the edges. Unfortunately s/he did what a lot of folk not skilled with a disk grinder do, the face sloped downwards as it approached the edge meaning there was no way to get a 90* edge without having to feather the new beads into the face. What I did was use the edge of the disk to make the feather edges more abrupt so a bead could lay without undercutting.

 

Then I stood the anvil on a couple pieces of 2" sq tubing in the cut off end of a 55gl. drum, poured a 20lb bag of Kingsford charcoal around it and lit it up. About 3 hrs. and another half bag of charcoal later and the tempel stick said I had better than 375f. on the face so I hoisted it out with my engine hoist and got to running beads. The needle scaler does a marvelous job of not only cleaning slag but pinging and relieving the beads.

 

Then the real fun started and two grinding disks later I had a good look and sure as sure the beads at the feather edges had undercut. DRATS! I had to grind it in deeper and while it was still hot ran more bead. There was still a little undercutting showing as small shallow pits here and there along the feather edges. I had to call it good I wasn't going to run more beads, I'd already exceeded the max recommended, the anvil had cooled to a couple hundred f. and I wasn't going to put it back in the preheat. happily the Washalloy 700 doesn't "require" preheat though it is recommended and this means it's less susceptible to failing because of one or two too many passes.

 

All in all it came out pretty nice, Eric is happy and it rings true all along the welds. All that is but one spot near the step where the face is delaminating. DRATS! I tinked that face one end to the other back and forth, across and back and zig zag before I even started cleaning the chipped area looking for delaminations or spalls. Once I took a close look it was naked eye visible and just appeared. I don't know but I'm thinking the thermal shock welding caused a previously weak area to pop. Fortunately it's easy to hear the little flat sound and after I showed it to Eric I think it'll be safe enough.

 

And THAT's my anvil refacing story. Pics in the Alaska Association section under regional organizations right here.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

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