Anvil-freeze

[CleetisMorgan]

Anyone have good ideas on keeping an anvil warm? Here in MI, we are entering that time of year where I need to get out in the shop a couple of hours early and light the wood stove before lighting the forge. I've covered my anvils with an insulated box with a light inside, wrapped one in heat tape and even set the 100 pounders on top of the wood stove while the shop was warming (hard to do with the 200 pounder, though). Any other ideas out there?

[marcusb]

I would place some heavy flat stock in the wood stove when you light it, when you come back out and the shop is warm, the steel should be at a red heat. You could place the plate on the anvil while you get your tools laid out. When you are ready to go, it should be to.

[Jerry W.]

Those of us from South Texas are a very caring bunch.  Just to show you, at absolutely no cost to you, I would be happy to house your anvil in a climate where it would stay very comfortable.  There would be an occasional day below freezing just to keep it from getting home-sick and we would be happy to let you have an occasional visit.  If I could be of assistance, please let me know.  I would even be willing to help with some of the travel expenses.  Jerry

[Jim Coke]

Greetings Cleetis,

 

I presented my wife with this problem....  She said she could fix the problem by knitting me an anvil cozy...  She kinda balked when I confessed that I had 21 anvils...  Go figure...  Caught...   I like Marcs suggestion...   My 500 pound Trenton does not seem to warm up until July..

 

Have fun

Forge on and make beautiful things

Jim

[mat]

electric blanket 12v

[ThomasPowers]

one method would be to print out the dozens of pages already written on this topic here, crumple them up, place around the anvil and ignite them!

 

I like Atli's method of finding an old electric iron at the thriftstore and place on top of the anvil and turn it on and set to cotton first thing while you are getting everything else set up

[knots]

Heating pad and welding blanket.

[Nick]

I like Atli's method of finding an old electric iron at the thriftstore and place on top of the anvil and turn it on and set to cotton first thing while you are getting everything else set up

 

I bought an old iron from St. Vinnies for two bucks recently.  Works great.

[arkie]

As a novice, I did not know that cold weather might present a problem with our anvils.

 

Is there a reason why the anvils should be heated in the first place?  Is it because chipping might be a problem or is it just that it cools off the work faster than normal?  My anvil stays outside under a cover, not in a shop where it (and me!) can be heated.

[Charles R. Stevens]

It effects how long the steel stays hot. Certainly -40 could make things a bit brittle.

[K. Bryan Morgan]

It effects how long the steel stays hot. Certainly -40 could make things a bit brittle.

 

 

Charles is absolutely correct.  I never hit my anvil when its that cold outside.   I paid way to much for it and shipping to put a chip into it.  I place a piece of plate in the forge while its heating up the place it on the anvil.  Do that a couple of times and its nice and toasty warm. 

 

My knee is healing up well and I don't care how cold it gets this winter.  As soon as I am able, I'm forging.

[Charles R. Stevens]

BM,
Glad to hear you knee is healing.

[arkie]

It effects how long the steel stays hot. Certainly -40 could make things a bit brittle.

 

Well, I'm in Arkansas so I don't think we'll see -40 here (HOPE NOT!!!).  Like Oklahoma, teens, maybe zero are the norm lows.  I don't think those temps would present a problem.  A hot slab of steel from the forge laying on the anvil should be about right.

 

Hey!!!  I just had a brain storm...drill a hole in the base of the anvil, screw in an engine block heater like for diesels!!!  Problem solved!!! :wacko:

[Charles R. Stevens]

Arkie
I think you might look at magnetic oil pan heaters, block heaters work in fluid. Might work in your slack tub.

[neg]

I read somewhere around here about someone sticking a magnetic engine block heater on their anvil to warm it up.

[Black Frog]

Get a cheap iron from a rummage sale.
Lay it on your anvil while you're building the fire or getting the gas forge going.

[Dabbsterinn]

is there a problem with hitting cold anvils?, because im in iceland and my smithy is pretty much nothing, i´ve never had any problems with the anvil chipping, it´s an home made anvil though, made from some soft iron, im not completely sure about the carbon content, but im in the process of welding a high-carbon steel plate on the face of the anvil, it takes a really long time seeing how i only have a tiny blue einhell machine that can only weld at 80 amps for 2-3 mins, then it overheats, turns off and cools down for another 30 mins, and i have only used thread welding, or whatever it´s called, the thing with the automatic wire feed, so it´s going slow

[yves]

Another one here with the old electric iron. Heat the smithy with the wood stove, place the iron on the anvil, go eat, come back and the anvil is nice and warm.

[iron woodrow]

here in aussie land it is so hot-we regularly rest our cold beer on the anvil, and rub ice cubes on it, to cool it down!

if your anvil is cold enough to sit on before lunch, you haven't been working hard enough ;)

[CleetisMorgan]

I like the rummage sale iron idea, also. You guys are addressing my other question--has anyone broken or chipped an anvil and attributed it to cold temps? I see "maybes" and "ifs", but want to know for sure. My next "fixer" may get a cold-sledging before it's welded up (:

[ThomasPowers]

I personally know of one smith in the panhandle of TX, USA that claims that very cold temps lead to the breaking off of the heel of his grandfather's anvil.

 

Cold embrittlement of steel was something we covered in MatSci class back at Cornell, the case I remember was of a liberty ship that broke in two when moored in a still harbour---at 50 below zero F

[DanielC]

I have an anvil on the large side so it takes a bit to warm up but i use a double pancake heater attached to a 20# bottle of propane and set those suckers on medium and about 1' away. Takes about an hour for my 371#er to warm up, but the entire anvil is warm to the touch in freezing weather.

[Countryforge]

Up here in Ontario we get cold -20F. I us a propane tiger torch to heat my anvils or I use a one inch piece of steel heated up in the forge and leave on top to soak in we did this in Germany when I was a little kid. If i dont need the anvils and just do some hot work I use my big girl 600 lbs of some sort of steel works great

[arkie]

Arkie
I think you might look at magnetic oil pan heaters, block heaters work in fluid. Might work in your slack tub.

I stand corrected on the block heater... :wacko:   I never thought about the slack tub, though!  Might be a problem if you needed to quench something in a hurry and jambed it onto a slab of ice!!!!!!!  I'll concentrate on the slack tub more than the anvil now that you brought it to my attention.

[Judson Yaggy]

Nah, it usually is ok, you throw it into the slack tub and it goes " THUNK…. hisSSSS".  Work fast enough for long enough and you can melt a hole of the size you need.