I scored part of a broken forklift tine at work this week. so after a few hours of tinkering and grinding i think i have an almost proper setup. my plan is to find someone who can taper the steel cylinder on a lathe and drill a pritchel hole and figure out how to drill a hardy, or i may get someone to weld a piece of square tubing to the tine. the cylinder is held on by 2 pieces of rebar driven into the anvil stand.

You really don't need a hardy hole. You must first have a hardy for need of a means to secure it which your vice can do. If you have a post vice that's all you need, it will hold hardy tools just as readily as an anvil will. Even better actually.

If it were me, I'd turn it on it's side. Less flex that way. What are the dimensions?

I my plan is to find someone who can taper the steel cylinder

 

I just posted the thread on my homemade anvil. At minute 3 of the video you can see how I forged the horn. You can do the same with a couple of friends. '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>

 

 and drill a pritchel hole and figure out how to drill a hardy,

 

This is something you can do as well. You can get a bit of thick stock (50 mm or so) and drill one or several pritchel holes (different dimmensions) and you can drift a hardy hole, like in these videos

You don't need a pritchel hole if you use a bolster plate which is a piece of plate with different size holes drilled in it to support the work while you punch it.

 

A hardy hole is handy but you can either use a post vise to hold it (already mentioned) or make bottom tools that will lay on the anvil face. You can use a hot cut instead of a hardy a cutting plate or saddle is all that requires. The only bottom tool properly called a hardy is a hot or cold cut off chisel bottom tool. Okay maybe a bottom butcher is a hardy, I don't know that one but I'll happily make up something plausible if you wish. At any rate, there are a number of perfectly good ways to hold bottom tools without needig a hardy hole.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

My reason for the pritchel hole is for something to drift through and for a hold down. I dont have a vice yet I'm hoping for a nice flea market find this summer. Any ideas on a good way to keep the tine from bouncing around? I was thinking of using some rebar stakes like what I used for the cylinder.