Keganthewhale Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 So I have a friend who does some metal sculptural stuff with his shop but he rents from another guy, well the other guy was given a fisher a couple years back and was going to take it to the scrap yard because it had been in someone's shop and it had been welded on and all kinds of abuse. So he have it to my friend, who already has a Vulcan that he likes and uses, and being that he doesn't use it much he gave it to me! But beside the buildup it is a lovely anvil. (This is my second fisher) anyway, the face had been welded on, they had taken a 1" round bar about 4" long and jammed it in the hole and welded one side to the anvil, my wife and I removed that with some drilling and crafty sledging (to no further damage to the anvil which is about #130 if my guess is right, it's smaller than my #150 but not by a whole lot). I then took a flap disk on my angle grinder to remove the raised portions that had been welded onto the face, but here is still some pitting that is bad enough to show in the work that it would be handling. So my problem comes in that I don't want to grind it down till it smooth because it only so much of a hard face, but it is still pretty unfortunate. I was planning on taking it to a welder I know to repair one of the edges and the part of the hardy hole that the welding had melted away when they tried to plug it, but he said he would have to do some preheating, will the preheating do more damaging than using the hard facing rod would help? Is it worth hard facing the entire face to get it to the point where it won't show in the work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njanvilman Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Could you post a photo of the face? Did you try using the anvil once you cleaned it up? It might be usable as is. Lack of a pritchel hole should not be a problem; you could always make a round hole swage to drop in the hardy hole if it is needed. I would do welding on the face as a very last resort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LastRonin Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Could you post a photo of the face? Did you try using the anvil once you cleaned it up? It might be usable as is. Lack of a pritchel hole should not be a problem; you could always make a round hole swage to drop in the hardy hole if it is needed. I would do welding on the face as a very last resort. I hate to hear of abuse to a tool like that. Congratulations on the acquisition. Good luck with whatever you decide to do. I have nothing to add to what nj posted. He is THE authority on Fisher anvils. And I would like to see pictures of it too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Anvils take a beating when they go from being *the* tool to being a welding fixture. I have one from a copper mine that when the weldors got a hold of it suffered air arc gouging---inbetween a beautiful flat face. Finally got it repaired, (Trenton, Gunter anvil repair method) it's my shop backup anvil---the larger fisher is my main shop anvil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaughnT Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Gotta post pics of the before, during and after repairs so we can see what you're dealing with. Sounds like there might be a solution, but who can say for sure? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keganthewhale Posted March 28, 2014 Author Share Posted March 28, 2014 Unfortunately I didn't take any pics beforehand (which was I'll thought on my part!) so when I go see it next I will take some pictures. Hopefully the remaining arc gouging (which is the first time I've heard that term, but explains it perfectly) isn't as deep as I originally thought. But I'll get some pics up as soon as I can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keganthewhale Posted April 1, 2014 Author Share Posted April 1, 2014 Here is the face as a whole The hardy hole and the damage done when they tried to plug it and weld it in An a close up of some of the arc gouging. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arftist Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 Fishers do have nice thick plates..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njanvilman Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 After looking at your photos, I would not do any welding until you try to use the anvil. It looks usable as is. Weld as a last resort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fluidsteel Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 After looking at your photos, I would not do any welding until you try to use the anvil. It looks usable as is. Weld as a last resort. I concur, I have a Fisher with worse edges and a small 55# anvil with a worse top plate, both are usable as is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clinton Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 I do not think that face was damaged by arc gouging. Arc gouging uses a carbon electrode and air to create a molten stream of metal that is blown away by the air blast. The damage would be far worse than what I see in your pictures Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keganthewhale Posted April 1, 2014 Author Share Posted April 1, 2014 All I know, is that when I got it, the face had puddles of welds on the face ad sides, what you are seeing here is after an hour (or more) of using a grinder with a flap disk. But as you can see the entire face still has what seems like pitting, but it's deeper than any pitting I've ever seen on anvils before. But I will adhere to what is being advised and it will be used as it is. Although the wife will probably be using it, I'll stick to my first fisher :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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