DIY Anvil "Upgrades"?

[Leeknivek]

Oooook

been a couple weeks. I've been working on this when I've had time. I have a base cut and welded on (cut meaning I cut a hole into it so the body of the anvil rests on the ground rather than rests on the base forming a hollow). I have the square horn cut to shape and the hardie hole partially drilled. Both of these are partially welded, to where its useable, but not aesthetically pleasing and provably not as strong as it could be. It is usable right now so that probably means I'll be forging until I get up the gumption to finish it. We'll see. :)

I did some forging today, too. I had a wagon wheel that needed fixing for my inlaws, and it ended up I had just enough mig wire to do that. So that means I've used a pound or so on the anvil already, and it may be some time before I get a new roll. So ... As I said, I did some forging. But, prior to even that, I added a chimney to my forge, which is a 55-gallon drum, 1/3 cut off and upside down to form sort of a table with the remaining 2/3 forming a hood and a hole on top. Brake rotor fire pot. So I added some 6" stove pipe in there, making one of those "super sucker" type things, and let me tell you, this is like going from lit match to bic lighter. My slack tub was full of oil, a few feet away, and the smoke from some hot steel I places in it (I'm outdoors don't worry!) was sucked into the forge hood and up the chimney.

i also lined the forge with wet clay/sand, as sort of an experiment. Anyone tried this before? In their forge? It just got extremely dry and powdery instead of hardening, like i expected.

so it is, all in all, a work in progress. I think most of you could relate. I will post pictures when i go on a computer next, probably tomorrow. Uploading from a phone is tedious.

EDIT: Completely forgot to add - when I started this, I started with the cutting and I used a torch. I ended up walking around with a pretty nasty burn the past two weeks. I have absolutely no idea what happened. I was cutting the plate on the bench, then all of a sudden my foot was burning. I hurriedly shut off the o/a torch and took off my conveniently tight high topped boots to find what looked like a piece of broken glass that was COOL TO THE TOUCH and a large blister.

later, after I had come off the adrenaline rush, I realized there was absolutely no visible or otherwise damage to my boot. No marks, no burns, no holes, absolutely nothing!!

its just about healed up now though, so no need to worry. But how strange is that??

[ThomasPowers]

Not very, happens quite a bit that a droplet will unerringly find an opening in the top of a boot or glove. Did you have your pants outside of the boot and not tucked in? (helps, though then when it happens you have a hole in your pants...) With a cutting torch you are generally focused on the top and not paying attention to the spray underneath.

Worst I've heard of was a guy welding overhead who dropped a bb in his ear....

[Leeknivek]

I did have my pants over my boot, and I wrap my laces around my ankle instead of the conventional way of tying. Which was nice, because I was able to get them off fast enough to minimize the damage. the burn is right behind my pinky toe, on top of my foot. The only opening is, like, where the tongue of the shoe starts and even then it would have to autonomously push its way in to get me from there... And with no burn marks on my boot (to boot!), I dunno.