Increasing the mass of my anvil

[Stantheman]

I have an 18lb stump anvil. I am a blade smith and don't work with mild steel anything over 1/2 inch and a tad over 1/4 for carbon steels at this point. Someday I will be forging 5 inch billets but by that time I hope to have a power hammer and hydronic press. Now to my question. I can get my hands on a tile roller that has 3, 20lb weels made of steel. My guess is mild steel. If I sink those weels end on end into a bucket of concrete and place my stump anvil on top would I increase the mass of my anvil or would I just be making something really heavy with the same rebound as my 4x4 stump anvil? Thank you for your time.

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance.

I'm afraid your second thought will be the result. The interface between pieces must be welded. If you search the rebound test for anvils you'll note the main reason to use it is to first evaluate the hardness of the face plate and secondly identify areas of the face plate that have become delaminated.

Just stacking components is an even less positive interface and will in fact damp what rebound you have.

Have you looked for longer sections of shafting? A broken section of heavy truck axle stood flange up makes an outstanding anvil. A little grinding to smooth the end gives you an anvil with a tremendous depth of rebound and the bolt flange surrounding it gives you tool attachments rivaling a hardy hole and more pritchel holes than a boy could want.

A heavy equipment repair shops use medium to high carbon steel in many applications so they're always putting broken or worn parts in the scrap bin and have drops of new stock. I get my 4140 stock for power hammer dies from a shop that repairs heavy equipment: dozers, loaders, excavators, etc. and they replace a LOT of pins so they have literally thousands of pounds of various diameter and length 4140 bucket and attachment hinge and locking pins in the scrap bin. They sell to me at current scrap price with a little fudge in my favor because I'm a likable guy.

Frosty The Lucky.

Edited August 3, 2015 by Frosty

[Stantheman]

Thank you! I would have never thought of that. I am fine with "making do" while I hone my craft and part of me really likes taking things people see as junk and make something usefull. Especially because junk is free or almost free lol. I will look into that.

[Glenn]

The base is very important to the function of the anvil but a 10 pound anvil is still a 10 pound anvil. If you could increase the weight of an anvil by adding a heavy base then folks would be buying 10 pound anvils and a 500 pound base.

Grab the tile rollers and lay one roller on it's side and the other on end. You now have a horn to form on and a 20 pound anvil to beat on. And a spare (grin)

[Frosty]

Glad to be of help. Folk like to think of smiths as the original recyclers, I don't know how original we are but recycling is something we do naturally. Seriously who wants to pay for things other folk just leave in the ditch or dumpster? Then there's the satisfaction of making useful and beautiful things other folk WANT to give us money for from trash.

Oh you bet we like to use scrap, we're scrounging machines. Stick around there are more scroungers willing to share their tricks here than you can shake a hammer at. You're going to fit right in.

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

is the tile roller steel or cast iron?

[arftist]

My bet is cast iron. 

[Frosty]

I agree my bet is gray iron with a ground working face so it's probably good for truing rings and such but not heavy forging. Heck a resourceful smith could maybe even make an English wheel with them. Hmmmm?

Frosty The Lucky.

Edited August 3, 2015 by Frosty

[Stantheman]

Oh how stupid I am. My first anvil I purchased was from a guy on Ebay who had a 70lb anvil. he wanted 350 for it I gave him 300 cash for it. ( I over paid a bit but just a bit) I got it home and I thought it was good and then I read some reviews. It is a Vulcan, people said Vulcans are cast iron with a thin steel face and they suck. So I got me and old sledge hammer head and putt it into a log and used that for a while, no corners, no horn, little rebound but I heeded the wise and thought it was good. I then purchased my current anvil that is the a fore mentioned 18 lb stump anvil. I thought it was good and it was better than the sledge hammer by far so I use that for a year and it moves very little steel. it has nice sharp corners and is very portable and that is what I was after. well im looking at anvils again for the day when I can afford a " good one" and I go back and take a look at my original vulcan. just for kicks I do the rebound test. It bouncs my hammer twice as high as my stump anvil! All the time, all the money, and all the frustration WASTED. I am a fool.

[Frosty]

Uh huh. You have a good anvil gathering dust in a corner while you try and improvise one from whatever's available. Ain't the learning curve fun? Been there done similar as have most of us who've been at this a while. Don't sweat it.

You know what the real lesson is here? Anyone with a keyboard and a connection can say they're an expert so it behooves us to take everything with a bucket of salt. You see exactly that here all the time and it's hard not to discourage folk from trying to be helpful but sometimes a new fellow's opinion is founded on myth and delusion. It's one of the most important reasons to spend time reading here, you get to see opinions, suggestions and sworn statements of every kind of reliability.

While a Vulcan isn't a top shelf anvil, it's sure close to it. A steel face on a cast iron body is a quiet anvil which is a high mark in itself. It isn't a Fisher but it's a fine anvil, use her in good health and pass her onto the grand kids.

Frosty The Lucky.