Need anvil repair comments/advice

[Sjtaylor128]

I purchased and am in the process of repairing the face of a 89 pound Peter Wright anvil. As purchased the anvil face was flat along its length but severely domed cross its width. It was obvious that someone has taken a flap disc grinder to the face to smooth damaged edges. Everything else about the anvil including its rebound was good.

I preheated the anvil to ~400 degrees using a propane weed burner and a temp stick. I welded up the worn edges with Stoody 1105 rod and cooled the anvil slowly overnight in vermiculite. After cooling I refreshed the edges with a right angle grinder and a belt sander.

The anvil looks great except there are soft spots on the face. Most of the face has great rebound using one inch steel ball at 12 inches buts areas near the welds have poor rebound and the ball has left dents there. I guess I got the face too hot during welding or maybe I annealed it with the vermiculite.

I have plans to attempt to reharden the face. A blacksmith buddy recommends to use the anvil as is but I worry what a hammer miss-hits might do to the soft areas.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

 

[ThomasPowers]

So let me see: you are OK with the possibility of destroying the anvil but not ok with the possibility of doing it minor damage?

You might read up on work hardening a softer anvil's face too.

[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 Iforge gang live within visiting distance.

I sure wish you'd thought to ask BEFORE screwing up a perfectly good anvil. The reduced rebound is the HAZ, Heat Affect Zone. If it's just the edges it's probably not totaled but if you try rehardening it knowing as little as you obviously do calculate it's scrap price because that's probably what you'll reduce it to.

I recommend you use it as is, being reminded of a rooky mistake if misblows leave dents will be incentive learning so you don't have to worry about hammer marks.

If I wasn't clear, DO NO MORE "repairing" on the poor old lady!!!

Oh, forget Youtube, blogs, etc. social media "expert blacksmiths" most have no more qualification than a camera and connection. Stick around, read the sections in the Iforge archives, watch the videos, yeah some ARE Youtube vids but if it's recommended here it's probably NOT a sure fire disaster to copy. Once you get a handle on things, jargon is high on the list you'll be able to ask good questions and understand the answers. We LIKE helping folk and don't worry we won't hold this one against you.

Argh, Thomas you hit submit while I was on my last sentence! I gotta  get better at touch typing again I keep getting shut out at the wire!

Frosty The Lucky.

[Benjaman]

How much rod did you burn in that sucker? And how bad was it damaged? If you can post a picture of the damage before you repaired it. 

To get the best rebound usually you build a butter layer of 7018, that hard facing rod does work harden. What you should have done was heated it up to 350 400. Make maybe a weld or two. Stick it back on your oven and wait awhile for your temp to come back down. It takes forever but that way your sure you don't ever put too much heat into the peice. Even though you said you did it with a propane weed burner. The only reason for pre heating and post heating is to prevent stress cracking. When the weld cools down it gets super hard and stress is build up. You can use different methods of peening to relieve stress. If the damage wasn't extremely bad I would have done it entirely with 10018. I wouldn't use hard facing rod unless your doing extensive work. The 10018 has a higher tensile strength then 7018 and the carbon content of the rod isn't as high. Everything you can do to prevent cracking without preheating awhole lot. 

[Frosty]

How many anvils have you done?

Frosty The Lucky.

[Benjaman]

I've done a few. I'd like to do more. But it's not everyday I find people needing anvil repair lol.

[alex L]

ive refurbished two anvils now and it you know what your doing be ok the pre and post heat are hugly important! but for a cast steel anvil you have to re harden it for that id send it out to a heat treat company. for cast iron body and steel face you have to normalize the cast after welding. and cast body anvil you do run the risk of a major crack happaning from casting defects. but it can be done. i maid an alo into a decent lump of good iron and repaired an old 150lb volcan brand so have alot more thicker face than it had. and build up the badly worn edges. a new anvil 800 to 1700. repaired 200 to 450.

[Frosty]

Alex: Did you notice the OP date? You're trolling a year old post.

To give you the benefit of the doubt though, post some before and after pics of your "refurbished" anvils and include the rebound test results.

What you're "written" so far doesn't show us  much beyond your reading comprehension being on a par with your writing skills. Do you have ANY idea what you just claimed? 

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

20 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Do you have ANY idea what you just claimed? 

Frosty The Lucky.

I certainly don't. 

[alex L]

nickle 55 to build up the edges and stoody 2110 in to layers for top has to be machined yet. as welded the rebound is a little better than before. 

[Frosty]

 Why did you use nickle rod?

Frosty The Lucky.

[alex L]

Vulcan anvils have a cast iron body and a thin steel face. the edges where chirped bad lost an in of face in center.. both cast and the steel had chirped away.so to fill in the cast  iron 55 nickle rod a good rod as it has better impact strength and after chirped cast edges was filled out. the hardfacing will stick to the nickle with no problems, so then could run the stoody 2110 no problems over the whole face.  nickle 55 is better than nickle 99. 55 has more iron sticks better to cast and steel. 

 

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

There are much better rods for cast iron, but they run in the $50 a pound range. But if it worked for you then it was the right rod. 

[alex L]

Does messer makes that, or is it a diffrent brand? 

[alex L]

i used weld coat nickle 55 and stoody 2110. if that helps any.