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Show me your anvil stands


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I do to..  I love that Gum tree base.. Its color is amazing.. 

Once I started working on a steel base my attitude changed..  For what I want to do, steel is the only way to do it in a package that can be changed when ever I want it to.. Add, remove. move.    I have a sledge hammer head coming for a removable foot hammer that mounts to the stand..  Tough to do in wood, super easy in metal. 

I have 2,  pieces of Ash  14"X 17" X 7Ft just waiting for me to decide their fate. 

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Yes!  I once designed an undershot wheel to run a 16# sledge hammer as a helve hammer that would work in the creek at Pennsic With a bit of work.  Never got to put the design to the test as we moved.  Of course windmills would work too Die Schwarze Katze (sp??) in the Netherlands put out 80 hp in a good wind.  You could run a pretty big hammer with that! In Germany I visited a smithy doing industrial work that was still water powered until they shut it down in 1972 and made a museum of it.

Have you visited the Saugus Ironworks up your way?

Of course the book "Mills of Medieval England" goes into the fact that maintenance and upkeep and flood damage were major costs for an old style water mill. Perhaps a nice penstock and pelton wheel?   

 

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  • 2 months later...

Welcome aboard Gabriel, glad to have you. Using the @ to tag people's names causes the site moderators problems with the OS Iforge uses. Just folk's names please, it's best not to irritate Admin.

There was a change in the OS Iforge used and a large % of early photos, files, and such were lost. We all regret it, some darned good stuff went down the drain.

I think about all the types have recent pics in this section. Is there anything in particular you'd like to see?

Frosty The Lucky.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I needed a better way of anchoring my 65 pound anvil - previously it was screwed into a stump with some long deck screws through some 1/4” thick brackets. The connection to the stump was generally sound, but the stump still moved around. I also needed something I could tear down easily.   It was also a little fussy - sometimes it would come loose a bit and require adjustment. 

I just finished the rough work on the stand below. Still need to get rid of some burrs (says my left ring finger muffled through a bandaid), add some foot pads, and give it some boiled linseed oil.  Would like to add some kind of means to hold a few tools/hammers as well. 

I made it out of 2x12’s that are joined with six pieces of 1/2” all thread. I imbedded two halves of a ~50 pound cast iron forklift weight to give it some more mass on the bottom.  These can be removed if needed to make it lighter for transport.

There is an angle rails all the way around. The angle iron on the right side is actually a hold down - the two 1/4” bolts squeeze it down onto the top of the anvil feet and press it in.  Undoing those to bolts allow me to lift the horn up and slide the anvil out. I also cut up a square of sheet metal to put on the top of the stump to give a little protection from hot stuff.

I whacked some aluminum to see how much it has improved things. Seems to me much better.  Previously a blow on the horn was a disaster - the whole thing would walk around. I ended up doing a little circle dance as I forged. Then while heating I would pick it up and orient it back the way it started. Frustrating...

I have been forging outside so far, so I am thinking to make some diagonal holes inward through the base so I can drive some long stakes through as well.  That will hopefully make the most out of this little guy. 

Still TPAAAT’ing for a larger anvil - hoping to find something 150-200 pounds. I hope the effort expended on this will appease the anvil gods and attract an anvil.

18495CDF-2B6B-461A-8463-2D0025ADD3F8.jpeg

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  • 3 weeks later...

I just finished my stand. It's nothing special, just something to help get me started.

The block consists of nine 22.5" long 4x4s clamped together by a dozen lengths of 5/16" threaded rod. I also screwed a couple handles to the top to aid in moving it around. I'd guesstimate the block weighs 45lbs.

The 55lb Grizzly Industrial anvil is held in place by four 6" lengths of rebar, left straight so I can easily lift the anvil off for storage. My living situation necessitates my setup be temporary/portable.

The holes for the threaded rods were a bugger to drill, the green treated wood kept wanting to clamp down around my drill bit.

1442425573_anvilonstand.thumb.jpg.9aec5097f3287dec6f1572336c4bcb7a.jpg

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A couple of comments on laminated wood anvil stands such as The Wandering Llama and TRBoatsol have posted:  a) use the largest pieces of wood you can find/afford.  One 2x8 is better than two 2x4s.  Larger pieces means less work laminating things together and you need fewer fasteners. b) lag bolts are your friend.  If you don't know what a log bolt is, they have a hex head like a bolt and wood screw threads.  They are a lot easier to use than having to line up holes for all thread rods.  You can get them in very long lengths.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand." 

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Also they make extra long "electricians drillbits" that you can clamp the pieces together with pipe clamps  and drill through the entire length in one go and so not have trouble lining up individual holes in the pieces.  You can use them with all thread or extra long bolts.  I used bolts that are used with utility poles and guard rails with mine, (sourced from the local scrapyard.)

Drilling all the way through and bolting allows you to tighten them up as they dry out.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I posted a "slide-show" of the build process for my anvil stand on youtube.  It's a "MOBILE" anvil stand that you can move around with the anvil like a "Dolly".  Here's a link to the slide show (if not permitted, let me know, and I'll post a couple pictures instead):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xA9EnkzKkM   

anvil stand.png

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She's a beauty, shiny and new.

You can tack a couple pieces of wood between the feet for now. then forge a couple large staples or nails to hold it down. You could bend up and punch screw down anchors. Visualize laying a piece of tape on the foot on the right in the picture and down the side and an inch or so along the stand. You bend some strap steel, say 3/8" x 3/4" in that general shape but short the vertical section so the bottom doesn't lay flat on the stand. Counter and punch a hole for a large wood screw. A couple three will keep her put a treat.

Lots of ways and there are plenty of pics here.

Frosty The Lucky.

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About 6 years ago i was outfitting my 120 year old sailing ship with a selection of tools to repair the old girl while cruising. Part of the outfit included a small gas forge and was on the lookout for an anvil, when, glory be! I found one at a flea market. A Trenton 120# for sixty xxxxxxx dollars!!

its been in storage for 3 years and i retrieved it last year. I had some stubs of black locust, about 6x8x19 inches and lag bolted them together for a nice stump. I have blocks of black locust holding the anvil to the stump. No chain or staples needed. That anvil does not bounce or move.

AEDC4BC6-6B1F-4471-8493-3F643BE8C0BC.thumb.jpeg.5e087e6589643518a8982f6e7a7bb28f.jpeg 

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I had considered such. Unfortunately my math didn't quite add up right. I bought a single 16' 2x12. My math showed I would only have maybe an inch left after getting 9 pieces cut to length. Turns out I had closer to 2 inches left. I should have had them do two of them with an extra inch!

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