Anthony Mans Posted August 3, 2017 Author Share Posted August 3, 2017 Would you happen to know the name of those 2 places? Chickasha is only about 15 minutes from my front door, but we haven't been up here long and I haven't quite figured out where everything is. I know there's a huge steel yard in Norman but I think they really prefer to deal commercially. Might still be worth a phone call but I definitely want to check the two places in chickasha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notownkid Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 16 hours ago, JHCC said: Stay away from concrete for anything that's going to get hit, if at all possible. It will eventually crumble. @notownkid has a portable hole that bolts to the top of the anvil; maybe we can get him to post a photo. this is what I have, won it in a drawing at NEBs not sure if they still have? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 I don't see it on the website, but maybe @Judson Yaggy knows more. A while back, I saw a video of someone (was it Mark Aspery?) using one of these to upset the blank for a hardy tool. One thing that struck me was how its thickness put the workpiece very high up, almost too high for comfortable striking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judson Yaggy Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 Bob Menard of Ball and Chain Forge in Portland Maine sells those, google for contact details. I don't believe they are technically NEB product, but since Bob runs our casting program and has these made for himself, and often donates one to the raffle, that is perhaps a distinction without a difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkie Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 Anthony, when you assemble your anvil stand from the dimensional lumber, I would strongly recommend either screwing or bolting the individual pieces to each other in addition to any gluing and straping. Better still, run some allthread through them as best as possible. You would be surprised with heaving hammering, how soon the unsecured individual boards will work loose. If you can get several 4x4's they work great as well. Some folks bolt them vertical, some horizontal like this. These are all bolted together with 6" lag bolts (not visible). This was made square so I can move it around easily with a hand cart. This one is now several years old and solid as a rock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 Off the top of my head I don't know the names, the scrap yard is down the tracks from the viadoc, north of the fairgrounds, past the animal shelter. The rail maintinance yard is a couple of miles north of the county courthouse. As to steel yards, the one in chickasha (acualy east of it) is out last Chickasha meat procesing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 Horizontal stacking tends to lose energy in all the interfaces compared to vertical stacking. As the amount of wood used is the same either way, I suggest doing a vertical assembly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Mans Posted August 3, 2017 Author Share Posted August 3, 2017 All the lumber was cut from scraps that I had left over from a deck project that I did. Most of them have bows and bends in them so I was planning the slather it up with wood glue and then use clamps to pull each piece straight before being screwed together. I'll start with the 4x4 In the middle and work my way out until they are all one piece at which point I am planning to run 2 pieces of all thread from each direction and finish with steel straps accompanied by a hearty coat of poly as this will probably spend a lot of time outside. I hope I'm not missing anything. Arkie that stand looks nice. I have a little extra 4x4 but was trying to save it for legs to a small work table to sit next to my anvil stand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 I was given the old oak boards from a junked horse trailer, cut them to size and then took a piece of I beam and lined them up on it and clamped them solid with pipe clamps and drilled several holes in them using an electrician's drill bit designed to drill holes in a stud wall and ran bolts from utility poles and guardrails---plenty strong!---through them and snugged them tight. No glue, no fancy; been working fine for several years---even the last one I did using a heavily worn board that is "rustic" in the extreme! They stay under a dry roof though, (and finally got all my using anvils enstumped! Made getting the teaching anvils to class a lot simpler when I didn't have to go round stealing stumps from shop anvils, the shop anvils being considerably heavier than the travel anvils...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Mans Posted August 3, 2017 Author Share Posted August 3, 2017 I think I will be following Charles advice and start out on a coal forge. The money makes sense as I already own pretty well everything I need to build a nice one but mostly because that will get me going and learning. I'm a relief operator for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and in a given day, I operate several hundred million dollars worth of machinery that takes months and even years to learn. When I equate that to forges, it would make much more sense for me to learn on something like a basic coal forge and then work my way into the more advanced propane forges. I also sourced some coal here in Oklahoma. I can buy it for $140 a ton from Salt Fork, or I can buy it from TSC right down the road from me @ $5.99/40# Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 The soft coal from Saltfork is a different animal than the hard coal from TS, both are usable but you can shut the air off to the soft stuff for 1/2 an hour with out it going out, wile the hard stuff goes out in less than 5 min. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Mans Posted August 3, 2017 Author Share Posted August 3, 2017 That's really good to know. I'd rather buy the Salt Fork coal, I just don't know where I'd store 2,000# of coal except outside and storing something that can't get wet outside in Oklahoma is as big of a gamble as any. 110 degrees today with sun that would tan the devil and 70 degrees tomorrow with a chance of drowning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkie Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 3 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: Horizontal stacking tends to lose energy in all the interfaces compared to vertical stacking. As the amount of wood used is the same either way, I suggest doing a vertical assembly! Ya know...after I built that stand several years ago, I read the same thing; that it was better to stack the 4x4's vertical...too late now!! Ain't about to take that bugger apart!!! Maybe on the next one. I think there is more lost energy in these old arms than there is in the anvil stand!!!!!!!!!! I did notice one thing though, that I originally had the anvil on a stump about the same diameter as the block construction is wide and found that the block was more stable, even not being buried in the soil but rather riding on gravel. 1 hour ago, Anthony Mans said: That's really good to know. I'd rather buy the Salt Fork coal, I just don't know where I'd store 2,000# of coal except outside and storing something that can't get wet outside in Oklahoma is as big of a gamble as any. 110 degrees today with sun that would tan the devil and 70 degrees tomorrow with a chance of drowning. Anthony, just throw a tarp over the coal and weigh down the edges. Wet won't hurt it, but as Jennifer said in a post, it's a pain to break it free when it freezes...and it DOES freeze in OK. I'm not sure, so don't quote me on this, but one smith told me that Saltfork gets their coal from the mine at Vinita, OK. Maybe a Saltfork member here on IFI can verify that. If so, it's good enough coal. Our organization uses the Vinita coal...it's bituminous. Look up the Phoenix Mining Co., Kelly mine on the entrynet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Mans Posted August 4, 2017 Author Share Posted August 4, 2017 I'm really excited about this. I think I'm drawing just as much pleasure from building everything as I will from actually forging. I *could* slap together a quick stand in 10 minutes or just use this big ol stump that I throw in the bed of my truck when roads get slick, but I find a lot of satisfaction in building a nice looking custom stand for this anvil. As I will also be a perfectionist when it comes to building a nice work table and a clean, nice looking, and functioning forge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 Really I think we tend to get bogged down in the details; hours spent hammering on the anvil are much more important than type of anvil, type of stand, type of hammer, type of handle, whether your forge uses a MiG tip or an F16 tip, etc or so on...as far as getting good smithing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Mans Posted August 4, 2017 Author Share Posted August 4, 2017 I think you're probably right lol but I think that's a guy thing. If you look at it, *most* of us do it in a lot of things we do. For example, I just built a new book shelf for my wife out of some oak veneer plywood. Sure, I could have easily ripped it into 12" wide sheets my simply making a quick edge guide but why do that when I can completely justify a new table saw? I mean it was a bookshelf for HER so... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 You don't have to buy a ton, call the member with the Norman coal pile, take a trash can or two and a shovel, load up. He will tell you were to go to scale it (tho a good bathroom scale will work for small amounts like a trash can). But iff you do haul home a ton, rain won't hurt it. Infact we use water to manage coal fires and consolidate coal dust so it can be salvaged as usable fuel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Mans Posted August 4, 2017 Author Share Posted August 4, 2017 I'm going to try to head over the that scrap yard this weekend on my way home from Lawton and see what I can see. They open for the day right around the time I'll be passing by Chickasha. I'll take 30-45 minutes and walk around. Hope I find some stuff I can use. Might even see about some angle iron to fashion a box frame that I can close in with what's left of my 2x scrap and have a coal bin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 Good deal, now I can't speek for the guy on the south end of town. He has never gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling (kind of like salvage yard owners) TJ and I scored a 4x4 solid about 10' long out if there about 2 years ago. They had a 32" tall 6x6 I wanted but never got back. They also had a small acorn table top 1/2 sunk in the dirt back there as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Mans Posted August 4, 2017 Author Share Posted August 4, 2017 Also, I wanted to add, I hope I'm not offending anyone by my desire to build a nice smithing setup. I enjoy projects a lot and right now my "project" is building my setup. I'm not ignoring the JABOD or the 55 build, I've studied them both and read up on it as well as the wash tub style forge, customs where the maker has a flat table, brake drums and disks, etc. And that's not to say that any of those styles aren't nice because they are, im just trying to learn more. Just like 3 days ago, I was dead set on a propane forge and now that I have done some more homework and studied up a little bit, I can understand why I should be building a coal forge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 The only things that truly offend us are people being unwilling to learn or promoting practices that are patently unsafe. You're doing fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkie Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 There is nothing wrong with taking pride in your work. I'm sure that will show up in your smithing as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Mans Posted August 4, 2017 Author Share Posted August 4, 2017 Well I've been up all night working on it. I decided if I was going after an anvil object this weekend, then my block needed to be ready to mount up... so here it is. Each board is glued and screwed to the boards touching it and then 4x 8" lag bolts from each side. All that's left is to smooth out the top with a quick belt sander pass and to slather it up with polyurethane to weather proof it and fill any cracks. What do you guys think? I know it isn't perfect, each piece was cut from scrap that's been under my deck for almost a year so a lot of work went into pulling all the bends and bows straight. Regarding the holes at each corner, I'm planning to drive a piece of 1/2" pipe down each hole to use for accessory holes (like a Hardie?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 I'd put short pieces of square tubing to hold hardies handy, cut the corners an inch or so down and fold out the tabs and maybe cut off the tabs that would overlap. I've no problem going fancy save when it interferes with folks getting off the internet and on the anvil! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted August 4, 2017 Share Posted August 4, 2017 I would've suggested a less fancy pattern but it'll work fine just don't get all carried away making it "perfect." Ain't no perfect out there in human land, good enough for an anvil stand is solid, the right height and doesn't rock. Securing the anvil to it is just a matter of picking a method and applying it, just a finish detail really. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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