I currently have a 140 lbs PW and love it. But, it seems I always have my eye out for another (large) anvil. I can move 140 lbs around OK. But, I'm was wondering how do you all with larger anvils move them around, if you need to? I'm currently set up in my garage, so if I eventually get a large anvil, I'll need to be able to move it around.

 

Put the anvil where you need it, and put everything else on wheels. 

Failing that, a Johnson bar can come in pretty handy. 

Cherry picker was how we moved my 515# anvil into my pickup when I bought it, Dumped it out the back when I got home and used rollers on boards to get it into the shop and then used a comealong mounted on a ceiling joist REINFORCED AND WITH TWO LOLLY COLUMNS ON EITHER SIDE OF THE ANVIL TO BOOT. 

It gets moved rather seldomly---easier to move the forge WRT that anvil than vice versa.

Go to a "we rent everything" place. Rent yourself an engine jack. That and a chain should not only get it out of a truck but also roll and lift it to wherever you want it.

George

Make your anvil stand with provisions for adding wheels or the ability to at least lever up one side so you can get rollers under it.   I moved my 350 pound anvil by levering it onto 1-inch pipe rollers and pushing it across the shop.  Obviously engine hoists work as do hydraulic lift tables.  

2 hours ago, JHCC said:

Failing that, a Johnson bar can come in pretty handy

Johnson bars are great as long as the mass is hugging the ground......

Thank you all. This is exactly what I was needing 

How often are you going to be moving this heavy anvil around, and how far ?

Depending on the shop floor, you can use 3 trailer jacks, the one that lifts a trailer tongue so you can place the ball receiver on the ball of the truck.  They do not have to be permanent, and can adjust for ground clearance. Lower is better when dealing with weights, and even more so with heavy weights that can shift.  

You could weld a lifting plate on the stand. Mount the bottle jack on a plate with wheels attached.  Use a bottle jackto lift the anvil and stand clear of the floor. Use a couple of handles to raise the other end of the stand and move it around.

We needed to move a 2000 pound acorn platten only 20 feet across a concrete floor. Engine hoist was rated for 4000 pounds so as long as the load was secure and kept low to the ground, we should be good. The 20 foot move destroyed 4 of the 6 wheels on the hoist. The hubs of the original wheels collapsed.  New wheels and the hoist was operational again.

With the engine hoist idea, be sure the side outriggers are in use, and the front outrigger supports and not in the way of the load or the move.

Pipe or solid bar stock used as rollers can move a whole lot of weight. 

One of my best yard sale scores was an engine hoist and my shop floor is concrete. 

Frosty The Lucky.

 nice issue. Had to move my 881lb anvil when i got him. Never imagined how hard that could be. After he had been dumped on my yard i moved him with a chain pull into place, i built the stand, lifted him with a timbered frame and the chain pull, put the stand under the anvil and lowered the anvil. The rest of the shop was built around the anvil. 

p.s.: yes, i'm talking about my anvil as a person cause he's even got a name as all my heavy tools have one

1 hour ago, c.baum said:

Had to move my 881lb anvil when i got him.

Would love to have seen that!

Robert Taylor

26 minutes ago, Anachronist58 said:

Would love to have seen that!

did i write anything wrong (i really have to improve my english skills)?

When I bought my 480 lb PW, it was loaded on my trailer with a forklift. I reversed as close as I could to the shop door, and dropped it onto a tire covered by a piece of particleboard. Wedged a hand trolley under it and put the chain around it and wheeled into the shop. 

Next step is to make a stand for it, then a cheap e-bay engine hoist will do to lift it on the stand. 

Herr Baum ... you did not write something wrong. 400 Kg is a big anvil. Is it a Refflinghaus ? 

5 hours ago, Marc1 said:

400 Kg is a big anvil. Is it a Refflinghaus ? 

Uff, i do not have any information about the manufacturer since the anvil might be made in 1975 or so. The only mark is the 400 for the weight. I don't think it's a Refflinghaus, i think it's "just" a mass product from a soviet or GDR-mill.

5 hours ago, Marc1 said:

Herr Baum ... you did not write something wrong.

It's not that easy to read if it is meant in a sarcastic way or not, especially when just that one sentence is quoted. First thing i thought when i read the post was "oh, now they all think that you where pregnant with the anvil"

5 hours ago, Anachronist58 said:

Johnson bars are great as long as the mass is hugging the ground......

Good point. 

Home Depot, up around these parts anyway, has flatbed trucks available for rent. Last time I checked they were only about $19.00 a day. These trucks have small forklifts on back of them. They work great for things like gun safes so an anvil shouldn't be any problem. I notice they even have off road wheels on them so lack of a good surface shouldn't be any problem either.

George

Do they even have Home Depot in Germany?

I'd think so or some varient of it. I thought the OP was from Texas?

No, you're right; I got sidetracked by @c.baum's 881 pounder.

Had a lot of gravitational pull, don't you know.

Now I've moved some heavier things than a mere 500+ pound anvil by bolting skids to the bottom of them and chaining them to the back of my pickup and dragging them to where I could I could switch to rollers running on boards...I've loaded powerhammers by myself before; *slowly* and safely with a lot of wood to stack under parts for cribbing so it could never fall more than 1.5" if something went wrong!

The rubber wheeled engine hoist/cherry picker  we used for my anvil was rated at 600 pounds and the tires were rather off round in use---flat on the bottom and curved on the top.

7 hours ago, c.baum said:

did i write anything wrong (i really have to improve my english skills)?

C.baum, not at all. And your English is fine, ser gut. Wann ich war in BRD, hab ich gesehen in wald zum Bayern..... Now you may laugh at mein deutch!

For those who wish a translation of above, I left West Germany in '79, so this was a feeble attempt to describe a treasured memory of seeing folks in Bavaria changing a tire with a Johnson tree.

c.baum, timber and chain pulls are used a lot in my empire. Hope to meet you in Thuringia some day!

 

15 hours ago, Mark G said:

I'm currently set up in my garage,

Just thinking about the OP, and the fact that you are set up in your garage, and while moving  200# + objects on a frequent basis is less than ideal, It is something that I must do in my current situation.

That said, Mark G., it would be helpful to know what skills and tools you have at your disposal, to be able to suggest a focused and highly satisfactory motility solution.

That way I might forgo suggesting a twenty foot tree trunk hung by a chain from a tree growing in the middle of your garage (MY garage is somewhat rustic.....).

1 hour ago, ThomasPowers said:

cribbing

Thomas, I am enamoured with cribbing.....

Robert Taylor

oooff. 881 pounds? That's a real monster! Would also love to see pics

"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." - Archimedes

c.baum... when it was said I'd love to see it referred to a photo. I also would love to see it.

14 hours ago, c.baum said:

Uff, i do not have any information about the manufacturer since the anvil might be made in 1975 or so. The only mark is the 400 for the weight. I don't think it's a Refflinghaus, i think it's "just" a mass product from a soviet or GDR-mill.

It's not that easy to read if it is meant in a sarcastic way or not, especially when just that one sentence is quoted. First thing i thought when i read the post was "oh, now they all think that you where pregnant with the anvil"

East europe ... may have some historical value then.

Sarcasm? Nee ... I never write nothing that is sarcastic ... wait a minute ... I do not write nothing sarcastic ...  no ... I mean I never attempt not to be sarcastic ... wrong again ... my attempts at sarcasm are non existent, there ... I got it