345LBS Hay Budden sad shape

[Timber Ridge Forge]

Trying to decide where to go with this guy picked it up about two months ago. I don’t need it to be perfect trying figure out what to do with it I think cost and time spent makes the Gunther method is not an option  as I don’t have the skills or equipment to do it right myself might just cost to much between the fact that the rebound is horrible 50%ish on What’s left of the top plate. The section missing is quite large as well. 

Options 

1. Sell it to someone who understands its value properly repaired. 

2. Weld up the damaged section and get a 1/4 - 1/2” top plate made and welded on. 

3. Grind off the whole top plate and have it machined and add the top plate might cost too much. 

4. Just sell it for the $800 I have been offered and walk away. 

Curious what you guys would do. I am on a pretty tight budget at the moment so that’s a factor. 

[jlblohm]

Take the money and run. The best way to repair it is remove whats left of the top and forge weld a new top on but that is by no means an easy task.

 

[jlpservicesinc]

Well it either becomes what is more valuable to you..  

Properly fixed with modern arc welding using the proper surface wear rods it could be brought back to life and be like brand new..   And a lot easier to fix should a hammer accident happen in the future.. 

I'd avoid putting on a partial face plate as it's never a good fix..  

The anvil as it is now is not worth 800.00 to me.. It would be a 2 or 300.00 tops.. 

To fix it (I have all the equipment) is only a day job so what is the day worth if you looked at the expense of the equipment involved..   Our local NEB group has a member who sponsors an anvil rebuild day.. This would be a perfect candidate and it's pretty inexpensive..  

 

I love that video but have never seen the finished product?  Anybody have a pic of it? 

 

[JHCC]

There is really only one good answer.

[Charcold]

Unless the person you're selling it to said something like, "I can fix it, i've got a wire welder and i'll just put on a stainless plate i've got in my garage" I'd say take the money any run. The only shame i'd see in all of it would be someone botching the repair badly. 

[jlblohm]

1 hour ago, jlpservicesinc said:

I love that video but have never seen the finished product?  Anybody have a pic of it? 

You have to watch the full video to see the end priduct.  It shows it at the beginning though. 

[jlpservicesinc]

There must be other copies.   It ended with everybody putting the hammers down..

[Timber Ridge Forge]

Wish you would closer  jplserviceinc I would much rather have it fixed properly then patched up. 

[HammerMonkey]

If you have an offer of $800, that would be almost enough to buy a brand new, albeit smaller, nimbus or other really good anvil. But... if you need something as big as this 345 pounder, it will cost a lot more than $800 to buy another that size. Repairing this one would make a lot of sense then.

On the other hand, there is still a lot of usable face on that anvil. if there is not a delam problem and rebound is good, you could just use it as is...

[Timber Ridge Forge]

I have quite a few anvils this was supposed to by my main one most are 115-160lbs this one has horrible rebound . 

[jlpservicesinc]

1 hour ago, Timber Ridge Forge said:

I have quite a few anvils this was supposed to by my main one most are 115-160lbs this one has horrible rebound . 

It's going to..   Lotta good work as been done on smaller anvils...  the 275lbs Peddinghaus I have in the trailer is ok.. but it is wider than I like..  but dual horn so have a narrow work section when ever I want it.. 

There might be some local Blacksmith groups in the area that get together..  You might want to look into it.. The anvil face welding thing is better known now than it used to be.. As mentioned the guy who sponsors it here is always full up on the class.. 

[ThomasPowers]

If you need the money; you can sell it. Unfortunately you will need to sell it to someone not fully aware of it's deficiencies---wanting a garden display piece of something to sit on the fireplace surround...or greatly desirous in a large anvil and willing to rebuild it on a massive scale.  

The poor rebound most probably indicates that the delamination extends to other areas still with face over them and the first step might be to pop the rest of the face off it.  Note that rebuilding it will be tedious and HOT as the anvil will need to be preheated to avoid self quenching in the HAZ.

How is the ring?  A muted ring or even a "buzz"  indicates hidden cracks/delamination.

I once traded a 125# PW + a postvise screw/screwbox + US$100 for a 410 pound Trenton used in a copper mine in AZ, (about 50 cents a pound in it).  The face was lovely and flat save where the mine maintenance team had used it as a prop for their work and it had air arc gouges in it, grrrrr.  Moved it 1500 miles and finally got it to an Anvil repair day down here. (Only 2 anvils showed up, one that had had the face milled till it was too thin to use and mine---took up the entire day so we two lucked out.)  It's now my "backup large anvil" with my mint 468# Fisher being the primary large anvil in my shop.

[Timber Ridge Forge]

It has a great ring. 

[ThomasPowers]

That's odd because if the ring is good the rest of the face should have decent rebound---what numbers are you getting on it?

(The reason the ball bearing test was designed to give a numerical output so that it could then be compared to other examples.  There was a guy here once who said his anvil had good rebound and when we finally got a number from him it was actually terrible rebound---cast iron!)

[Timber Ridge Forge]

Well I guess it’s not as bad as I thought. I wasn’t as precise when originally testing  as I should’ve been I took a ruler and droppedit at 10 inch to measure and got about 73% rebound on it I thought it was closer 50 originally.

[jlpservicesinc]

I"m not a fan of the rebound test overall.. I can see where it has merit but.. It's just a test..  Real test comes in forging..  

A wrought iron anvil with no face will ring very well.. A wrought iron anvil with a partial face can ring very well..  A wrought iron anvil with a full face can ring very well..  

I have also found that an anvil that has good harmonic vibrations will ring very well no matter what it is made of if it's loosely mounted and allowed to vibrate..  If the face is loose only and there is an air space with no contact, it will ring like the dickens.. 

i have also found anvils that would ring 100db loose when mounted properly barely have a wisper (check out the trailer video how tos) this anvil Peddinghaus has 95% rebound and will ring your ear off when just placed on the stand..  Now that it's bolted down and torqued to the stand with 3/4" nuts to about 100ft pound torque.. Well it still has a ring but it's very faint.. 

Anyhow,  I'd still go with the suggestion of finding a forge group in your area.. Fail that and you feel like you can replace it at some point with an anvil of the same weight class sell it and clear you mind..  

There is something to be said about letting go..   I was all hung up on the Steam power hammer I was looking at and was driven crazy for nearly a week and a half..  Do I need one.. NO.. did I want one,  Yes you betcha.. LOL..   Still do.. But I had to free myself from it.. 

There are still lots of great anvils out there.. Tell the guy you want 900.00 for it..  If he comes in at 850.00 so be it Or just let it go for the 800.00 put the money into your anvil savings coffee can and put in 5 or 10.00 a week. or birthday money or what have you..     It's how I do it.. I only eat and drink at home..  I don't stop at DD or starbucks..  For each 3-8.00 coffee that is a substantial savings over time.. 

Tomorrow I'll be driving about 200miles or the course of about 5 hrs.. I'll bring water and maybe a hot tea and then I'll shoot for home when finished.. If it was a really long day I'd bring a cooler with lunch..  

again, I'd look for a local BS group there are a bunch of them every where now.. 

I just looked at the pictures again.. It's got plenty of life left in it.. 

You might want to look at maybe getting a MIG welder from HF?  they have a really nice looking combo machine now.. Its always nice to learn a new skill when working on this old stuff..  

[VaughnT]

I'd keep it and use it.  There's a ton of usable face, and having that drop down where the plate broke off just means you have something akin to a tapered square heel.  I can see a lot of instances where that would come in handy!

 

And, in the future, when the budget isn't as tight, you can always reconsider getting the girl properly repaired.

[jlblohm]

7 hours ago, jlpservicesinc said:

There must be other copies.   It ended with everybody putting the hammers down..

The anvil they show in the very beginning of the video is the end product. There is a video that shows it at the end also but this particular one shows it in the beginning.

[Timber Ridge Forge]

Yeah I am going to put it on the back burner for now unless someone offers me enough money to change my mind. I used it for about 6 hours last week and just didn’t like the rebound on it. I think it might be fine for some projects but I felt I was working a lot harder for similar results from better anvils I have. I also picked up a 144lbs Peter Wright farrier I have wanted to put in the rotation for a bit so it’s not the end of the world.