Anvil Ringing, 90% quieter with this and anvil still spins

[SLS]

Hi,
   I think the days when excessive bouncing hammers on anvils do not generate any increase in sales. So, around 1988 I moved my anvil from the cellar to the new 10 x 10 shed in the field and tried it out. It was ringing in a way I hadnt taken much note of in the cellar. My sense at the time that it was too loud even for me and hurt my ears. Its this type of anvil, the shape, it has too much overhang (PW-175lb). There are peoples houses who live within ear shot. I put a hardy tool in the anvil and it was a little better and that gave me an idea. I put a magnet on a 2 pound chunk of steel and stuck it to the heel and it was 90% quieter. The magnet pulls 30 pounds so it wont ever fall off.

  The energy from hammering still all goes into the red hot metal when forging and hammering but it just dosnt set up a undamped tone now. When bouncing a hammer, the anvil takes only 10% of the hammer energy, but how that anvil rings, wow. They gentleman who gave me my rivet forge who was very generous and saw some promise in me, did not like the magnet. I took it off and he did some demonstration forgings for me. It was a weekday at noon so the noise went unnoticed. Yes, he bounced that hammer all the time  and it made me cringe, the unnecessary noise.

  When I use a hardy tool it pushes off the magnet. I reposition the magnet before hand most times. A permanent solution might be to cross drill the anvil heel with a 1" hole and fill it with a loose steel rod coated with grease.

  I also wanted to spin the anvil to position it. This PW anvil came with 3 casting porosity square jabs. As the casting cooled they jabbed the sides and bottom to give it a place for shrinkage and prevent cracks. Without that the bottom would be dished and need more machining. That gave me a place to put the 1" rod to let it spin without need for safety chains. My wood post goes 3' into the ground. The shop is small so I like moving the anvil around for different jobs. Our town exempts sheds of 10'x10' from taxes so thats the size it became. The anvil spins easy but it takes lots of force.

SLS

Noise From A Shop And Town Bylaws Prohibiting it:
  www.iforgeiron.com/topic/54476-neighbors-with-noise-conpliant/  20mar18
  (son_of_bluegrass    While you're on the phone, ask about the specifics of any noise ordinances)
  (ThomasPowers    A Fisher or Vulcan anvil is very quiet!  February 22, 2011)

 

[Glenn]

Put the magnet into a plastic bag. When you collect enough slag, metal debris, open and reverse the bag and throw it and the debris away. Put it in a clean bag and back on the anvil. Keeps the magnet free of whiskers, debris, etc.

There are many ways to quieten an anvil discussed on the site. I find the magnet is one of the less effective ways. The ring is from the vibration set up in the anvil (think tuning fork). Dampen that vibration and you dampen the ring. 

The one place that a loud anvil works for you is at a demo. It calls people to your location as they know something is going on.

 

[rockstar.esq]

I found that tight steel clamps killed the ring on my anvil.  My stand is made of rectangular tubing filled with oiled sand.  It's a tripod arrangement that never wobbles and isn't in the way for anything I'd want to do.  I don't take the anvil off the stand, I just move the whole thing when necessary.

I've been to a few hammer-ins with it and it's significantly quieter than setups using magnets, chains, or caulk.

 

[JHCC]

1 hour ago, SLS said:

This PW anvil came with 3 casting porosity square jabs. As the casting cooled they jabbed the sides and bottom to give it a place for shrinkage and prevent cracks

Peter Wright anvils were forged from wrought iron, not cast. Those holes are called "handling holes", and they had iron bars inserted in them to assist in moving and positioning the anvil for forging.

[ThomasPowers]

Most folks I know who use magnets use speaker magnets due to availability and cost. Also a magnet handy is nice for heat treating plain carbon steels as the temperature for quenching is close to the Curie temperature of plain steels.  All of this has been mentioned hundreds of times here before.  However if you were searching using the embedded forum search it might not show up as it's a known issue.  We strongly suggest using your native browser search and just using  site:iforgeiron.com

The person who didn't like hammering with the magnet on---that's a personal problem or misheld belief!

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

7 hours ago, SLS said:

A permanent solution might be to cross drill the anvil heel with a 1" hole and fill it with a loose steel rod coated with grease

Please do not do that. It won't help and will ruin a perfectly good anvil. The reason your anvil rings so loud are the gaps between the feet & block, which sets up the vibrations.

You would be better off to mount the anvil in calking compound and cut the post off at the proper height to sit on the floor. Then turn the anvil & post as a unit.