Machining the face?

[TeH_Chach]

Good Afternoon,

 This is my first post so forgive me if I’ve broken any rules. 

 

I have ave a pre solid wrought stamped PW anvil that needs some work done to the face. At some point someone repaired almost the entire surface with weld. With that being said there is still a lovely ring and the rebound is about ~70%. There is a lot of perocity in the welds and the face is no longer flat. I ground the blemishes out with a 4” grinder from a grinding disk to 120g flap disk. I was able to grind it smooth but it’s not flat. I called a local machine shop and asked them if they would deck it for me. The difference between the lowest point and the highest is about an 1/8th of an inch. I’m thinking it will probably be ok if they mill that much material off the face. Can someone please advise?

 

 

Thanks in advance!

[HojPoj]

Unless you know how deep the hardfacing was put on, you run a high risk of machining through the hardened section straight into the soft stuff.  Personally I'd leave as is, unless I had the resources to resurface it (either the materials/equipment/knowledge, or access to a anvil repair workshop).

The same could be said with trying to clean up the face, you might've removed a fair amount whatever hardened material was left.  Unless the pits are causing a serious detriment to the surface finish of your work or the variance in the face is seriously affecting your ability to work the steel, just use it as-is.

[arkie]

DON'T MILL OR GRIND IT!!!!! The polishing you did is sufficient. Just hammer and forge your work on it. That will eventually work the surface more smooth. The departure from perfectly flat can work to your advantage in straightening some pieces.

[JHCC]

What HojPoj and arkie said. A slight hollow as you describe is actually good for straightening out bent pieces.

That said, Welcome to IFI! If you haven't yet, please READ THIS FIRST!!!

[TeH_Chach]

11 minutes ago, arkie said:

DON'T MILL OR GRIND IT!!!!! The polishing you did is sufficient. Just hammer and forge your work on it. That will eventually work the surface more smooth. The departure from perfectly flat can work to your advantage in straightening some pieces.

So the lack of a level surface is ok? Would it be acceptable to clean the rest of the face as I did the front 4 or so inches?

[JHCC]

It's perfectly acceptable as it is. You can do heavy forging anywhere on the face without issues (and frankly, I've worked on much worse anvils) and move to the polished area for planishing (lighter hammer blows to clean up the surface). Further grinding is unnecessary and possibly detrimental.

By the way, where are you in Cleveland?

[Daswulf]

I'm surprised someone welded over the face and you have around 70%rebound. Might have been done somewhat correctly. 

No, 1/8" unevenness is nothing to worry about. It's not a machining deck, it's an anvil. Use it as is. If somehow you are good enough to need a perfectly flat face to forge on then you should be able to forge enough work on that one to be able to afford a new anvil. 

That anvil looks like it'll work fine as is. The little bit of porosity shouldn't affect your work. 

[TeH_Chach]

North Ridgeville 

[JHCC]

I'm in Oberlin. We should meet.

[ThomasPowers]

The question is: what are you doing that requires a perfectly level face?  Most of use have no issue with working with a bit of sway as the sway of the section directly under the hammer face is generally minute.  Now if you have a need for a quite flat and level face perhaps a forklift tine could be used for that particular process.

[TeH_Chach]

Thank you everyone for the information! I was just under the assumption that the face of an anvil was supposed to be flat. All of the input has changed my mind about machining the top. I'm glad I looked for counsel before I went forward with the machine shop.

[MC Hammer]

Glad you checked Teh!  My anvil has sway (dip) in the sweet spot area toward the horn.  It's never been a problem for forging and yes it does work well to straighten things out.  I got a scrap piece of steel that was perfectly flat that I use when I need such a surface.  I mounted it on a post.  A couple of forged clips and a silicone bed and I was in business.  I use this every time I forge because it's my flatter station.  There are good ways around not having a flat anvil.

[ThomasPowers]

Act from what you know; not from what you assume.   Always a bad idea to make irreversible changes before finding things out.  We are very happy that you hadn't milled that face too!

[Marc1]

3 hours ago, TeH_Chach said:

I have a PW anvil

Peter Wright anvils are good workhorses but a tad on the soft side compared with european anvils. No amount of 'repair' can change that. Use it as it is. Many blacksmith worked a life time on PW without any issues. 

Eventually you will buy another anvil and then more. Each anvil has it's idiosyncrasy. Find the good side of each anvil and work around the defects. 

[JHCC]

I have a flat surface on the top of my striking anvil, but if I want something to be flatter than I can judge by eye, I'll use that surface as a reference, but actually hammer on my swayback Mousehole (aka The Undisputed King of Anvils) or on a wooden block.

[TeH_Chach]

This is my first anvil. 6x6 v cut block for cutting pipe that I welded to a 12x12 3/4” plate. It’s what I’ve been using for the finish work.

[Daswulf]

Thats a nice anvil in itself that many people would love to have. 

[ThomasPowers]

My wife says that the collective noun for anvils should be "a harem of anvils".

[arkie]

6 hours ago, TeH_Chach said:

So the lack of a level surface is ok? Would it be acceptable to clean the rest of the face as I did the front 4 or so inches?

TeH, the way a slight sway on the surface can be used to straighten work, is that as you hammer a slightly curved piece over the sway (arched upward), the belly of the sway lets the curved piece lay downward, gradually removing the curve.  You can tweak a curved piece that way so that it will lay flat referenced to a flat surface.  I would rather have an anvil with a slight sway than one that was perfectly flat.

[ThomasPowers]

It's your anvil. You can do with it what you will---just don't tell us about some of the things, please!

The issue is that every angstrom you remove from the face cuts down on the use life of the face.  As scale is an abrasive; a face ill wear with use anyway---why pre-wear the face?

So why don't you use it a lot for a year and then decide what you want to do!