Storing an anvil so it does not rust

[Frosty]

ISS isn't really out of the atmosphere it's not really very hard vacuum. How fast would you have to turn the blower to use it?

Yeah Arkie, like Deb would let me keep an anvil in HER house.

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

My wife has suggested I could use it for a pillow...

[Glenn]

14 hours ago, Frosty said:

Nobody has suggested keeping it in the house where it's warm and dry. 

One anvil, maybe. The post vise, tongs, tools, etc would not be welcome.

[ThomasPowers]

I used to keep my anvil in the basement and carry it up the rickety stairs and through the kitchen and out the back door when I wanted to use it, including in the winter. (I managed to weld a mounting bracket for the postvise to a heavy welding table and so leave it outside with a bucket over it for weather protection.)

[BLDSMTH]

Rust inhibiting grease!!!

 

[Frosty]

Isn't that the grease Thomas was talking about washing off his van with diesel and kerosene?

Grease is a good theft inhibitor too. If you work it right, the thief will drop it on his/er foot.  

Frosty The Lucky.

[careful_eugene]

How about cleaning the anvil thoroughly then shrink wrapping in plastic together with a few sachets of silica gel? Ideally this would need to be undertaken in a dry environment. The main advantage would be that you wouldn't have to remove any grease oil or paint when you wanted to use the anvil again.

[HojPoj]

Shrink wrap wouldn't cut the mustard for that sort of application, you'd need a hermetically sealed enclosure.  A large heat-sealing bag might work, but the reality is that handling things would most likely damage the plastic.

If the anvil's on a smooth, nonporous base, you could put a giant bell jar over it and draw a vaccum in the resultant chamber (with dessicants present, too).  Safe from environmental ravages, and still on display!

[JHCC]

While you're at it, put a pitch drop experiment on top -- the pitch spreading out over time will further inhibit corrosion!

[ThomasPowers]

Till the next earthquake "jarred" it and you have an implosion as well as the shake rattle and roll.  Why not drop it in a 30 gallon drum of grease, put the lid back on and you could store it under water!

[JHCC]

But if it's too far under water, any pinholes in the steel, and the pressure will collapse the drum like a pancake, squirting the grease through the water like a noodle extruder! Then the grease would slowly degrade and float to the surface, allowing the water to come into contact with the anvil, and BANG you've got rust!

[Marc1]

This has turned into who proposes the most outlandish idea ...

I say the best is to place the anvil in a vacuum chamber. The chamber is to have a pressure switch that sounds an alarm in case of loss of vacuum.

[ThomasPowers]

Grease is not compressible so that is not a factor.

[Tommytaptap]

TP has it. A vacuum removes most chances of condensation which as we all know consists of mainly water; H2O-not too far from H2sO4.  My own anvil is in a wooden workshop which is susceptible due to weather and the limitations of the wood jointing-tongue and groove system and attempts to seal it somewhat- to the vagaries of massive changes in humidity.  My chemistry lessons taught me however, that ferric oxide should protect any ferrous metal from ferrous oxide. So maybe a wax containing lots of fe2O3 would do the trick. Discuss please...

[careful_eugene]

5 hours ago, HojPoj said:

Shrink wrap wouldn't cut the mustard for that sort of application, you'd need a hermetically sealed enclosure.  A large heat-sealing bag might work, but the reality is that handling things would most likely damage the plastic.

We shrink wrap some very heavy equipment (bridge bearings etc) to pallets with the main aim of stopping them moving during transport. Some bearings weigh up to 150Kg so I believe it would work, the trick is to use heavy polythene and ensure that it's well sealed.

[JHCC]

1 hour ago, Marc1 said:

The chamber is to have a pressure switch that sounds an alarm in case of loss of vacuum.

Perhaps a ball bearing suspended over the main anvil with a fail-safe mechanism held in place by the vacuum. If the vacuum fails, the bearing will fall and ring the anvil. Uncontrolled rebound could be an issue.

If the anvil being stored is a Fisher that would not ring sufficiently loudly, then the ball bearing could be replaced with a small Soderfors.

[ThomasPowers]

Perhaps heavy platinum plating would be sufficient.

[tanglediver]

Launch it into orbit. In space, no one can hear it rust.

[JHCC]

Yeah, but you get abrasion from orbital debris.

[Chelonian]

I know you're just joking, but I do have to point out that abrasion wouldn't be much of a problem. If it was true, how would all the delicate satellites in orbit still be intact? True, there are a few satellites that are destroyed each year from orbital debris, but at the speeds that orbital objects collide, I wouldn't  call it "abrasion". Either the anvil would be fine, or it would be obliterated.(it would almost certainly be fine)

A more pressing issue with storage in orbit would be how to get it down from orbit when you want to use it again. Re-entry temperatures would cause it to completely burn up, or at the very least ruin the temper of the face plate. Perhaps if it was also stored in a temperature-shielding container for re-entry?

[JHCC]

I have a friend who works for NASA; I'll see what he says.

[Chelonian]

I'd love to hear what he says. I don't know for sure, but it's how I understand it anyways.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

I just don't worry about it. If there is some surface rust it comes off when I use it.

 

[anvil]

Hey, we are traditional smiths!

I suggest we keep it simple and follow the actions of our forefathers and bury it in a large pile of horse manure!

[ThomasPowers]

ISTR that that was the recipe for rusting an item not protecting it from rust.  (I know it was used to artificially "age" wood...)