Experimenting with hardface rod.

[tanglediver]

Here is the lab rat, a 110 pound cast steel, Russian made anvil I bought from Harbor Freight back in the 90's. 

It originally rebounded about 55%, which is very soft.

I want to learn about hard surfacing and anvil repair.

So, I had at this anvil,

and I can see many fine cracks in the ground surface.

The camera may or not show them very well. I tried to highlight some of them.

So, I have options. Worst case scenario, I air arc the whole job clean off the top. I think it has already come to that! But before I proceed, I will seek out more experienced people in this regard. By all means, let me have it. Welding school was far more expensive than this anvil and some rods.

[Steve Shimanek]

As long as the whole welded top doesn't come off, and no shrapnel occurs, I do not see the problem.

[tanglediver]

Agreed. Therein lies the question, "as long as". Who's to say when bits and pieces might let go under energetic work? 

Well, there is no rush, as I have other anvils which will never see my welder used on them!! 

[BartW]

Well; grind it as clean as possible, all the cracks out and such; and heat the anvil up to really hot, only then can you weld it. Well it's a little more complicated than that; slow cooling and excact temps depend. I'm intrested in the results

[ThomasPowers]

There is some hardfacing rod that is designed to spider web crack when lid down.  Exactly what rod and process did you use?

[tanglediver]

The rods were Stoody 31 (supposed to be equivalent of 2110) and 1105. With the exception of rod diameter, I used 5/32 and 1/8 respectively, I did what I could to follow the Gunther & Schuler method exactly. http://www.anvilmag.com/smith/anvilres.htm  I preheated to 400 degrees, ran one layer of 31 rod, then one layer of 1105 rod. That's it, then I covered the entire thing in a wheel  barrow full of vermiculite to slow the cooling down. I did this on a 100 degree plus July day, so there was no rapid cooling going on. It was still warm the next day.

Once I got back to it, I ran a grind stone over it until only the deepest pits remained. That's a lot of what we call "padding" to burn into a flat surface, the goal being to keep the beads 1/2 overlayed on the previous one to cover the whole surface to a uniform depth. 

It may be that I ought to throw a layer of 7018 between the base metal and the hard surface rod, I am not sure. I believe I should contact Stoody and bounce it off of someone there.

[ThomasPowers]

Good Idea.