Anvil Repair

[Johnnie C.]

I have a Haybutton anvil and the edges are getting worn pretty badly. I have been told to mig weld the edges and grind the excess off. What are some ways I could repair my anvil?

[maddog]

It is usually best not to weld on an anvil unless a. you really know what you are doing ( I make no assumptions about j@j's expertise) b. The anvil absolutely positively has to be repaired. Usually rounded edges are just fine and chips can be ground out to a smooth round. If you must have a square edge you can make a hardy tool.

That said. Many smiths recondition their anvils with 7018 (I dunno the MIG equivalent) which is soft but workhardens some. It can also be rewelded easily when it wears. You can also use a high impact crush resistant hardfacing rod. Irnsrgn has a BP on this and I have used his method successfully on my Hay Budden. Its a bit soft but it wears very well with no tendency to spread or deform. Too soft is better than too hard.

Finally be aware that any welding on the plate will detemper the plate at the boundaries of the weld.

[metalliferous]

My father and I had an anvil with a badly worn down and chipped hardface. It took more than one try, but eventually, we worked out a way. We had a friend build up the hardface with a high manganese workhardening hardface rod (I forget the particular #), after which we roughed out a flat face and workhardened the whole area. Once it seemed hard enough, we had it blanchard ground to a nigh unto perfectly flat surface. But that's just our particular way; I'm not sure how well it would work w/ just the corners.

[Gary]

We have a member at Ft. Vancouver who has had success with a rod called Eureka 32. He did an 89 lb PW anvil for me awhile back and it seems to be holding up well. It's not supposed to work harden and become brittle. He even added a bit onto the end of the horn which had been blunted like most.

[Ferrous Beuler]

j@j, I don't know where you are in your blacksmithing experience but I'm not too far along in mine. I have four anvils and of course I can find flaws with them because they've been around since my great grandfather was a little kid. I accept for the most part that I can live with them as they are and as I gain experience I am coming to learn that what I may have thought were bad things to see on an anvil when I first started ain't so bad after all, in fact I have grown to like those rounded edges and such. Now I am beginning to understand how to use them and why they have been worn in or even put where they are.
One anvil I have though is so badly beat up it most certainly needs repair. This is the oldest one I have, a mousehole most likely, with no shelf and a stubby little horn. About 3/5 of the face is gone. Off the tail and off the front. The center portion is the only place where any hardface remains and it is swaybacked and the edges here are as round as a roll of nickels. But I've got plans for this anvil, as I get more advanced in the craft I intend to get involved in period reenacting such as civilwarblacksmith does. The revolutionary war and the war of 1812 figure prominently in local history hereabouts so I have the perfect anvil to use for that. It just needs a day at the spa.
There seems to be as many different ways to repair anvils as there are anvils that "need fixing". I'm not in a hurry to get mine done. Likely I'll wait until I learn enough about it to do the welding myself when I'm comfortable that I'm doing the right thing. Dan.:)

[Frosty]

We have a member at Ft. Vancouver who has had success with a rod called Eureka 32. He did an 89 lb PW anvil for me awhile back and it seems to be holding up well. It's not supposed to work harden and become brittle. He even added a bit onto the end of the horn which had been blunted like most.

Do you mean Eutectic 32?

The last time I priced rod (680) from Eutectic it was running over $100/lb.

Great stuff but I couldn't get the front office to replace what I had when it was gone.

Frosty

[Gary]

Frosty, I'll check on that but I'm pretty sure it's eureka 32. It is expensive. The guild bought some a few years back and it's just about gone.

[Jose Gomez]

Robb Gunter recomends using 3/16 inch stoody 2110 for buildup, and 1/8 inch stoody 1105 for the face. Grind all surfaces to be welded, Preheat the anvil to 400-450 degrees. You can put down an unlimited # of layers with the 2110 in order to build up the surface or replace any missing metal. With the 1105 you have to be sure to not exceed 3 layers, so use it sparingly. after welding re heat the anvil to 400 degrees and pack it in vermiculite or wrap it in a welding blanket (anything that will help it to cool verry slowly). Once it has cooled, just grind to shape and your done. Robb has rebuilt hundreds of anvils with this process, and I have used this method to rework dozens of anvils with exelent results.
Another way to do it is with Rankin hardfacing wire in a MIG welder. You can use Rankin BB-G for buildup, and Rankin DD-G for hardface. You still have to grind the areas to be welded, preheat, and post-heat, but only to 200 degrees. The wire is a ton faster, but you need to have a machine capable of running .045 wire at 250 amps (Big machine).
I just finished rebuilding a large portion of missing face on the heel of an old mousehole anvil and took a bunch of pics of the process. I have not retrieved the pictures from the camera, so I'll post them here for you later today

[Jose Gomez]

Here are some pics of the rebuild of a mousehole that I just finished for a friend. I used the Gunter method that I described above to repair a large portion of missing face (that went through both the hardy and the prichel holes), and a few bad chips. Then smoothed out the face and leveled out some of the swayback using a 9 inch grinder with a sanding disk for the finish work.

[Frosty]

Very nicely done repair.

How did you keep the hardy and pritchel holes clear? Or was that a copper bar in the hardy hole? It looks like angle iron on my monitor.

Thanks for the pics.

Frosty

[Jose Gomez]

It is angle iron. I drive a chunk into the hardy, and then another piece of round tubing into the prichel hole so that I can weld right up to the edges, then when I'm finished welding I grind the inserts flush and use a chisel to remove the remaining mild steel from the hardy hole and a drill to remove the left over pipe nub from the prichel, then file untill I hit hardface or have removed all of the mild steel.

Edited August 5, 2008 by Jose Gomez

[Frosty]

Have you tried a copper bar? It acts as a chill plate and stops the filler in it's tracks but is a good enough conductor it doesn't melt itself.

Thanks,

Frosty

[Jose Gomez]

I have used copper quite a bit in the past, but for hard facing I have found that I get better results using the steel angle or tubing and filing/grinding to shape. It takes a few minutes more, but the finished product will be around long after I'm gone, so I'm willing to do it the way that produces the highest quality results for me.

[Frosty]

Good to know. I've always used copper but if it comes up will give the mild steel a try. I'm usually more into results than expediency.

Frosty

[Lurchwv@BJS]

Just picked up a 162lb'er 30% of face missing, was going to grind entire surface flat then attempt to harden the remaining surface. Glad I checked the forum today. this is alot more simple and right up my alley..... Thanx a million


Rich

[ThomasPowers]

I have a William Foster that's missing 90% of it's face; however that last little bit is documentable 1828 high carbon steel. Rather than grind it off I plan to saw it off and save for someone who wants a knife of 1828 design and steel.

Then I hope to one day try refacing it the old way. Richard Postman has advised I try welding the new faceplate onto a piece of wrought iron and then make a wrought iron to wrought iron weld on the anvil. (One conference has already expressed an interest in doing this as a demo but they wanted me to donate the anvil afterwards)

[Sam Falzone]

Here are some pics of the rebuild of a mousehole that I just finished for a friend. I used the Gunter method that I described above to repair a large portion of missing face (that went through both the hardy and the prichel holes), and a few bad chips. Then smoothed out the face and leveled out some of the swayback using a 9 inch grinder with a sanding disk for the finish work.

Jose,
That is one sweet repair job. Unfortunately I don't know squat about welding. Is there anyone on this forum in the southern Ontario region who can do a repair job like this? Tha would be good to know for any future problems.

Aeneas

[DenK]

Sweet repair on that tired 'ol anvil!!!