What is a car parts that could be used as an "anvil'?

[LearningToForge]

I wanted to go to a scrap yard, but I don't know what to ask for.  They don't always let you rummage around.  I don't know enough about car parts to know if something is available that would fit the bill.

If not a car, what thick chunk of steel would I search for, as in the name.  If I could walk around the junkyard, I could find something, but like I said, some of them don't do that anymore.

 

 

[BillyBones]

I can think of nothing on a car, especially modern cars, that is heavy and big enough to use. Maybe the rear axle of a large truck. 

What i would do is start by looking at the improvised anvil thread for ideas on what to look for. Like fork lift tines or the counter weight. Also just describe to the people what you are looking for. You may also try your local steel supplier. I bought a 6"x6" cube of 4140 as a drop iirc ~$10, that was 4 or 5 years ago so may be a bit more expensive. I use it on the floor to upset long bars or set it on my forge to weld small stuff. 

[Frosty]

A rear axle out of a pickup truck. You want one from a 1/2 ton or so, if you pick too large the axle bolt flange gets too weird to be a good anvil. You want one with a slightly domed center and a bolt flange around it. Think of a wide brimmed hat with holes in the brim. You'll want to do some grinding to make a good face. The flange holes can be used for hold fasts, bottom tools, etc. It takes a little imagination but they're very doable.

Then you cut the differential end so it's your best working height and set in a bucket of compacted sand or even concrete, put a piece of steel in the bottom of the bucket so the axle doesn't get punched through in use. A pickup axle will work fine for a modest anvil. It won't have a very large face and you'll have to learn to hammer horizontally on the shaft for your horn or forge a bic to fit in the flange holes.

I made one many years ago from an axle long enough I drove it into a sand bar on the Resurrections River, we were camped on that sand bar for about 4 weeks and between us and the highway were I don't know how many tons of wreckage from the 64 earthquake so I had stock to forge. I scratch built the whole setup from salvage except for the hammer. 

Good memories.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Counter weights from tractor's, bulldozer's and other heavy equipment make excellent anvils. I picked up this one at our BOA meeting for a very good price and it weighs 110 pounds.

You can even make tools to use, this one is a small bick made from sucker rod.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

[Daswulf]

Easiest thing to find and get to use as an improvised anvil in my opinion is the biggest sledgehammer head you can find. You don't even have to remove the handle if it has one. If not in fleamarket or yard sale season, look into second hand stores for inexpensive ones. You could get one with or without a handle. Then when you mount it on end and start forging you can take your time and look for a good deal on something bigger, better. 

[Jason L]

The sledge hammer head is a pretty good idea. John Switzer (Black Bear Forge) just put out a video on that not too long ago. It apparently makes a pretty good stump anvil. I would imagine it would help with learning hammer control as well. The scrap yard near my house wouldn't let me look through their stuff but I found a loophole. Try taking a load to sell to them and while they are unloading root around. The workers don't seem to mind and they will usually sell you whatever you want. You can also ask them if they have anything in particular and they will usually tell you and sell it to you if they do. The upshot is, they dig it out and load it for you. 

Another option is to go with the cast steel anvils like Vevor sells. They are super cheap as far as anvils go and the reviews seem to be pretty good for a starter anvil. They have the horn and hardy hole as well. I think Harbor Freight even sells a cast steel anvil now, not sure. 

If you haven't yet, check out Black Bear Forge on Youtube. He is making a series on putting together a budget shop using readily available items on the cheap. He made a knife using a cinderblock forge and a hammer head anvil last week I think. You could probably get everything he was using for way under $100 minus the blower and a hairdryer or small shop vac would take care of that.

 

[Daswulf]

You are only moving metal the size of the hammer face so a sledgehammer is generally larger than that. In practice it works. With a look through the improvised anvil thread one can learn a lot. 

I have to agree that most modern car parts do not make for a good anvil but there is some good usable steel depending on intended use. 

[Nobody Special]

The axle idea works well if you don't mind the small face. I don't disagree with the counterweight idea, with one caveat. Some of them are made of cast iron, which is a terrible thing to discover after lugging one home. You can find out which ones those are very easily though, they make more of a dull thunk than a ring when you hit one with a hammer.

[swedefiddle]

We made a base/stand for a 12 lbs sledge hammer head, using high density MDF(?). We screw the base to whatever we are using for a base stand. The first time we used it, we used 12"x12" blocks, about 24" high. We did a Demonstration for CanIRON on-line in 2021, 'How to start into Blacksmithing, with nothing'. We used a Wood fired Forge, hair-dryer for a blower (with a reostat on very low). Sledge Hammer Head Anvil, Claw Hammer and Vice-Grips for tongs. It works actually very well, K.I.S.S. When you have nothing, you use what you can find, for cheap. There are no Blacksmith Police, so they aren't coming to take me away, Ho, Ho, Ha ha............wear life is beautifull............

Neil

[BillyBones]

my first anvil, the arm off of a lift that we replaced in the garage i worked in. I still have 2 of them. 

[Frosty]

It's a popular myth that the bigger the anvil the better, there exceptions where a smith actually uses the size to advantage but it's not very common. The stand's weight doesn't effect an anvil's effectiveness so long as it's solid and stable. A stand that rocks or bounces around with hammer blows is a poor tool, it's draining energy from every blow. 

A sledge hammer head makes an excellent anvil, even today top of the craft Japanese bladesmiths use block anvils a few inches square, sometimes spiked into a block of wood, sometimes mortised at a height to work kneeling or sitting. I kind of take exception to the label "stump anvil" with rolled  eyes. does mounting my anvils in a round out of a tree trunk somehow make them not anvils?, I'd like to see a more effective anvil than my 125lb Soderfors or 206lb Trenton before I made the steel stands. The steel stands are easier to move, work close to and more stable than their old wood stands. About the only real performance advancement is they're MUCH quieter and no, the anvils are sitting on clean angle iron.

My last bit. An anvil is anything you use to beat on, PERIOD. The solid steel cap we screwed onto penetrometer rod or drill casing was the anvil, the 340lb automatic hammer that drove it into the ground was the hammer. By definition your kitchen counter is an anvil when you use a tenderizing mallet on a steak on it. 

The ONLY part of an anvil that does you any good is what is directly under the hammer at impact. The thicker it is between the face and other end the better but wide and long mean pretty much zilch except for maybe straightening or gaging straight, flat, etc.

I haven't used the horn as anything but a bottom fuller in a long time, decades. I can turn rings, scrolls, etc. on the face faster and easier than trying to wrap stock around a cone.

That's just me of course, I could be wrong.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

4 minutes ago, Frosty said:

I could be wrong.

Not very often though.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

[Frosty]

[caotropheus]

Best improvised anvil you can find with steel developed to withstand high impact and with the correct heat treatment is the chisel from a hydraulic breaker. Very nice diameter (usually 140 mm), usually weigh around 170 kg, just perfect. If too long, burry the bottom portion of it in the soil. Careful with missing blows, you will loose a couple of teeth after the hammer rebound...

I had a very nice anvil 200 kg rebound around 90%, I almost never used it, most of my forging was/is on the chisel from the hydraulic breaker...

[Nobody Special]

I kinda like the knuckle from a train coupler myself, if you can get one. Great as an anvil and lots of fun swage shapes all over it. They're a bit hard to find in one piece though. As a former conductor, I beg all would be scrap monkeys to stay off the rails; it's incredibly dangerous and there are better places to get scrap steel without giving your friendly neighborhood railworker a heart attack.

If you do find a broken one though, rinse it down and wash your hands; when one broke we used to use erm, as close to Theophilus's favorite quenchant as was available to create flash rust so the trainmasters wouldn't blame the break on us, then throw the knuckle as far into the woods as it would go so they wouldn't want to try and recover it. Road foremen and trainmasters are mean.

[Frosty]

erm?

Frosty The Lucky.

[Nobody Special]

Erm the understanding, or eww the quenchant? The knuckles are of course the part of the coupler on a train car that folds over and holds it closed, and it's also the part that's designed to break under stress, so it doesn't tear up the railcar itself when it comes apart (I know you know that Frosty, speaking for the non-cognescenti).

Trainmasters (conductor's boss) and road foremen (engineer's boss) tend to investigate while the poor conductor is lugging the 80 lb replacement knuckle into place, and their investigation is heavily based on how much shiny metal is in the break, on the basis that if there's a lot of rust, the cracks happened earlier and the train crew isn't to blame.

They almost always want to blame it on the crew that the break happened to, which then gets a one to three month suspension, so it's in the conductor's best interest to make sure there's plenty of rust on it by providing "recycled" moisture and making the knuckle as difficult to recover as possible. Into the back of an open hopper was my favorite.

That aside, they make wonderful anvils or swages, if difficult to get.

[Frosty]

On 12/8/2023 at 6:09 AM, Nobody Special said:

(I know you know that Frosty,

Nope, didn't know that. I figured there had to be a weak link to minimize damage but didn't know where it was. Thanks for the tid bit to add to the old mental tool kit.

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

On 12/8/2023 at 10:09 AM, Nobody Special said:

That aside, they make wonderful anvils or swages, if difficult to get.

The very first image in the Collection of Improvised Anvils is of just such a setup.

[FlatLiner]

Interestingly No body Special, I happened upon a railroad knuckle in a gas station parking lot once. I asked about it and they gave it to me. Caotropheus, good to see you are alive and well with everything that is going on in your neck of the woods. I also have a hydraulic breaker bar or something similar. It is my go to anvil when using a heavy sledge hammer. You are right, if you miss the work, you better move your head fast, because it rebounds the missed hammer strike like no one's business.

[Frosty]

Like the old blacksmith joke? "When I nod my head hit it."

Frosty The Lucky.