Adding weight to an anvil

[markh]

I'm wondering if any of you guys have added weight to your anvil or know someone who did. I'm thinking of bolting my 126lb anvil to a 200lb chunk of steel that I have sitting around. I want a bigger anvil but don't want to spend the money. I'm also not corncerned about the looks of my anvil. Will this help or be a waste of time? Thanks a lot.

[NateDJ]

In building my own anvil I found that adding weight to the bottom of it was a great help so long as I added it where It would not cause the anvil to become top heavy. YMMV of course.

[Frosty]

How well adding weight to an anvil works is a function of how it's attached. Just sitting on something good and heavy with good rebound will help a little, bolting it down will help more and welding it even more. Unfortunately to get the full benefit you'd have to make a full penetration weld between the two.

Bolting them together will help, the tighter and more directly the better. By direct I mean running the bolts either through or into the anvil and plate rather than using a clamp of some sort.

How well the anvil matches the plate is really important too and folk will hate you a lot less for grinding the bottom flat than grinding the face off.

So, if I were going to do this, I'd grind the bottom to as close to a full contact match with the plate as I could. On many anvils you'll be doing good to get 30-50% match, especially cast bodies.

Then I'd determine a bolt pattern that'd give me the best possible contact pressure. Then drill the plate with the pattern and using a transfer punch center punch the anvil base. I'd then drill and tap the anvil, bolt them together and see how it worked.

Good luck and keep looking for a heavier anvil as anything that physically changes your anvil will decrease the value to high dollar buyers (antique collectors) and some smiths.

Frosty

Edited September 30, 2008 by Frosty

[Glenn]

There was a discussion about this earlier, we need to look up that thread and reference it here.