I've purchased an actual anvil

[whitewill1412]

I could not pass up the price.  I've heard nothing but good reviews on these little anvils and the price is unreal.   I ordered on ebay one of the Vevor 66 lb blue anvils with the useless prichel hole.  They say that they are great beginners anvils.  What is unbelievable is the fact that they are selling them for $55 with free shipping.   They can't be making money on these things.  What would it cost to ship a 70 lb package fedex from CA to PA?

[CrazyGoatLady]

You'll have to be sure and tell us about your experience with this anvil. I have a Vulcan  that I bought from the scrap yard for $11 and some change. The heel is broken off so it weighs something odd like 62 lb. If IIRC. It was a step up from a RR track anvil only because there was more surface to work on. I actually think the track anvil was harder lol. But the weight made it want to walk a lot and it wasn't mounted to a good stand. So I don't know if the flimsier stand and a light weight anvil was the cause of that or not, but you probably want to mount it way better than I did. I've seen really good reviews for it and it's awesome that it's more affordable to get started with. I hope you make beautiful things on it 

 

[lary]

It's one of those things, keep shopping until your search has a price you just can't refuse. A quick look around and one popped up for $57 and some change shipped.

[whitewill1412]

Yeah I got it for $55.71 and with tax it was $59.06 shipped.  I will post my experience with it.  I know I'm gonna have to dress the edges and remove at least some of the paint.  That's no problem.  I love playing with the angle grinder.

[CrazyGoatLady]

I left the edges crisp on a new anvil I bought until I figured out what I needed from it. About the only thing I have done is put a probably 1/8" radius about 4 or 5" inches long on the far side of the face. I was advised to not go too far with it until I saw what I would need to do as I used it and adapt to my work. But I didn't have paint to deal with. I would have taken that off in a heart beat lol

[whitewill1412]

Anvil delivered today.  It seems really nice except inside the hardy hole is extremely rough.  It's gonna take some serious filing to get any tools in there.  Maybe that had something to do with the low price.

 

[CrazyGoatLady]

I'm happy for you!  Maybe it won't take too much to get it ready for work. But it's a blank slate so you can fix it up however you want. When I got my Emerson brand new, I couldn't hardly take my eyes off it lol

[whitewill1412]

Thanks Crazygoatlady.  I'm sitting here looking at it right now.

I just ran into a little issue.  I got the hardy hole cleaned up.  Measured it with the caliper and I'm getting .93 inch or 23.6 mm.  The anvil is advertised as having .7 inch hardy hole.  I was gonna run up the hardware store and see if I could get something to put in just to make sure I got it filed out right.  Am I gonna have to file it out to 1 inch?

[Frosty]

You might. I modified a reciprocating saw blade into a power "filer" by gluing emery paper to one side and it worked pretty well if kind of slowly. 

Don't forget to radius the edges over the sweet spot and step or it'll put stress risers into anything you set down on an edge.

I'd also smooth the horn out were it mine. I don't use the horn very often but they make a good bottom fuller and a smooth fuller is a good thing.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Daswulf]

Either that or forge/ make your own hardy tools to fit it. It would be a bit easier when you have a standard sized hole that you can get pre sized stock for.

 Some of my anvils hardy holes are different sized or a little oddly shaped so I just make tools specific to them. I did file some of them to make them more uniformly square.