Saw this piece of steel for sale on the side of the road today. Looks like an Anvil stand too me ! Calculated weight 342 ponds. Picked up this post vise last weekend for $35. It's marked CT Tool Limited, Pittsburg.

That's an awesome piece of steel!

thats a pretty intense chunk of I Beam, how thick are the top and bottom plate, look to be around 2" i had no clue they were made that big!

Thats a sweet chunk of steel. Did you get it for a good price? Looks like it would be at a good hight with a nice size anvil on it.

The top and bottom are 1 3/4" thick and it's 17 1/2" X 16". The web is 1" thick. It's 16" high, which isn't far from high enough to be knuckle high with my 140# Peter Wright on it.
I'm pretty stoked about finding it. It was $40.

The top and bottom are 1 3/4" thick and it's 17 1/2" X 16". The web is 1" thick. It's 16" high, which isn't far from high enough to be knuckle high with my 140# Peter Wright on it.
I'm pretty stoked about finding it. It was $40.

That's a great chunk! I would be tempted to have the waterjet guy blow a series of square holes on one side of the web, and round holes on the other side for a bolster-block-zilla.. a stump works fine for an anvil stand.

Now that's a thought ....provokes a question though.... is the weight of an anvil stand additive to the weight of the anvil ? In other words would my 140# Peter Wright act like a 480# using it on a 340# stand ?

Edited February 1, 200917 yr by Oak Hill Forge

Oak Hill Forge, I have done the same thing with my main anvil.
I have a 134# Hey-Bud that is FIRMLY bolted down to a 8x8x10" block of A36 and it does make all the differance in the world.
I can not say that it is exactly the same as a 317# anvil because I have never worked on one that heavy but, adding the 183# block certainly did make a big differance.
One thing I did find was that no matter how tight I tried to make the two together, the anvil would still "hit back". I don't mean it would bounce either it was a sharp shock I could feel through the hammer handle.
I had taken a sraight edge and disk grinder to the bottom of the anvil and the top of the block to make them flat and give even contact and I even ended up hand scrapeing them to ten pionts per inch but, it didn't help.
I then decided I needed something in between the two surfaces and stripped up enough ten gage sold copper wire to cover the top of the bottom block.
I had made a rectangular frame from 1X1 1018 bar stock that fit evenly around the waist but, more over the feet of the anvil, and held it down with 5/8-11 X 6" grade 5 bolts with the copper wire in between.
To reach my working hight from there I made a base from oak 4x4s and 2x12s
A VERY knowlageable person on another blacksmithing web site does caution on the use of "inertia blocks" like this. You may have a mass that weighs 317# but not a 317# anvil. The anvil is no stronger than it was and should be used as it was befor but, it will be much more efficent now to the user. (Not an exact quote but, that was the point he made)
It is important to get a full contact, even fit between the block and the anvil or you may end up brakeing a foot off or worse when you go to tighten them down or even when in use. This is also a reson for the copper wire.
If you just want a good heavy stand then perhaps just a piece of 1/2" plywood between them.
Good luck!

Edited February 1, 200917 yr by merl