Anvil Stand

[farmboy9510]

Iam looking at making an anvil stand any ideas would be appreciated
thank you
Alex

[blksmth]

Personally I like a stump. You can look at some ideas on using a stump. Uri Hofi and Tom Clark have good anvil stands made of metal. If you want one that you can adjust for height, use one that has sand in it such as a wooden or metal bucket, or one that has 4 vertical angle irons at the 4 corners of a square or rectangle wooden base where the base can slide up and down.

Edited February 18, 2009 by blksmth

[J Anderson R]

Ive personally found that a metal stand is much better, a wooden stand will absorb the energy of the hammer blow, a metal stand keeps the energy in the work. Heres what my current stand looks like, its just thick angle iron with a 3/4" plate of A572 steel on top under the anvil.

[brianbrazealblacksmith]

Which ever stand you choose, if you can mount it to the earth so that if anything at all moves when you strike a piece of metal on your anvil it should be just your metal or the whole Earth or as close to that as you can get. You need to back your work. Just like a power hammer needs to be mounted to the Earth to get all you can get from that hammer, your anvil should be mounted in the same fashion. If you are going to use a stump, bury it into the ground at least 3 feet. I personally prefer a tri-pod stand because I travel alot demonstrating. I have feet on my stands that alow me to mount it down to the concrete or stake it down to the ground. If you ever get a chance to work on an anvil that does not move you will understand and know that anything less is sub-standard. Oh, by the way your anvil must be mounted to the stand so that it does not move.

[gdh]

I built one out of 2x12s and dirt as described here. It was easy and worked for me. The advantages are that it's quiet and feels very solid, moreso than a stump which, in my experience, allows my anvil to bounce off the stand under vigorous hammering.

[HWooldridge]

This one is solid concrete - weighs about 250, which is the same as the anvil so the whole assembly is around 500 lbs.

[brianbrazealblacksmith]

That is a very nice mount the way the stand backs the body of the anvil, but if its not tied to the earth its going to dance with me when I get on it. I've worked on many 500+ anvils and the mount is much more important than the weight.

[Finnr]

Having the anvil battened down is very important. I hate chasing my anvil across the shop! Not to mention that a dancing anvil can be rather dangerous.
Finnr

[Frosty]

This is the one I made for my 200lb Trenton last spring. I should've put a little more spread on the legs but making the foot under the horn wider fixed the tippyness.

The hammer rack wedges the anvil into the stand tightly. It's surprisingly quiet and doesn't bounce nor dance. If it starts walking I'll smear a thin layer of silicone on the bottoms of the feet.

Frosty

[farmboy9510]

thanks for the tips

[ChrisB]

I took one 16ft 2x12 cut up and sandwiched with glue/screws on a 1.5" stagger. The stagger allows more stability and creates nice notches for hammers to live in. Wrapped it all in a 1"x1/4 band.

[brianbrazealblacksmith]

Very nice stand Frosty! It does not need anymore spread. Silicone is a good answer, but when you get a striker on that heel or horn you'll pop it right off the concrete. Your stand is almost identical to mine.

[Frosty]

Thanks Brian but as narrow as I built it it was tippy. There's just something about a 200lb anvil falling on my foot that made me want a wider base. The flat feet are nice though, they make it plenty stable but don't get in the way at all.

I haven't done any striking on the horn or heal, I try keeping it in the center of the face when the occasion arises. Striking on horn or heal would probably have it hopping all over the place.

Making the feet non-slip with silicone you let it dry before standing it back up. I wasn't talking about gluing it down, just keeping it from sliding. There are glues available that wouldn't come loose on you, even under heavy striking.

Frosty

[brianbrazealblacksmith]

Frosty, the reason I like the narrow base is because it backs the anvil so well. If you notice alot of power hammer anvils you'll see the same narrow angles. That is what I liked about the anvil on the cement pier. But just like a power hammer that is not tied to the Earth, an anvil will jump all over the place if not mounted to the Earth.

[Frosty]

Agreed, the straighter the base the more rigid it will be and I certainly can't argue with anchoring it solidly. It just isn't so practical if you have to be able to move it around.

Frosty

[CurlyGeorge]

Here's one that i just filled with sand, then set my 150 pound Trenton on it. Works very well.
Anvil stand - Blacksmith Photo Gallery

[tech413]

I think the idea of sand or dirt in the stand is a good one. Maybe thats what I'll do.

[John Martin]

http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/new-anvil-stand-9604/

There's mine, based off of URI's.

[CurlyGeorge]

Looks real handy. Does it bounce much? I like the rack for the hardy tools.

[Jymm Hoffman]

I agree very much with making certain an anvil is very stable. I admit that I was reluctant to try a tripod type stand. I used stumps for years. I also got tired of the anvils dancing around the shop, even my 300 plus pound anvils. So I started to bolt angle iron to the stumps so they could be bolted to the floor. I find that I want to move my anvils around, depending on the job, thus the reason for not sinking them into the floor. As I have seen done and did like the stability.
I have worked on anvils that are in sand boxes, I don't like them. They are not rigid enough for me.

Back to the tripod, three legged stand, whatever you want to call it. I do not want to get into a debate with who came up with the idea first, this is my adaptation. And my story of how I came to use this style of anvil stand:

After seeing Tom Clark using and selling these, I started to pay more attention, but was still reluctant. Then a friend provided me with the legs and I built one to fit my needs and my 335 pound Euroanvil. I also find that I really like being able to stand closer to the anvil, and many times my feet are under the anvil, safely, enabling me to stand straight up, not reaching out and I get more power out of my body with less harmful moves. So I recommend to everyone with a tripod stand to put the single leg on the side of their hammer hand, you don't kick that leg very often as you might the other way around.

I like the tripod enough to adapt it to my smaller anvils and have a break down version shown as well, makes traveling with this tripod much easier to pack.

The large anvil is secured with brackets around the corner of the feet and silicone. It works very well. The anvil has never shown and sign of moving out of the mount. I did find it necessary to weld washers to the 3rd. leg to keep it from moving around the shop. I drop a bolt through the floor to keep it from moving, primarily from when I am working on the side, and over the edge of the anvil. Not only does the silicon hold it, it quites it down considerably.

The smaller anvil is bolted down, on top of a piece of conveyer belting to quite it down. I have always securely fastened an anvil to its mount (wood stumps included,) which also helps to quite them.

The legs are heavy walled tubing. The Euroanvil stand is completely welded while the small one has detachable legs for traveling. I have a small stand that is welded for one I do not travel with, I prefer it. You should also note that there are holes that enable things to pass through the anvils pritchel and hardie holes, very useful. I like to keep my anvils clear. I do not like a lot of things hanging around my anvils, they eventually get in the way, so I only have one or two places for hardies and to hang a brush. I have changed the hardie holder on the larger stand so that the hardie is stored sharp edge down, similar to the smaller stand.

Edited February 19, 2009 by Jymm Hoffman

[blksmth]

Jymm Hoffman, I looked at your web page and am envious. That is very good ironwork!

[blksmth]

About anvil stumps: I appreciate Brian B's thoughts on a anvil fastened to the earth. Given his work with a striker, his system is important. In my case, though, I seldom have the opportunity to use a striker. My floor is concrete, I have a small shop, and need to move the anvil (although it isn't easy) closer to or further from a wall - depending on what I'm forging. I like a stump. It is as solid as a rock. The anvils does not move or wiggle. I do not find that it moves unless I want to move it. I do not have trouble with my feet bumping into the stump. I can not put a bending fork in the hardy hole and bend big iron without the anvil moving also, but that is about the only time I wish it were fastened to the concrete/earth. To keep my stumps sitting well on the floor, I route out the bottom of the stump approx. 1/2 inch deep leaving 3 stump feet which are about 4 to 6 inches in radius from the edge of the anvil. This helps if the floor is not perfectly flat. On the top of the stump is also a routed out area for the anvil, which lets the anvil sit on a very flat surface. That also leaves a 1/2 inch ridge around the anvil base to help hold it in place. The anvils are always fastened tightly down with either a bracket and big long lag bolts, or chains with some type of tightening system, tightening the anvil to the stump. The chain system is the system that is used at the Anderson Blacksmith Shop at Colonial Williamsburg. The Anderson Blacksmith Shop anvil stumps are buried in the dirt 5 feet. I use my own shop & anvil 95% of the time. It has a 330 lb. Refflinghaus anvil on an oak stump that weighs a lot, but I don't know how much - maybe 200 lb. Smaller anvils could benefit from a stand that is heavier than a stump, such as concrete. It is probably good that not all blacksmiths like tree stumps for anvil bases. Iron anvil stands result in greater numbers of standing big trees. This forum is great so anvil stand builders can read and learn from the experiences and opinions of many.

[brianbrazealblacksmith]

Okay, I broke down and took some pics of the anvi stand I had my brother, Ed, fab up for me. I forged the mounts. You can see the holes in the feet for anchoring into the cement when I'm in my shop. I take stakes when I'm on the road for driving into the ground. The anvil is also siliconed to the stand, and the mounts are welded to the stand, so the anvil does not move. All of our anvils and vice are mounted in this fashion. We still have tools bouncing off of our other stations because when we hit we are moving the whole 20'x20' slab of concrete. I'd rather that not happen, because I know we're loosing some of our power,but its alot better than bouncing off the concrete. The anvil and stand are no problem to move around. We do alot of traveling.

[Jymm Hoffman]

blksmth, thank you for the comments.
Brian, wished I'd thought about feet long enough for holes before I welded mine to the legs. The washers welded to the feet work okay. My problems is the anvil scooting when I work over the edge and against the side. I do like bolting things down.

[MLMartin]

Good lookin stands Mr Hoffman, that's a pretty awesome and scary bullet extractor!

i dont have much thick plate around my shop and little money for it, no square tubing eather. but i did have some one inch square and half by one and lots of one by quarter and just a little for inch angle, so i thought this together was modeled off many stands i sall here on IFI. I still need to fasten the anvil down, but its a pretty darn tight fit so it dose not move anyway. ill probably add a little more to this stand, (expanded metal under the bottom that fits inside the braces on the legs). this is my first metal stand and im pretty happy with it so far.

Edited February 20, 2009 by Mlmartin15