A newbie anvil question

You're on a budget. You want good, therefore, NEW is NOT the way to go. New cheap is crap, and new good is expensive. If you are somewhat patient, and learn to use all the local (anvils are expensive and a hassle to ship) resources, you will eventually turn up an old anvil. If you are lucky, it will be a good one, but any is better than none to start, and you can keep an eye peeled for an upgrade, and then sell off the first one by the same channels.

Classified ads

Auctions, particularly farm auctions.

Craigslist

Other classified-ad sites in your local area. (ie, in Maine and nearby, Uncle Henry's).

Bulletin boards at feed stores, etc (post an anvil-wanted ad if you don't find an anvil for sale ad).

Plenty of good basic anvil info available on the web.

Prometheus wrote:

Or... you could build your own. Got a scrapyard handy? Get yourself a piece of medium size I beam for the body, hunt up a piece of Big Rig leaf spring stock at a spring fabricators, take them to the welders and have the spring stock welded to the top of the I beam. Anvil. You said you have a mill, use it to shape the work surface to your own needs. Since you mentioned gouges, I suggest half-round grooves in various sizes cut with ball mills into the work surface at one end. It's easier to drive hot metal down into a groove than it is to beat it around a positive form to put the curve into it. You can kill the RINNNNNG by putting a layer of sheet lead under the anvil when you mount it to the stand. Make sure that the stand has a generous footprint and some mass to it; having an anvil fall over in the middle of a project can seriously ruin your morning. I used one of these homemades for years before I scrounged my current one; worked great. As for Fire, look at LP gas farrier's forges. There are lots of really good ones already on the market for reasonable prices. They're clean, quiet, easy to set up, and you don't spend 90% of your work time futzing with the fire. You'll need tongs, gloves, EYE PROTECTION, hammers, a grinder or disk sander for fine shaping, a quench tank which can be any metal container big enough to take the part, and a very well ventilated work area. Forges generate lots of carbon monoxide, be safe. You'll want your hot area to have a fireproof floor, because you will drop hot metal. IF it falls, let it. Jump back, then pick it up with the tongs. A piece of sheet steel will do to cover a wood floor, just nail it in place.

Happy Whacking

Charly

That anvil you link to says cast iron, is 70 lbs and only $50. Probably cast in china of marginal or poor quality. Truth be told if the Harbor Freight anvil is one of the Russian ones it may be the best buy for the money unless you luck into an old one in good shape. Decent old anvils tend to run around $3-5 per pound. One of the best ways to find anvils aside from farm auctions is to see if there is an ABANA affiliate in your area (BTW where are you?). ABANA is the Artist Blacksmith Assn of North America (I think). Some groups even have get togethers and shops set up for the members to use. Iforgeiron.com is also a good resource and they have forums with a for sale area that occasionally have anvils. Of course since you want to do gouges you'll also want a swage block unless you follow the advice elsewhere and custom make your own anvil. Iforgeiron also has plans for simple coal/charcoal forges that may only cost time to build. All that is really needed for an anvil is something that can withstand the heat and hammer blows and the heavier the better. For a looong time large rocks were used as anvils till iron work developed to the point of iron anvils. And don't forget tongs.

ron

No, not that anvil. It is cast iron, not cast steel or mild steel with a tool steel top. You don't want the corners chipping off. The 50 KG (110 pound) anvil that Harbor Frieght has is cast steel. Some people say that it is no longer available, but it sure is available at the stores in the Mpls/St.Paul area.

Don't think too small on the anvil size. I suggest that an anvil for your purposes should weigh in at at least 60 pounds, and another 60 or so wouldn't hurt. For much of the woodworking tool making, a swage block (or swages that you can make) and a good anvil bick will be very useful.

It helps to give us your general location when you post with questions like this. There may even be folks watching within 50 miles of you who have an extra one of what you want.

The Guild of Metalsmiths, Minnesota and western Wisconsin, (my "home" club) has taught basic blacksmithing to many woodworkers who have exactly the same goals that you do.

Most blacksmiths who have been at it for a while accumulate extra stuff, including anvils. There was a thread here several years ago where the OP asked: "How many anvils should a person have?" Someone came back and said "at least 5." I suggest that you go to

find the chapter closest to you and make contact. Most have newsletters that have classified ads. Most have meetings and conferencse where they discuss extra tooling. Many of the smiths that I know always have a couple of anvils out on loan to someone they trust will return it some day. Also, many of the chapters (actually "affiliates" these days) have education programs where skills all the way from the basics up are taught. When most of the guys (and gals) that I hang out with see a truly interested neophyte, they jump for the chance to help them out. You sound like one of them.

Pete Stanaitis

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Prometheus wrote:

Plenty of good advice here to date.

I'll repeat, find yourself a good used anvil and that will do. 70 pounds should be your minimum, although you won't be doing really heavy work from the sounds of your plans. Remember, there are two types of used anvils; the ones which have been repaired and the ones which need repair.

I built a small forge out of an old propane tank using a burner from Rex Price at

. I used the shorty burner for the propane tank and with insulation and the ITC-100 coating it works very well. It would be perfect your your work. And it won't generate all the noxious gases the others do.

I also scrounge diesel engine head bolts from a local diesel truck service place. They are replaced when they do head work and they make great chisels and related tools. For larger items, the S cams replaced on big truck brakes are really tough steel and also work well. I've made hammers from them, and matching swages to fit into my hardy.

"CliffT" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@14g2000cws.googlegroups.com:

As someone who dabbles in both woodworking and blacksmithing I feel the need to point out what may be obvious to everyone else: Unless you WANT to start a fire, sawdust and metal sparks don't mix well.

That is "unless" ;-) Good point though. It's bad enough when you get flare up on your quench bucket (mine is a 20 litre bucket full of cheap carbon full dirty oil).

Most of the wood working tools needed can be made with a hole through a fire brick forge. Cheap as hell (relatively speaking) very efficient on gas too.

I'm still looking for a good anvil (without having to pay eleventy billion dollars for it). In the mean time I've put a 10 mm hardened steel face on a little cast iron anvil, it does the job, but I had to sacrifice the hardie hole (no sweat I'll make a stake plate).

BTW Aluminium powder and rust make a better fire ;-)

Regards Charles

I may have found a guy that has several- now it's just a matter of discovering whether or not he'll part with them. Sounds like they're old farm anvils bought from various auctions on a whim.

I'm in Bloomer, WI- about 15 minutes north of Eau Claire.

Any contact info for the club? It may well be close enough to check it out.

Well, here's to hoping that your crowd is near enough to visit, then!

Based on what I found with some web searching, I told the guy that is looking into his dad's used anvils that I wanted to avoid any that had been used as a welding table. Anything else in particular to look for? Sounds like he has at least three of them over 100#.

I guess my concern with that was that I might burn through a lot of propane- any estimate on how cost effective it is compared to charcoal over any length of time?

I figured, but do not know for sure, that if I was a little short one day and needed fuel, I could substitute some hardwood chunks for charcoal in a pinch.

There's a local place that sells scrap by the pound, and I've also got more or less unlimited access to scrap 7 ga. and .25" 1018 hotroll,

310 stainless, and cold rolled 1018 from 20-11ga., with a shear availible to cut it into rough shape. One I get the hang of it, I figure I'll work up to some of the harder metals.

Yep. Woodshop is in the basement, metalwork (except for spinning) goes in the garage. Should be a good place for a forge, the walls are stone, and the floor is concrete.

Good advice- I had seen a lot of stuff about railroad track, but short of causing a derailment, I wouldn't know where to get the stuff. I-beam is real possibility. if purchasing an anvil isn't in the cards. I'll almost certainly go it the milled groove suggestion, provided I don't run across an anvil that is too big to fit on a knee mill.

Way ahead of you on the stand- it's the same story with a lathe. These days, I try not to build any tool that weighs less than about

400#. Too many close calls with light stands.

I've got some old fireplace blower fans that are just begging to be installed above a forge. I'll take a hard look at using propane, though. Is running off the house's natural gas a sensible alternative?

So, what exactly is the problem is iron? I thought they were all cast iron, until I started looking around. What will a cheap one do? I do know I've gotten thinner cast iron tooling that was cracked, but it seems like a big block of it would take a pretty nasty hammering.

Is it a reasonable alternative to get an anvil, then mill a thick piece of steel scrap for a block? I guess what I'm asking is if the anvil underneith would be enough of a heat sink. If I do go that route, will I need to temper it in the forge and quench it before using, or would it be good to go if I found something like 4140 and used it right off the mill?

Any chance a granite surface plate with a solid wood base (something like stacked railroad ties to fully support the bottom) would do the job? Grizzly Industrial has them fairly cheap for machinist work, and those suckers are 4-5" thick. It was one of my first thoughts, but I figured there was a reason why people don't use them for that purpose.

Nope, gotta have tongs. Probably a lot of them- I'm going to be doing some aluminum casting fairly soon, too.

Main things: Cast iron is softer than steel, it will dent easier.

Cast iron absorbs and dampens the vibrations, and you want the energy of your hammer to be reflected back into the work, not dissapated into the anvil. A good test of an anvil is to drop a small ball bearing on it from a foot or two up. If you get it to bounce almost back to your hand, it is a good anvil. The less it bounces back, the more work you have to do to deform the metal you are working on and the more tired you will get for a given amount of work done.

(snip)

Hey, Prometheus, I'm about 25 miles West of Duluth! I've been past Bloomer many times on 53.

There's a guy who sells really good anvils out of the Milwaukee area on Ebay as I remember. I bought one from a guy outside of Chicago on eBay and drove down to get it. Shipping is a killer! Another I got by advertising in the free shopper locally, but which was read by a guy in International Falls.

The propane forge is so economical you won't believe it. I used a partial 20 pound tank for two full days of forging (not successive, I was too tired and sore after the first day) and still had some gas left. Charcoal is more expensive if purchased and much less user-friendly. You can build your own burner using the book by Michael Porter which I bought and loaned out and never got it back. You can also check our Ron Reil's web pages for ides on building burners. (A quick search tells me Ron's pages are unfortunately no more, but there are lots of references to his work.) But I really liked the workmanship and performance of Rex Price's burners. That said, they are pricey. I got my propane regulator from eBay also. Acetylene and propane regulators are the same thing, but the propane regulator will deliver higher pressures (acetylene is unstable over 15 psi) so if you have it gone over by your local gas supplier, make sure they understand it will be used for propane. They also have hoses and quick disconnects that are rated for propane. The quick disconnect is also pricey, but likewise very handy, especially for a portable forge.

Hi Prometheus,

I re-read your original post.

You can do a lot with a one (1) fire brick forge, powered by a JTH-7 Bernzomatic Hose Torch. Get a couple of adapters to fit it to a standard BBQ cylinder. This little forge is often underestimated.

Definitely you would be able to make chisels, gouges, hooks, knives and specialty tools for your lathe.

To make it get a K26 fire brick (costs about $8 AUD), get a spoon and carve out a hole through the length. Carve out a hole in the side to allow the gas to come in. Wire the brick so that it will stay together for longer. The JTH-7 and adapters will set you back about $95 AUD.

The risk of fire from the torch is minimal.

Regards Charles P.S. I can't be blamed for the idea, you can blame Wayne Goddard for it.

Not really: Propane forges usually require 2-20 PSI fuel flow and the NG is regulated at the meter to under 1 PSI.

Some people HAVE been able to get their utility companies to install a second, metered, line with higher pressure.

YMMV - I haven't been able to talk mine into doing that, yet, although I keep trying...

Propane, OTOH, can be delivered/refilled on-site in a variety of tank sizes up to 1,000 gallons.

snippage

Welll.... if you can rig up a forced air system, you can use city gas. I have one with an 8" impeller in a snail housing driven by a 1.5 hp motor feeding a four hole manifold into the box. The gas line with a flow valve dumps into the inlet of the blower and has a choke on the pipe to limit the airflow into the blower. This generates a 'less than ambient' pressure at the inlet and sucks the gas into the blower. The problem with city gas is the low pressure at the line, usually less than one pound above atmospheric. In a venturi burner, this can be a problem. If you're just starting out, think seriously about LP. Venturi burners use the pressure of the LP to entrain the air, so upping the gas pressure drags in more air and the fire gets hotter. LP is really quite effecient in a small box. Most everyone I've talked to runs between five and ten pounds on the guage, and gets welding heat in about ten minutes of run up time. It's about matching the burner to the size of the box, and the amount of refractory material inside. I do know that four holes in mine makes about a half million BTUs and the gas meter really spins, but it hits welding yellow in about five minutes. Sounds like a jet engine; whirrrrrrr ROARRRRRR.

Charly

If you want to go with charcoal, you'll need a large supply of chunk/stick - not briquette - charcoal since you'll be going through A LOT of it.

Straight wood doesn't burn hot enough to do the job.

For the long haul [unless you're in the charcoal-making/-selling business] Propane is more cost-effective - especially if you have to pay for ash disposal - and a lot cleaner-burning. This can become important if not all of your neighbors appreciate your efforts...

I have a propane forge that is probably quite similar to the one described here. (see plans at >

Click Gas Forge Plans P1 and P2.

Mine uses about 2 pounds of propane per hour, maybe 3 when welding.

You can figure the rest out at your own costs for propane and for charcoal. Note that if you make your own charcoal, the smoke generated will make almost any neighbor unhappy.

Pete Stanaitis

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