Homemade mini anvil

Hey Ig,

You know railroad track is a very good anvil itself, very tough work-hardened surface. But if you need a flat surface, then your set up is OK. Where'd you get the rail from?

I have a heavy cast iron radiator, about 9" wide, 2.5 feet tall, 2 feet long that I'm thinking of doing the same thing to, welding a pc of thick 4140 to the top. Here, the whole setup has some mass, about 150#--was thinking of putting the radiator on wheels. :)

From my father in law.Yes, I needed flat surface.

sounds nice!

i

'course, you dint have to weld *every linear inch* of the plate, ig! a half-inch here and there on either side woulda done it! :) Much less risk of warpage, as well, if that were ever an issue.

Just a question here about maybe using a Hydrogen Contolled Electrode like a

4816 for welding the Anvil up?

Rod Day

I never heard of those 4816 electrodes... I used what I had, strength is not really an issue here for obvious reasons (low loads, big beads compared to items welded). I used 6013.

i

Yes, it would hold with a lot less welds, but OTOH, it would probably make a worse sound when hit with a hammer. That's just a guess. I kind of hope that an inch thick piece of steel or a rail would not warp as much.

i

My poor mans cheapie anvil was in dire need of repair, so I screwed on a

10 mm H&T spring steel plate. Makes a PLUNK sound when struck, works fine though :-)

Regards Charles

You just proved again how ignorant you are. Did you read the "welding up"? Do you know that that means? Make a layer of a different material upon something. In this case to get a more resistant surface.

But really, your anvil is brilliant! OK, I didn't look at it, have seen enough crap of you and don't want to sponsor your "ads by Google" on your pages any more.

Nick

That's interesting, though weld strength is hardly an issue here. Thank you.

i

4816 is just a Low hydrogen electrode, that's their classification here south of the equator in Australia, not sure what its international classification is. Might be 8016. Anyway, welding alloy or crack sensitive steels with these rods is recommended, helps reduce the risk of the weld cracking and has a higher tensile strength.

Rod

Sitting it on a chunk of hardwood log helps its effectiveness.

Wes S

Yes, I agree 100% and will indeed do something along these lines. (I have a piece of a log not doing anything useful).

i

Smile -

I use 10016 welding Armor plate targets. Have to water treat the hot weld or all of the BHN values are lost.

It is common for Big Bore pistols to literally knock off the animal off its feet! It is a shear above the weld.

Once water treated, it seems to re-harden to prevent the Armor plate Pig kill. :-)

Martin

Martin H. Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH & Endowment Member NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member

Ignoramus25220 wrote:

Hydrogen embrittlement is the issue. I would have at least used 7018. You might find that the weld will break away from the rail . The weld won't crack but it will come free anyway.

I'll take pics of my effort this weekend (in the daylight) and post the link. Used 7018 low hydrogen rods to make it.

- Regards Gordie

Gordie, just for the heck of it, I will try to pound this anvil with a big 8 lbs sledgehammer this weekend. You are raising an interesting question, I hope that the answer to it is negative, but it would be good to check.

i

Indeed. I once got chewed out for knocking about half the chickens, and the turkeys off their bases with my 357 Herret and 180gr JSPs at

1900 FPS.

I told the guys to weld em right the next time.

Gunner

Rule #35 "That which does not kill you, has made a huge tactical error"

Well at least put something on top first. Anvils are used for squishy (red hot) metal, not cold. I know yours didn't cost anything, but if the weld holds, you won't want big dings in the surface.

Pete Keillor

OK, what would you suggest to put on top, just some flat piece of steel? I do not care too much if this anvil gets beaten up, that's what it is for, but if protecting it a bit is easy, I would do that. I am not speaking from a position of knowledge and appreciate this suggestion.

i

What a waste of time. That top piece of steel is so soft, it is full of dents from whatever was hammered on it. Rail road track by itself would have made a much better anvil, because it is harder.