[TheForge] Anvil Repair

[Steve Smith]

They vary a lot as someone else mentioned. If you get a bright light and look
at the Dudley-Wright edge carefully, you can often see the top plate if it was
a separate piece.

A weed burner works well to heat the anvil. It helps speed the process if you
box in the anvil with bricks or insulation of some kind. I suppose you could
also wait for a nice summer day in Texas and leave it out in the sun. You need
to pay attention and not overheat it.

I use Rob Gunter's method. He is a lot more particular about getting it up to
300 degrees than Randy Calhoun, who is both an experienced smith and a welding
instructor. Randy says anything over 200 degrees is plenty. I tend toward the
hot side of the two.

Steve

Larry wrote:

> Thanks Steve,
>     Do you know how thick the steel face is on a PW?  The edges have taken
> some serious abuse, and I don't think it has ever been repaired before.
>     The Dudley-Wright has signs of repairs.  I wonder if it was built the
> same way, steel on wrought iron.  If so, then the same info would apply.
>
>     So to heat an anvil to 300 degrees without taking it into the wife's
> kitchen...........  Set it on the forge and keep the air low? hum.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Larry
>
> Steve Smith wrote:
>
> > It sounds like you're not going to do the welding yourself; plenty of
> > advice around theforge if you are.
> >
> > The difficulties I've seen come from the different types of steel and
> > iron in the anvils. For instance, Peter Wrights have a hard top plate
> > welded to a wrought iron body. The two materials need different rods for
> > a successful weld. A good welder (without specific anvil experience)
> > should be able to figure out rods that will stick (experimental process
> > at worst). You not only have to make successful welds, you need to use a
> > rod material that will hold up under typical use.
> >
> > The repairs I've done were with Stoody 1105 and 2110 rods. The 1105
> > sticks well to the body of a PW, the 2110 works well on top. The 2110
> > comes out just a little soft in my mind, but on the other hand it
> > doesn't seem to chip. These aren't cheap rods.
> >
> > You must preheat the anvil before welding (300 degrees works, don't get
> > up to 400 or you will start to lose your temper!).
> >
> > Steve Smith
> >
> > Larry wrote:
> >
> > > I have 3 anvils, a Peter Wright, a Dudley-Wright, and a
> > > Hey-Budden.  All have various signs of mis-use and abuse.  I
> > > was wondering what I need to know and avoid when having
> > > these repaired/restored for use.  Is there someone in
> > > central Texas that does this kind of work?
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > >
> > > Larry
> > >
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