[TheForge] Refacing old anvils?

Wed Apr 2 22:50:01 2003

Thanks for everyone's input, it's greatly appreciated.

Steve, I've tried to read the brand off of the anvil, but can't read the 
markings very clearly.  I touched a grinder to the body and the sparks are 
like those you'd find from wrought iron.  The work surface is a pretty 
thick steel plate about 5/8" - 3/4" thick, and from grinding out the defect 
and my previous welds I haven't hit the body yet, so my first welds should 
lay on steel rather than wrought iron.  Thanks again for all the help,

Kevin

At 11:38 PM 4/1/2003, you wrote:
>As mentioned by Grant (hi Grant), grind out all the old weld, especially 
>any cracks you see.
>
>Can you tell if the anvil is cast or wrought body with a tool steel top? 
>What brand is it?
>
>Here's one method that works well (sort of, read on) for wrought body/tool 
>steel top anvils like Peter Wrights:
>1. Preheat anvil to about 300 degrees. During welding you don't want to 
>exceed 400 or you start to temper the hardness on the rest of the face. 
>I'm not arguing with Grant's 390 number, this is just the way I heard it.
>2. Weld one layer of Stoody 1105 over any exposed body material.
>3. Use Stoody 2110 to build up any areas missing a lot of metal (but 2110 
>won't stick to wrought body material, thus #2 above).
>4. The top layers (between 3 and 4 preferred) should be Stoody 1105.
>5. The instructions I got on this said to post heat the anvil to 300 and 
>then bury it in vermiculite. I'm not sure I believe that something the 
>size of an anvil can air cool fast enough to induce much stress, I don't 
>do this.
>
>In your case, Kevin, I think you can skip the 2110 rod entirely. It 
>depends somewhat on what size of rod you use, but I would think you could 
>fill your hole with four layers of 1105. This is a good thing, as 2110 
>runs 1.5 to 2x the price of 1105. I haven't bought any for years, but last 
>time 1105 was running about $3.75 per pound (10 pound box). Shop around, 
>prices on welding stuff varies a lot. My 1105 is either 5/32" or 3/16, and 
>I was probably welding at 180 amps DCRP. You will need a DC stick welder 
>to use these rods.
>
>There are lots of rods and procedures that will work, this is just one of 
>them.
>
>Steve Smith
>
>Kevin wrote:
>>I'm a relatively new member to the listserve and I wanted to ask for 
>>opinions about making repairs to an anvil face.  I picked up an old anvil 
>>about 8-9 years ago that has a pretty large divot in the work face.  The 
>>defect is about 2x3 inches and is as deep as 1/2" at one point.  I used 
>>the anvil to work smaller projects for about 3 years before I could find 
>>another anvil in the area that I could afford.
>>At one point I tried to build up the divot using a hard surfacing weld 
>>rod, but saw that over time the repair began to develop a lot of cracks 
>>and eventually began to chip as I worked the anvil surface.  Over the 
>>past month I've been considering making a second attempt at the repair, 
>>this time using a low hydrogen weld rod (7018) instead.  The anvil face 
>>has a pretty high carbon content (I'm basing this on a spark test) so I'm 
>>not sure what kinds of pre- and post-heating procedures I should use in 
>>the repair.  In my first attempt I did not try to preheat the surface, 
>>and I've heard that this may have been the cause of the cracking.  I've 
>>heard that I should preheat the surface to ~350 degrees and maintain this 
>>temperature through the weld repair and for 2 to 3 hours after I've 
>>completed the repair in order to reduce cracking.
>>I was wondering if anyone else has had experience in making this type of 
>>repair to an anvil face, and if so, I'd appreciate any insight that could 
>>be provided.
>>Thanks,
>>Kevin
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>
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