[TheForge] treadle hammer anvils

Thu Jan 9 22:44:01 2003

I hope Clay Spencer doesn't mind me quoting him.  When I asked him about
tube anvils for TH, this was some of his reply:

" My main thought is 'Would you use a 3 foot long, 4" square tubing with
1/4" wall and a plate on it for an anvil for a 3 lb. hand hammer?'   Your
hammer blows would not be nearly as effective. .... Some of the books I have
read recommend the anvil weigh 25 times the hammer, another said 10 times
the hammer and another said 4 times. For a 3 lb. hammer you wouldn't use a
12 lb. anvil or even a 30 lb. anvil.

Paul De Francisco used to make some of my design hammers to sell. He took 2
copper pennies, same year, and hit one blow on the solid anvil. It took him
3 hammer blows to get the penny expanded to the same diameter on the hollow
anvil."

Regarding filled tubes, Clay said "A tube filled will have some spring
probably as much as unfilled. I don't think there is much way to fill a tube
and keep the filler attached to the wall when the tube is impacted by a
heavy hammer. With a filled tube I don't believe the mass of the fill will
be effective."

Made sense to me.

Walt

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Smith <[email protected]>
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Date: Thursday, January 09, 2003 9:52 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] treadle hammer anvils

>I agree, the answer depends on how the hammer is used. Also, if the
>hammer is screwed down to a large concrete foundation, that should help.
>
>I don't think filling the tube with loose scrap concrete, sand, etc.
>will help. I think the fill would have to be firmly attached to the
>hammer. Just my opinion, no facts to back it up. Maybe you could fill
>the base with sand and put some kind of hold down on top of it to
>compress it. I also like Bruce's and Mike's idea of bolt on mass.
>
>I suspect most of the pre-made hammers use a hollow anvil so that 1.
>they cost less to make and 2. they cost less shipping.
>
>Both of the hammers I've made were solid anvil.
>
>Steve Smith
>
>GHS wrote:
>> bob, The "solid "configuration that you
>> used on mine is good and solid. That
>> being said, for the most part I do not
>> hit hard enough to really utilize it,
>> most of the time.. I use it as a striker
>> when I am holding tooling. So for me the
>> tube probably would have been fine.
>> If he is not likely to be stomping as
>> hard as he can most of the time a tube
>> will still make a sufficient immovable
>> object. It might be a bit noisier
>> though.
>>
>> Mike Graf
>>
>> [email protected] wrote:
>>
>>>i am building a treadle hammer for a friend. he is not sure whether to go
with a solid anvil or a tube type. it seems that most commercially available
t hammers have tube anvils with a plate on top, centaur, kirkpatric (the
same?) and the one advertised in the hammers blow.
>>>
>>>are there others that can be bought?
>>>
>>>any opinions on the functional difference between solid or tube anvils?
the guy i am making it for is concerned about moving it (weight). he lives
in a flood plain and his shop has 7' of water in it some springs. he usaully
loads thing up and moves it to high ground till the water goes down.
>>>
>>>bob s.
>>>
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>>>Login:  [email protected]
>>>password:  anvil
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>>
>>
>
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