[TheForge] treadle hammer anvils

Thu Jan 9 23:52:01 2003

At 06:14 AM 1/9/03, you wrote:

Hello Bob:
First, a harder hitting hammer allows you to sink a larger tool into the 
metal, or do a given piece of work with less swats.
When I first built my TH I used a piece of heavy H beam under a stack of 4, 
1" plates welded up for the anvil.
In retrospect, the plates should have been welded edge up to minimize the 
energy lost to the cold shuts.
Because the hammer is about 95#, the anvil was too light, so I fish-plated 
the  open sides  of the H beam with 1/2" plate and filled it with sharp 
sand. It was stiffer and quieter but just wasn't cutting it. When a bunch 
of heavy scrap plate came to hand, I cut off the fish-plate and welded in 
8" strips of plate inside the H beam on both sides 'till it was 
solid..think I burned 70# of rod on it trying to make as solid as possible.
It made a significant difference. Off the top of my head, I'd guess it 
saves one out of every 4 or 5 blows or better.
I don't think additional bolt on weight  will do much good. Think of how it 
feels to work on an anvil with a separating  face plate. The utility of 
sand is sound damping , and  you get some "dead blow" effect out of adding 
concrete to your assembly..but not much benefit in terms of work.
Please note that my TH hammer is large and heavy and slow compared to 
Jere's..but I don't have to hit things as often...Neither do I have to move it.
By way of contrast; talked to one smith who had his 500# anvil on a 
swinging base so he could swivel it into position under his TH head, which 
had only a 30# head but long arms and a 6' swing!..
                      have a splendid new year!....Pete


>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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