[TheForge] Gas forges/anvil repair

[Peter Fels And Phoebe Palmer]

Mike; If I might add; Don't weld on it unless you absolutely have to! 
Welding will cause soft spots in the best case. About a dozen years ago 
I repaired my anvil. I did a  very careful job of it...spent a bunch on 
specialized rods, preheated, ground, peened each pass, used a tough 
underlayment and high impact, abraision resistant face coat in 
methodical stringers etc. I read up on it and prepped the best I could.
Now , years later,after a hell of a lot of beating, a couple of the 
weldments are beginning to fail on the edges and the face's hardness is 
not what it was in places which effects it's ability to hold a polish 
and resist dings..
Yeah, the prior owner used it as a torch cutting table... the bastard....PF

Howell Steve wrote:

>Hi Mike-
>It doesn't sound like your anvil needs major repair but I'll use this as an
>opportunity to report on my anvil repairing project just completed recently.
>I had some pretty bad torch gouges on my big Trenton. After researching the
>issue for days I wound up going with a 'wear facing' stick rod. Not glass
>hard, nor too soft. If your gouges are bad enough to warrant repair you can
>do a web search on Anvil repair and quite a bit of stuff will come up.
>Several manufacturers of hard/wear facing electrodes are out there. I wound
>up using Rankin Industries 'Rainite-A Blue Tip' that gives a high 40's
>Rockwell hardness as welded and probably higher after work hardening.
>A rough guide:
>Prep anvil by grinding out damaged areas. (for me this was getting rid of
>the burnt metal that surrounded the torch nicks)
>Preheat with a rosebud or weedburner to 350-400 degrees. (Buy a tempil-stick
>at your welding supplier to monitor temp)
>Proceed with welding up damaged areas.  Copper plate or graphite chunks can
>be held against the side of the anvil and welded up against to rebuild
>edges. 
>Clean stringer beads well between passes. Some mfgr's say you should use a
>weave pattern. I used both with good success.
> 
>Grind, grind, grind to your heart's content.  I use a cup-wheel on a big 9"
>grinder for the final leveling and polishing.
>Good luck,
>Steve
>
> >>>
> 
>
>Also looking for some ideas on partially resurfacing an anvil to clean up a
>few gouges.  It's pretty good except for a few small dings.  Suggestions?
>
>Mike Murphy
> 
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