[TheForge] new book review

[Chris Caswelll]

Philip, I mount my 304 lb Peter Wright in a stand made of sheet steel sides,
3/8 bottom and an open top. It is then filled with sand and a 3/4 Plywood
piece (with a hole in the middle) fitting in over that, snug with the sides.
It took about 3 months to compact the sand enough so it would stop moving.
The whole than weighs around 500 lbs, but having a sheet steel over plywod
floor, I can change it's alignment quite easily.
 
Chris Caswell
Caswell Wood & Iron
Burlington, VT
 
 
 
Got a related question for you guys, though.
 
I often hear of people setting up their anvils so that neither they nor the
stump movces at all. I was always taught that you might affix the anvil to
the stump, but if you did, you made sure you could move the stump so that
you could arrange the entire apparatus to suit your need, or alternatively,
if you had a fixed stump, you'd make sure you could arrange the anvil on it
to suit your various needs.
 
Now, I realize, once you get the really big anvils, say 500 lbs or more,
once you put them somewhere, you're going to leave them there, generally,
but for most of us, doing general smithing, with an anvil in the 200 lb
range, we're going to need to change its orientation to suit our needs,
particularly if we're on a production project- we need, say, 50 or so
widgets, all of the same shape, and rather than taking the extra time to
step around the anvil a bit more, or hammer in an awkward position, it makes
sense to move the anvil.
 
What do you guys think? And, how do you set up your anvils, in regards to
long-term location?