[TheForge] anvil repair

[Andrew Vida]

Grind all broken areas until nothing but bright metal shows.  Follow 
cracks all the way until they are no more.  Preheat anvil to 400* even 
if manufacturer of hardface material says it is not needed.  It is.

Lay in your hardface material.  Grind to your desired geometry.  Done.

The best electrodes we (NJBA) ever used was Hobart SmoothArc 600, but 
that does not come in wire - stick only.  For wire we used Lincore 50, 
though I believe they have gone to Lincore 55 now and it works very 
well.  I prefer material that goes on at full hardness.  The work 
hardening materials are not to my liking. YMMV, of course.

On 4/24/2013 7:14 AM, James wrote:
> I know this has been discussed before but I need a refresher course...
>
> Bought an old (1856) William Foster anvil a few weeks ago. The top is
> pretty flat but the edges are beaten off almost all the way around and a
> couple places that appear to have rips or tears in the top.
>
> According to the Postman book, Anvils in America it has a wrought base
> and a steel top that was forge welded.
>
> If you were to attempt to rebuild the corners/edges of this anvil, what
> procedure would you follow? And what electrodes would you use?
>
> My inclination is to clean it as much as possible, pre-heat to about400
> degrees F, weld the bottom of any holes that cannot be cleaned without
> doing serious damage to the anvil with a 6010 electrode (because it
> tolerates rust and junk and penetrates deeply). Then build up the
> surfaces with something like a 7018, grind down, etc. (I've read the
> 7018 works pretty well rebuilding an anvil.)
>
> I have an almost full 50# box of Lincoln Abrasoweld that I use
> occasionally but don't know if it's for impact, abrasion or both. I
> hesitate to use an extremely hard rod on an anvil. On the other hand, in
> the 40 years that I've been welding I've used Stoody, Hi-Alloy, Hobart,
> specialty rods etc. with generally good success. Those rods used to be
> pretty common here (100 mi. NE of Dallas, TX) but now you just about
> can't get any special stick rods (Ni for cast iron being and Hi-Alloy
> 500 the only exceptions).
>
> I presume this is due to the extreme popularity of MIG machines and the
> guys using portable rigs only use 6010/11 and 7018 for most work. All
> that to say, specialty rods are hard to find here and the boys in the
> welding shops aren't very helpful.
>
> Would you go to the trouble to find a different rod selection than what
> I have mentioned and what procedure would you recommend if different
> from the above? Since Postman says the body of this anvil is wrought -
> and I've never stick welded wrought iron - will I have any difficulties
> if I get down into the wrought part?
>
> And one more question, just how well would a MIG w/ standard
> off-the-shelf MIG wire and 92/8 or 75/25 shielding gas work to repair an
> anvil?
>
> Thanks,
> James
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