Surface plate welded to old anvil?

[tim]

I have a Peter wright anvil, about 200 pounds. But it has seen alot of use, edges chipped and sway backed. Would it be possible to have a 1 inch thick plate of 4140 or some other steel welded to the top to form a new surfase?

Ideas and thoughts appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Tim

Edited November 26, 2005 by tim

[Bob Geldart]

I have a Peter wright anvil, about 200 pounds. But it has seen alot of use, edges chipped and sway backed. Would it be possible to have a 1 inch thick plate of 4140 or some other steel welded to the top to form a new surfase?

Ideas and  thoughts appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Tim

35670[/snapback]

 

In a word, no.

If you weld a new face onto the anvil, the weld will only attach the plate around the periphery. There will be a small gap between the plate and the anvil (except at the welded edges) and this gap will result in the anvil having little or no rebound.

Below is a well used anvil that I now use quite often. It is swaybacked, chipped and has a rough surface but this would only be a problem if I did my finishing on it. I have a small, flat anvil I use for fine/finishing work.

 

Edited November 26, 2005 by Imagedude

[Greg Thomas Obach]

how bad is the sway back... ? if the plate is worn through or getting real thin then i'd think of replacing it... but if its only minor...then no problem...... just be mindful of the sway when forging.....

-- do you final straightening on a piece of rail steel turned up side down...

 

most of the older anvils get a little bit of sway ....but aslong as the plate is thick and rebound is good.... don't worry

 

I've thought about welding a face on an anvil previously....... you could forge weld one on...... thats how they did it before...... but you have to have a very large forge..... and a large volume of air to heat that anvil to welding temp....

 

personally..... i'd weld the face on ... (like you do mosaic damascus, in the absense of air in a controlled atmosphere).... and weld the new steel plate to the steel surface on the anvil....now your just running a bead around the perimeter....

firstly ..... grind both the anvil surface and the new steel plate, clean of rust....... then place it ontop the anvil and mig weld a bead all the way around the plate.... make sure you leave only a very small pin hole..... squirt a little wd40 in the hole......... now bring the whole face up to welding temp...... (which would be a nice yellow ) and now...... hammer weld the whole thing.... forging towards the pinhole... ( use some strikers)...... and in theory it should work......

 

then..... you have to heat treat the anvil....... that would be the tricky part...

 

yikes...

 

dude.... i think i'd rather live with the sway back...

 

Greg

 

but it sure would be an interesting project...

[dragoncutlery]

my anvil came with a sway back but has enough flat area to put bevles in i can straghten on it no problum (usaly your bending the other way to straghten any way) and if i think im off any i squish the blade between some nice vice jaws and tweek it from there once im happy with that its vermiculite time i have used wire feed to fill in small hammer marks to smoth it out a bit

[tim]

I forgot to tell something, the hardy (heel?) was broken off, this making a somewhat shorter anvil with no hardy. The idea was to surface grind the top down and professionally have a 1' thich 4140 plate welded to the top , having it extend over the broken off area and mill in a hardy hole. This way I could get a larger working surface and be able to use anvil tools like spring swages.

Does this change anyones thoughts?

 

Thanks for your imput,

 

Tim

[Ken Burns]

Don't know how well it would but you could weld it up with 'hardface' or 'hardcoat' rod , grind everything down smooth. Then I 'spose you'd need to reharden. Don't know how hard that stuff gets but it has been used on a many a plow, etc.

 

ksb

[Alan Longmire]

For the amount of cash it would take to have a welding shop do what you propose you could buy a new anvil.

[Jason Krantz]

For the amount of cash it would take to have a welding shop do what you propose you could buy a new anvil.

 

This is very true! That and most weld shops can't or won't heat treat something that large. I have heard of places that refurbish old anvils. but that was for collectors, so I can only imagine the price

Edited November 26, 2005 by Theodoric

[Glenn Moulton]

Most hardface welding electrodes are in two categories.One is abrasion resistance and the other impact resistance.Obviously impact resistance is desirable on an anvil face but the down side as mentioned is the cost not so much for the labor but for the electrodes themselves. They are indeed costly. I have thought often on how to replace an anvil face before and there is one way you could weld the 4140/4150 plate so it would behave some what like it was forge welded.IMO a 1/2" thick face would be sufficient and a series of holes would need to be cut in the plate at least 3/4" diameter allowing the plate to be plug welded to the body of the anvil making it rather solid.A good special application rod such as the super missile welding rod would be my choice for plug welding it on. Far as heat treating I have heat treated a block anvil face.Not something I want to do again soon.I would take my chances on work hardening the face before I take on that task.

[Ron Hicks]

I have a Peter wright anvil, about 200 pounds. But it has seen alot of use, edges chipped and sway backed. Would it be possible to have a 1 inch thick plate of 4140 or some other steel welded to the top to form a new surfase?

Ideas and  thoughts appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Tim

35670[/snapback]

 

Tim

Check this out might give you idea what needs to be done.

http://www.metalwebnews.com/howto/anvil1/anvil2.html

Ron

[David Brunetta]

I have a Peter wright anvil, about 200 pounds. But it has seen alot of use, edges chipped and sway backed. Would it be possible to have a 1 inch thick plate of 4140 or some other steel welded to the top to form a new surfase?

Ideas and thoughts appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Tim

 

Tim, my Peter Wright came to me w/ a crack across the hard plate, and some very bad chips on the edges towards the bick. It was a 125 # and w/ help from my good friend and pipfitter T.C., we did a 'Pocket weld".

[DJPratt]

i have a friend that built up layers of 7018 rod to fill a 1.5" deep sway on a 175lbs anvil it took him 3 months working 3 hours a day in night school(btw at this point he was a AWS certified welder). He had to heat the face with a torch up to a nice dull red before welding or all of the beads would pop off when they cooled to fast, but hey if you have the time go for it. the anvil has held up ok two years of 20lbs striking have chipped a edge off the weld but its good and hard.

 

~~DJ