Bladesmith's Anvil

[Ty Murch 1]

I've got a piece of 4" sq. mild steel that I want to put a carbon steel or tool steel top on. What is the best way of doing it (other than forge welding)?

Tyler Murch

[Greg Thomas Obach 3]

you could use a hard surface rod and arc weld a face on it...... or even better.... get some hard surface wire for a mig welder and continuously weld overlapping beads...

 

i've done it on a small piece of mild..... 3by3 by15.... it worked well......

 

Greg

[Don Hanson 6]

Clean both surfaces real good and use JB-Weld, it'll work. The thicker the tool steel the better, 3/8'' or 1/2'' will do.

[Ty Murch 1]

Hey Don, I should have mentioned I'm going to use up to a 4 lb. hammer and forge 1" stock. Do you still think JB weld will do it? I don't have any experience with that stuff.

 

One mo' thing. I think I'm going to use a bush hog blade from tractor supply for the top. That'll work won't it?

Edited May 5, 2006 by Murch

[Don Hanson 6]

It wouldn't hurt to try, JB is pretty tough stuff. The BH blades should work fine.

[boilermaker 0]

double V weld prep all the way round, pre and post heat, Low Hydrogen electrode. post heat is important, Slowly cool in ashes or vermiculite After welding to prevent underbead cracking. High carbon steel is touchy stuff to arc weld, good luck

[Gerald Boggs 142]

On 5/4/2006 at 8:02 PM, Greg Thomas Obach said:

 get some hard surface wire for a mig welder and continuously weld overlapping beads...

Know this is a old post, but still want to ask for a source of "hard surface wire for a mig welder"  I had tried looking a few years ago and found nothing of a size that would work with a shop welder, only large sizes 1/4"  Even the local welding supply came up with nothing.  So if you know a source, that would be great, I've a couple of anvils I would like to tidy up.

[Zeb Camper 630]

Could always order some. Dont know how much you'll need but its pricey. Rods are easy to find. I think lowes has them. 

 

[Zeb Camper 630]

looks like airgas has it. 

[SteveShimanek 96]

Stoody makes a hard facing wire; I used some in my mentor's shop to repair an old Swedish anvil.

[Gerald Boggs 142]

Thanks, how things change in just a few years.

[Gerald Boggs 142]

4 hours ago, Zeb Camper said:

Rods are easy to find. I think lowes has them. 

Yes, I actully have most of a box of Stoody's from years past, but I don't have a stick.  I like the idea of the mig wire, high on the list:  Less preheat and post heat required.

[Zeb Camper 630]

3 minutes ago, Gerald Boggs said:

Yes, I actully have most of a box of Stoody's from years past, but I don't have a stick.  I like the idea of the mig wire, high on the list:  Less preheat and post heat required.

I'd still heat it. What transfer are you running?

[Gerald Boggs 142]

13 minutes ago, Zeb Camper said:

What transfer are you running?

Sorry, beyond my skill ken.  I would still heat, just not as much.

[Zeb Camper 630]

 

26 minutes ago, Gerald Boggs said:

Sorry, beyond my skill ken.  I would still heat, just not as much.

Your "transfer" refers to the arc charactaristics. You have globular, short circut, and spray.

"Arc charactaristics" refers to how the metal moves from the end of the electrode (wire) to the base metal. If you watched globular in slow motion you would see the wire creates a big droplet (glob) and disperses it on the base metal. Short circut swells up and explodes across the arc. Spray transfer sends a fine succession of beads across the arc onto the metal. 

Depending on your welder, you can adjust between the 3 with a change of gas and volt/amperage setting. 

Spray transfer has the deepest penetration of all 3, but requires 90+% argon as well as more "juice" to acheive. 

Short circut is what most people (outside of big industry) runs. it's typically a 75/25 mix argon to C02. It has much less penetration than stick, so I would have no mercy on preheat (if that's what your running). 

[Zeb Camper 630]

Oh, and Gerald, I know a guy in Franklin county who repairs anvils on the regular. He's a great guy to deal with. If you would like some pointers or for him to just fix the anvil I can PM you his cell. I'm sure he'd be more than happy to talk. 

Edited April 6, 2018 by Zeb Camper

[Gerald Boggs 142]

Thanks for the info and the offer.  I'll pass on the offer, I've already repair a couple and have a handle of the process.  Plus, last time I let someone that was suppose to know what he was doing, I had a crack appear on the anvil face as we were loading it in my truck. 

[Greg Thomas Obach 3]

its been a longtime since i did some anvils.  The place i live in is basically a mining town, and there ton's of resurfacing/hardfacing being done on the buckets and wear plates of hardrock mining equipment ( so it was easy to locate both the hardsurface rod and hardsurface wire for the mig, as the weld suppliers here carry alot)    I found the mig much better at making a nice surface with very little undercut compared to the surface rod ( which i found hard to stop the undercut when laying beads so close together  ....  why is that important ?  well when you go to clean up your welds later, you will ofcourse find that the hard surface is as tough as alllllllll  hell to grind down !    trick is to make as smooth a weld as possible 

i can't remember the exact type stoody wire i used back then ( it did have high manganese, if i remember correctly ) ...  some wire requires you to lay down a bead of high nickel rod first  ( not sure )  myself, i didn't bother and the hardsurface held up fine

i did preheat the iron before welding and after

wish i could be of more help