Anvil face Restoration

[walker]

BTW, I did some blacksmith work at a commercial place a while back. The anvil that I had to work on there was in rough shape, with big chunks missing. I filled them with 70s-6 mig wire and it worked fine as well. Don't over think this too much, it is essentially a big chunk of metal to hit other lesser chunks of metal on. Just make sure that whatever chunk of metal you weld on for a heel has been veed out so that you get 100% fusion, then fill weld with stringers of 7018. Even if you just lay on the 7018 and grind flat it will work harden on its own over time.

[canoecruiser]

I spent 5 years in an intence R&D department.
Enter a couple engineers, a few designers, and a team of fabricators and machinists.
The key to very productive brainstorming is a large dry erase board on the wall
and lots and lots of colored markers. Bring in a sales guy and a field-tech or two.........

the colors flow, the ideas flow, most spoken sentences are interupted before they are completed.
Its shear FUN,
VG

This is EXACTLY right! About 20 yrs. ago I was on a design team for a new product intended to be sold and used globally. We were hotshots and "really knew our stuff", you could say a bit full of ourselves. Our design was the greatest! Then we brought in field-service and training people and they pointed out that we needed to change the front panel layout since none of us all-knowing engineers spent hours in an equipment shelter using similar products. We didn't even consider the racks it went into. Front panel 2.0 happened before the design was released to Manufacturing. That product is still being sold today, albeit in smaller numbers.

It would have been DOA otherwise.

The project engineer said later the productiveness of the meetings was directly proportional to how loud and "spirited" the discussion got. I still smile thinking about it.

[canoecruiser]

Vicegrip you need to write your memoirs . That hard-won knowledge should be passed on when us old pharts are gone....

[Blacksmith]

I have a theory that the reason many meetings are so unproductive
is sitting around a table following pricipals of order and politeness
quells mental and creative activity.

Standing, all basicly facing a big work-board brings out an animated, active, driven
mind-play....... almost sportish.
VG

Three of us were sent to a manufacturer's plant to solve a vexing oil seal problem on a piece of high speed equipment. The final CAD drawing of the oil stripper blade that solved the problem is essentially a copy of the drawing we made on a Holiday Inn napkin at breakfast.

[vicegrip]

Three of us were sent to a manufacturer's plant to solve a vexing oil seal problem on a piece of high speed equipment. The final CAD drawing of the oil stripper blade that solved the problem is essentially a copy of the drawing we made on a Holiday Inn napkin at breakfast.

Man I'm with you guys on this. Even the bit about [" We were hotshots and "really knew our stuff",
you could say a bit full of ourselves. Our design was the greatest!"]

The fild guys Loved us, because we anticipated their needs, by listening closely evertime they returned.
The stuffed shirts, and cubical condiments, hated us because the best thing they could do
was stay out of the way. Some of them even would look for opportunities to obstruct our outcomes.
==============
Canoe, I've often pondered some venture that could be constantly added to. BUT in truth
it would have to be profittable enough to replace my Income. I'm simply not productive enough
to handle that kind of effort. Just imagine once others started to contribute, the administration involved.

This very week-end I'm absolutely exausted, from the last two weeks effort at work.
I took out two bags of trash and went for carry-out. Been on my a$$ the rest of the day.
I made an attachment for our horizontal boring bar, it cuts serious grease-grooves in very large
hardened steel bushings. The boss is thrilled, so I reminded him about that HTP 221 I been asking for.
I wouldn't dare post my pics, as the competician could easilly copy my design.
Thanks Guys

[usmcpop]

I am very happy with my old anvil. It is pretty smooth on the face but has a swayback in it of about 3/8". I'm thinking it was a fairly tough steel face on some sort of wrought iron base, though I've never bothered to check into it. It weighs about 160 lbs. My brother gave it to me. I think he bought it for $35. It'll do.

[mudbug]

I must agree I'm probably "over thinking" this thing... I thought I had it all figured out a couple of weeks ago and then found the hardfacing electrodes for cheap and started thinking all over again...LOL

I'm going to tackle grinding on this 'Ol boy and doing a bit of reshaping and then see where I stand on "fixing" it up.

This is what I get for hanging out with a new friend that makes armor. Being around his shop and watching gave me tool envy. He does some excellent work and was even doing some brass castings for decorations on the helmets. I've always had a latent desire to have a forge and beat metal and being around it lately just sorta pushed the envelope.

Where the heel snapped off flush with the main body looks like strands of pulled pork so I'm guessing the heel was forge welded onto the main body... I'll have to search a friends 5 acre scrap yard for something to repair the heel and then weld it into place.

I knew there were several lurking about with knowledge about how to tackle this project...I'll keep you all updated on my progress. I need to take some pics of the anvil and will do so before I start grinding on it...Thanks...Dave

[usmcpop]

Where the heel snapped off flush with the main body looks like strands of pulled pork so I'm guessing the heel was forge welded onto the main body...

I'm a vegetarian, so I don't know much about pulled pork. But if I had to guess, I would say the stranding had to do with wrought iron and the layers of Iron and slag that compose that. I do have some old steel that looks stranded, but some of the really old stuff I've found in the woods is even better.

[Blacksmith]

Still thinking this over. (Sitting home with some painkillers after a hip replacement). All the hard facing electrodes I ever saw produced a somewhat rough crackly finish. Very wear resistant, but not very smooth. You need smoothness in an anvil face; it's essentially a bottom die and every piece you hammer on it will show and inverse pattern of the face. One of the first things you learn as a beginning blacksmith is to not strike the face or use a chisel, etc. on the face (that's what the step or a saddle is for). The next thing I learned was how to grind out all the divots in the anvil face from learning.

[vicegrip]

All the hard facing electrodes I ever saw produced a somewhat rough crackly finish. Very wear resistant, but not very smooth. You need smoothness in an anvil face; it's essentially a bottom die and every piece you hammer on it will show and inverse pattern of the face.

Good point but the cause is not the electrodes.
Several things contribute to this outcome.
1, Beads too far appart & allowed to mound too much.
2, Some then add another layer, laying these beads in the channels formed by the first layer.
3, Assuming a correct 1/3 bead overlap and good wider flatter beads;
many don't allow for the parishable metal that needs to be removed.
{that is to say} the uniformity of the weld quallity is better closer to the center
or the top layer of beads. So nearly half of that layer needs to be removed (it perishes).
Peen & remove 1/4 layer ...... now peen with a hammer with large gentle radius.
Now remove the second 1/4 layer. Optional step is a final light peen with very deliberate
fine step-over. Then draw-file or stone to suit.

EDIT:
Additioally a rod that is designed to simply build-up ware surfaces, like on a loader-bucket or a plow,
is gonna harden up plenty just in the welding. So the differential effect will be greater proportionally
to how cold the anvill is when welded. Preheat will make for a more uniform job.
BUT a work-hardening electrode is the better choice, if you can do a good peening job.
Phil

[mudbug]

LOL...As laid the beads wouldn't work so well for an anvil... They need to be laid in rows and then between the rows and then the surface needs to be ground flat... MOST Hardfacing rods can be applied with 2-3 passes SOME only one & others numerous passes.

I was expecting someone to be familiar with the rods I bought and maybe give some direction as far as number of layers that could be applied...I'm only guessing at a couple of layers for now until I find out the facts on these particular rods.

This is about as detailed a tutorial as I could find...

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

With progress pictures to illustrate how it was done...