Braze Or Nickle Rod?

[SE18]

Bruce, what a coincidence. Early this morning that thought came to mind. Maybe 5 places. 1/2" allthread. Flatten 2 sides of top of allthread for ease in turning it (no bolt). Turn it into the hole, cut off the allthread sticking up and grind off the remainder. The nickle rod or braze sounds easier though. Actually, bolting and brazing would probably be optimal.

 

[John Hasler]

If the HF anvils have been alloyed into ductile iron, then they could easily be welded with nickel rod made for welding ductile iron.

It also seems like that would make them *more* suitable as anvils, though you'd still want the steel plate.

 

[John Hasler]

Bruce, what a coincidence. Early this morning that thought came to mind. Maybe 5 places. 1/2" allthread. Flatten 2 sides of top of allthread for ease in turning it (no bolt). Turn it into the hole, cut off the allthread sticking up and grind off the remainder. The nickle rod or braze sounds easier though. Actually, bolting and brazing would probably be optimal.

You mean tap both the plate and the anvil and screw the rod through the plate and into the anvil? That would leave you with no clamping force.

 

[dlane]

Picked this hay Buden anvil ,think I gave $75. For it and concrete drum base. The face is in pretty good shape

 

[Ed ke6bnl]

if your going to run rods through it why not just put many holes in the top piece and rosette weld it in all the holes; going to weld the perimeter anyways

 

[BGHansen]

You mean tap both the plate and the anvil and screw the rod through the plate and into the anvil? That would leave you with no clamping force.

I'd clamp the plate and anvil together and drill the tap holes. Then drill clearance/countersunk holes in the steel plate, tap the anvil. If the bolts don't hold you can still braze the plate to the anvil.

Bruce

 

[ericc]

The cast iron only causes a problem when you are hitting cold metal or using edge techniques. The worst thing is drawing a taper on a heavy bar at the far edge. Use a fuller or just weld in an insert at the far edge. Hardy bottom tools can take a lot of the workload off the edges of the anvil. There are centuries of ancient Chinese blacksmithing history about using cast iron anvils. First, their cast iron was "better". Second, they used bread loaf shaped anvils that did not really have real edges, and all the edge techniques were done with hardy tools in the hole. Sometimes, this style of working is referred to as "going Chinese", and it is a perfectly valid style of blacksmithing.

 

[John Hasler]

I'd clamp the plate and anvil together and drill the tap holes. Then drill clearance/countersunk holes in the steel plate, tap the anvil. If the bolts don't hold you can still braze the plate to the anvil.

Bruce

You probably also want to drill fairly deeply into the anvil and use reduced shank bolts so that you can get some stretch.