Anvil repair

[bbarnettAUS]

Gday Ed,
I picked up and old 140lb anvil on the weekend before the scrap metal vultures had got their hands on it.
Unfortunatley its previous owner has knocked the edges off it and also used it as a table to oxy cut on.
What sort of welding rods & process would you recommend to try and rebuild it??

Cheers Bruce

[Ed Caffrey]

Boy, thats a long and tough repair job. Depending on how badly the anvil is cut up, it came be anywhere from filling and sanding down the bad spots, to completely refacing and surface grinding/rehardening the anvil.

The rod I've always used is Stoody hardface rod. The problem your going to have is the pre and post heating. With such a large mass of metal, your going to have to preheat the areas to be welded to about 400-425F with a torch/rosebud tip. Once you get the heat there, do the welding in SINGLE PASSES ONLY, then you'll have to post heat so the welds don't crack or pop out. In order to make sure everything stay put.
Do a pre-heat, ONE welding pass, then a post heat. If you try to get in a hurry the welds will either crack the face of the anvil, or pop back out. Preparation is a big part of it too. Anywhere you intend to weld should be throughly cleaned with a power wire wheel, or better yet ground clean. Any contamination left on the surface and your weld in almost certain NOT to stay.

Any anvil repair that involves welding on the anvil is a major undertaking. The last one I did took nearly a weeks worth of work and I considered it in need of only minor repair. If I run across anvils that are really boogered up, I generally just pass them by. Repairing one to useful condition is extremely time consuming, and has about a 50/50 chance of actually making the anvil fully functional again.

[bbarnettAUS]

Thanks Ed,
I expected it would be pretty involved. It has 1 cut about an inch long from the edge and another about 1/2" long toward the centre. The damaged edges I may just chamfer 1/2" and square up.
I picked up 2 anvils at once so got a really good deal. The 85lb'er was in really good knick still and just couldnt pass up the 140 knowing what the scrap metal boys are paying for them. They just go to all the auctions out on the farms and buy the lot. I guess its no different here down under to your situation stateside as far as the steel shortage goes.

Thanks for the advice.

Cheers Bruce