Anvil for power hammer?

[anduin-de-smitty]

Hello all, I dont know if you read the recent Anvil magazine but there is a great article about building a "norfolk" power hammer. Its mechanical, runs off of a 1.5hp motor, it uses the flywheel principle with a hammer that rides on a rail. anyhow, his *ideal* anvil solution was something like 6" square tubing with one end closed by welding on a steel plate, flipping it over, filling it with molten lead, then flipping it back over and welding some piece of hardened steel to it. this is all well and good but i dont have the means to fill something with molten lead, so i was wondering what you all thought about concrete instead. good? bad?

also, i heard that welding something to a high carbon steel (using arc or mig, not forge welding) doesnt work out so well, something about cracking. the solution being to heat up the high carbon first, but that would ruin the temper. I'm troubled there too.

let me know what you think, also if you want more info on building the hammer, let me know

- Loren Patterson
and8995@olywa.net

 

[mikeS]

I haven't seen the plans, but why not a solid section instead of the lead or concrete. Second suggestion, a lot of scrap iron and concrete. The high carbon steel can be welded with stick or mig if the proper electrode is used. Welding should be done in the annealed state and then hardened.

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Sola Fide