Harbor freight anvil

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randyt

randyt

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Harbour freight has been peddling a doyle 66 pound cast steel anvil. If memory serves it cost around 140 or so dollars. I picked one up. I didn't need it but now have another anvil for a different location.

To me a anvil is so handy. I don't know how anyone could live without a gob of steel to bang on.
 
Cabin Fever said:
I had a nice Swedish-made anvil (Kohlswa) that I bought for cheap at a farm auction. I had it for a decade or so and never used it, so I sold it. I also have a 12" length of railroad track. I use that all the time. It was free.
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I have a couple others. My grandfather's and my father's
I too have a chunk.of rail but I can find many uses for a proper horn. My older anvils are not convenient to move around. I use to take a forge and misc to get togethers.
 
When you need an anvil , you need one. I have a couple of old 120 # ers I also have a couple of pivot jaw vises with a small anvil ish base, these se a lot of use
 
I've got a few hunks of railroad offcuts and an iron horse =10-12 inch I beam x 42-48 long with a good vice on one end, it sands on welded 2in pipe legs with a wide base tall enough to work comfortable . But no real anvil. What I do have works though.
 
Decades ago, Harbor Freight had em on sale for somewhere around 20 bucks, I got one :)

Also have a piece of rail, wouldn't mind finding another foot or so, but they got really good about picking up their scrap.
 
I missed out on a 240 lb anvil at a friend's dad's estate sale. It went for $500. I should have put in a bid. I was thinking 700, and figured it would go for 1000 or better.
I've got an old 55 lb'er wife got me used and beat to death. Also a chunk of rail. Good leg vise, hand crank forge, lots of hand tools. I plan to take a blacksmithing class after I retire and start making some things, just to learn how
 
My shop is set up for repairing farm equipment/tractors/vehicles. I have a tool rm in the house for small winter projects. Can work on small engines, electrical stuff.

My dad (tool n die maker) doesn't remember where he got this small piece of narrow gauge rail. Had to be from some project he worked on... But... it is by far the handiest item in the tool room for small projects. Great when you need a mini-anvil, weighs just under 4lbs.

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A chunk of steel handy, I have bunches

I've been wanting to.slice some rr track into 2 inch pieces and make up some viking stump anvils. Maybe one of these days.

Here is a chunk
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of steel I keep by the woodstove. That and a hand bellows allows e to do a little woodstove forging. It's about 4.5x4.5 by 2 inches thick
 
randyt said:
I get it but a chunk.of steel generally is a chunk.of steel.
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Maybe. But China is famous for forging documents on the composition of their metal products. I worked for a company once that bought several miles of 42" diameter pipe that all had to be rejected because the Chinks forged the documentation on the type of steel the pipe was made from. Nope. I wouldn't buy a Chinese anvil.
 
LadyLocust said:
@Bacpacker come on over. Fridays are smithy days. Hubby has a few anvils but would like one of the gihugant ones 300+#. Not fair because we have a metal business, but he also has a power hammer and induction forge. Yeah, he’s spoiled 😍.
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I'd love to. I'm sure I'd learn a ton. A power hammer and induction forge would be sweet. Anything I ever get to using would be 1800's era
 
Pearl said:
Harbor freight SUCKS!!
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You need to know how to shop HF. Hand tools you can probably see the bad ones before you buy. Don’t buy the cheapest power tools if you want to use them on a second job.
 
Pearl said:
I must disagree.... No HF for me!! A that's my poem for today!!
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I disagree.

My brother and have the two next to largest Bauer jackhammers. We beat them for a basement dig- out. Still running great.

Brother has a drywall jack that works just fine.

Shop hoist, engine level, small break, jack stands, Vise, ... granted the vise has been beaten and abused and seen better days. Still the best vise I ever owned.

Consumables like cut- off wheels and sand paper ok. Same with dust masks .

I may own 7 or more of the cheap cut- off tools scattered about my work projects. The only one that failed was because my buddy misplaced the nut. But I switched to DeWalt battery cut off tool now. Cords are just so Yesterday . ;)


I just have to remember HF sells cheap tools cheap. I would never try the milling machines! A saw mill? Maybe.

Ben
 
I bought a Hilti jackhammer it cost 1400.00. I used it once and it quit working. I bought a Hercules from HF to use while the other was at the repair shop. The Hercules has outperformed the hilti, sad really.

Back to the anvil, it's a lump of steel...lol I don't need to be a metallurologist to know it will work for me. I have used stone for a anvil before
 
randyt said:
Back to the anvil, it's a lump of steel...lol I don't need to be a metallurologist to know it will work for me.
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Don't forget to put on your Chinese anvil safety gear (also sold at Harbor Freight) before beating on the thing!

safetygear.jpg


Back when I was heavy into slingshots, there were some very good ones you could order direct from China. BUT, you had to make darn sure you were buying from a reputable place (of which there was only one that I knew of). You certainly wouldn't expect the leg of a stainless steel slingshot to break off under hand-pulled rubber strap tension, but that's exactly what the cheap Chinese ones would do. And that piece of jagged torn off metal would fly straight back at you attached to the rubber that you just drew back to your face. Chinese metal might not be as solid as one would think. How can someone make 1/4" thick steel that breaks under the pressure of maybe a 20lb rubber strap? The Chinese can! (Hint: it wasn't ever steel - just some junk cast pot metal they labeled as stainless!)

These were good ones I bought from the reputable place, but the fake ones looked just like them:

slingshots.jpg
 
I have two sizes of track iron one I use in work bench top hammerin it's a troll track rail piece that was dug up in Atlanta during road construction, late 19th to early 20th century.
An 18" hunk of more modern Dr track rail.
I have not incorporated my real anvil into a workplace yet but it's a Hay Budden 130 lb farm anvil my son found under a piece of tin way out in the middle of the west GA woods. I mostly was impressed that he toted the thing by hand almost two miles out of the pine thickets to his truck!
 
ssonb said:
I have two sizes of track iron one I use in work bench top hammerin it's a troll track rail piece that was dug up in Atlanta during road construction, late 19th to early 20th century.
An 18" hunk of more modern Dr track rail.
I have not incorporated my real anvil into a workplace yet but it's a Hay Budden 130 lb farm anvil my son found under a piece of tin way out in the middle of the west GA woods. I mostly was impressed that he toted the thing by hand almost two miles out of the pine thickets to his truck!
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Two miles is impressive, good kid
 
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