I spent the last few days fixing up a cheap little anvil I bought through Amazon. It's just a 55lb cast iron anvil. It had a lot of defects from the casting, and had some rust on the face. Also they covered most of it in black paint, which I think makes it look even cheaper.
So I took my angle grinder with some flap discs and basically got to work grinding everything, until I got a somewhat consistent surface (for the face i made sure there was no porosity, as well as the parts of the horn I would be using). I also made some minor changes to the shape of the horn.
After that, it was time to put on a finish that would help protect from rust. To do that in had to find a way to get the anvil hot enough to polymerize the tung oil finish, and linseed oil combo i used.
Using a torch just wasn't cutting it for this amount of mass so I decided to start up my charcoal grill and set this on top. I flipped it over and applied oil as I went, and I also used the torch towards the end to touch up some small areas. Until I got the finish I was happy with.
So this is what I came out with. (I didnt take before pictures you can look up vervor 55lb anvil on Amazon to see it).
This is after I had already applied a coat or two and had flipped it around a few times.
This is right at the end just before I took it off. I'll take a few pictures after it cools down tomorrow.
Overall I'm really happy with how it came out.
[(DISCLAIMER, IF YOUR ANVIL HAS A HARDENED FACE, I WOULD BE VERY CAREFUL/AVOID GETTING IT HOT LIKE I DID WITH THIS CAST ANVIL)]
DISCLAIMER 2: DO NOT COOL IT TOO QUICKLY. YOU CAN HAVE CRACKING PROBLEMS IF YOU ARENT CAREFUL
So I took my angle grinder with some flap discs and basically got to work grinding everything, until I got a somewhat consistent surface (for the face i made sure there was no porosity, as well as the parts of the horn I would be using). I also made some minor changes to the shape of the horn.
After that, it was time to put on a finish that would help protect from rust. To do that in had to find a way to get the anvil hot enough to polymerize the tung oil finish, and linseed oil combo i used.
Using a torch just wasn't cutting it for this amount of mass so I decided to start up my charcoal grill and set this on top. I flipped it over and applied oil as I went, and I also used the torch towards the end to touch up some small areas. Until I got the finish I was happy with.
So this is what I came out with. (I didnt take before pictures you can look up vervor 55lb anvil on Amazon to see it).
This is after I had already applied a coat or two and had flipped it around a few times.
This is right at the end just before I took it off. I'll take a few pictures after it cools down tomorrow.
Overall I'm really happy with how it came out.
[(DISCLAIMER, IF YOUR ANVIL HAS A HARDENED FACE, I WOULD BE VERY CAREFUL/AVOID GETTING IT HOT LIKE I DID WITH THIS CAST ANVIL)]
DISCLAIMER 2: DO NOT COOL IT TOO QUICKLY. YOU CAN HAVE CRACKING PROBLEMS IF YOU ARENT CAREFUL
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