How to Mount an Anvil - Cool Trick

the quickest easiest way to mount an anvil is to find a chunk of a log a stump if you want it's got it can be as big as you want and provide sort of some storage space around the perimeter of the anvil or you can get one that's smaller that just kind of fits the profile of the anvil so you're not tripping on it you can get up close to it it needs to be something structural it can't be for instance a palm tree or something that's going to compress and deteriorate it needs to be something with some strength and some heft and some mass so in the stump as with the anvil size matters okay you're going to need something that's big enough to distribute the load of the anvil and the impact of the blow over a wide area of floor particularly if it's dirt floor if you fabricate a steel base and you're on a concrete floor it doesn't matter much does it but with wood spread it out with a pretty good cross-section certainly big enough to fully support the profile of the feet of the anvil this is a piece of white oak pretty good wood it's been weathered now for about a year so you may want to leave the bark on your anvil base I recommend you take it off because it's going to deteriorate and fall off in little bits and pieces over time who wants that and when you get down to the actual wood I mean you can grind that you can kind of refine it you can fasten your hammer loops to it it works better let's take the bark off this thing [Music] take a bit sweeter chefs [Music] commonly sort of described way to determine anvil height is a distance from the floor to your knuckles in a relaxed position at your side so for me that is I think about 30 and a half inches let's see yeah about 30 inches 30 and a half inches is ideal hand handle height for me the theory around that is is that that puts your arm essentially to the full and relaxed position when it comes in contact with the face of the anvil now it's awkward if it's too high it's hard on your back if it's too low so that's sort of a target number so here's the problem that's only 29 inches so if I cut this stump level from its low point which is what I'm going to do this anvil is going to be about an inch short for me which is finds this little kölsch wall cast an Vil weighs about oh I think 110 pounds it's just right for kids to work at for Boy Scouts for grandkids so if it's a little low doesn't hurt a thing I've got another anvil in here that's a little low also just for that reason so now the trick is and what I'm going to really demonstrate in this video is how to cut off a tree stump so it's level so it's in a plane even though the perimeter so irregularly shaped so you take your 2x4 and you screw it to the side of the block with one screw with the top of the 2x4 at whatever distance you want your block to be cut off at and screw it on in this case it's the maximum distance it's still left in the block level that up [Music] and put another screw in it now take another piece tops flush level this [Music] [Music] pretty good pretty good so what we've established here is a level or nearly level plane okay and it is essentially in a plane this serves as a guide for cutting that off with a chainsaw [Music] [Music] like that so this is essentially flat now the bottoms of animals are not perfectly flat so there may be a little discrepancy but I'm going to smooth this up champ for the edge knock off some of the fuzz turn it over work on the bottom just a little bit we want this to look appropriately what rustic certainly that's a word that applies to animals I just want to clean this up so it looks like it's taken to where we intended to take it there's all kinds of ways to fasten anvils becomes you know from just driving a railroad spike on each side so the head pulls down on the edge to really elaborate tie-down system anyhow we're going to put something on that is fairly easily demountable because this is my launching anvil every so often usually around the fourth of July this little guy takes about a 150 foot vertical trip in a couple of seconds to celebrate our independence [Applause] [Music] [Music] so in bending this pizza bar that hole distorted enough that a 3/8 lag bolts not going to go through there so instead of trying to drill it and hanging the drill bit up and breaking it off two or three times I'm going to get it hot and drifted one mistake people make is after they drift the hole they bend over and pick up the punch and that is very hot right there so don't bend over and pick your punch up and not expect a blister [Music] [Music] [Music] so obviously neither my cut nor the anvil is perfectly flat so don't be afraid to shove up a little corner drive a shim in there break it off bingo perfection itself okay and that anvil is fully serviceable kid height permanent one more to the shop if you're new to this channel welcome we cover a lot of territory here we do a lot of different things ranging from construction to logging blacksmithing obviously safety and production and productivity and estimating and personal relations and taking care of your family all kinds of things so anyway it won't take you long to realize that we come back over and over again to anvil the mother of all shop tools so if you have any interest in animals or any of the other things that we do hang with us see what's next we got a lot of territory to cover how are you yeah I wanted to open rapidly slipping my friend till I do that I think you would like it [Music]

Channel: Essential Craftsman

Views: 506,835

Rating: 4.9679637 out of 5

Keywords: Anvil, forging, forged in fire, install an anvil, blacksmithing, stump, tie down, attachment, anvil height, How to cut a log, square, plumb log cut, square cut, straight cut, help cutting log, diy, anvil stand, anvil mount, blacksmith, forge, essential craftsman, craftsman, construction, patreon

Id: aoToTcmVNqQ

Length: 10min 36sec (636 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 10 2017