Mile long anvil

[Branson]

It's called the mile long anvil because it anvil weighs 5,280 pounds.  Made by the fellow standing next to it.

[johnsironsanctuary]

Holy casting nightmares Batman! That takes a BIG ladle or a bunch of well organized small ladles and a really long cool down. Several days?

[Mel Larsen]

Why????  I had to look it up on Google and it is not a cast anvil, but welded up from large bits of steel.
www.anvilfire.com/21centbs/anvils/making/mile_long_anvil.php
still a amazing feat.
Mel

[Branson]

The best anvils are not cast, but forged welded from big pieces of metal, iron and steel, or just steel.  I once saw pictures of a German anvil manufacturer.  The fire box of the forge was maybe 6 inches off the floor, and all the smiths wore leather aprons that came to their ankles.

[rusty]

Good for shoeing dinosaurs I suppose....yeash

[Nolatoolguy]

That things HUGE, it should be in the guniuess book of world records

[john k]

The railroad shops in the days of steam had some huge anvils.   I read where the Pennsylvania RR, had an 800lb anvil in their shop with a table nearly 5 foot long.   That anvil he made, I'd be proud too, but where does he stand to strike?

[johnsironsanctuary]

Well, EXCUUUUUSE ME! I was under the misguided impression that all old anvils were either steel castings or iron castings with a steel striking surface that was forge welded on after a long soak in a fire pit. To weld one up from steel plate just means that you enjoy looking through a welders helmet for very long periods of time. That is a lot of cutting and welding. 5280 lbs means it is made from very thick plate and requires multi pass welding.

[Branson]

The first  picture here shows the typical parts that were assembled and welded to make older anvils.
While casting has improved in recent decades, and some of the best anvils are now cast, Peddinghaus
continues to forge weld their anvils together .

The second shows  one of the typical places an anvil will fail if it is going to do so, if the weld is not
sound. 

They also fail at the rear weld sometimes, too.  I have one of these, and have seen several others.

If the weld is not consistent for the table, sections of that will break away also.

[rusty]

Can't blame Sherman for all the anvils with broken horns ;P

(Wonder if there is any truth to that at all, or if it is a total wives tale...?)

[Branson]

Can't blame Sherman for all the anvils with broken horns ;P
(Wonder if there is any truth to that at all, or if it is a total wives tale...?)

Hmmm... Hadn't heard that one before.  He *was* here in Sacramento, where he laid out all the original streets, and I have worked at the anvil with one of his descendants.   But he's not responsible for the hornless anvils around here... I don't think.

[johnsironsanctuary]

Thanks for the education Branson. I have lead a very sheltered life

[scottg]

This is easily the biggest anvil I ever saw, regardless of construction.
This guy can grind!! Cutting out and welding the parts is bad enough, but getting here took a lot of disks!!

Here is a neat Ca story.
Before WW11 the main repair depot of the west coast was in the tiny town of Dunsmuir. Nestled in the mountains this unlikely little town has a giant "shop" depot building that is still standing.  But its empty.
  After Pearl Harbor it was assumed the Japanese would be invading, and steps had to be taken. So to protect and preserve the equipment, it was broken up and shipped elsewhere that wasn't so easy to spot from the air.
  After the war they never went back. Never put the old repair depot back together again.

In a plain low quonset hut building, on a sidestreet in Yreka Ca...........
  Walking in the front door there is a dinky dark dingy little office.   Walk past that into the shop? and have you'll your mind blown for you. Colossal lathes 20' long and 6' wide. A radial drill press with an 8' revolving table, huge T-slots milled for giant hold downs. Enormous mills, a shaper that has a 18'X8' table.
Its,  Land of the Giants, in there! 

   Somehow in all this, the anvil and vise were dropped off in the next town. Hornbrook.
There is only one gas station and at the back of the station shop there is an anvil that has to weigh 600 pounds and a vise that dwarfs it.

  I see a lot of stuff in my life that I'd like to have. Once in a while I see something that is terrifically cool but I know that no way I would -ever- have room for it.
  yours Scott