Mounting My Anvil (aka Posting *after* a project... again)

   Pretty much every weekend since the New Year started I have been cleaning and reorganizing the garage to prep for setting up a home Forge so I can start doing Blacksmithing at home. This past weekend I decided I was going to trim down a cross section of a tree I picked up on the side of the road near my work so I could mount my anvil on it. I *thought* this was going to be a fairly quick task… I seriously didn’t think it would take 12 hours to finish it.

   First of all here is the section of tree, it is 36” across and is Oak or some other hard wood; this thing is massive.

   I had planned on mounting the anvil on one edge then using the other edge to mount a vise on and maybe a striker plate for upsetting longer pieces of iron but when I went to clean up the sides I notice some sections of rot so I decided to go ahead and trim it down to fit just the anvil and a striker plate. So I started cutting about 6” to 8” off the outside edge all the way around. On my third section I started having trouble with the chainsaw and just couldn’t cut through one area, I had a fight on my hands that I was determined to win. After about 2 hours of cutting, cussing, sharpening the blade, and trying to split it with an ax and a sledge hammer, I finally got it to where it was moving and about to come free so I beat it off with a 2lbs sledge hammer. And much to my surprise I found this inside…

   That is a 1” piece of pipe. There was no indication that a pipe was inside the tree from the top, bottom, or sides but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t in there. Once I finally got that piece off I replaced the saw blade and finished squaring off the sides and called it a night.

   The next morning I was back at it. I cut off the other corners to make the log an octagon instead of a square then I cut 2 ½” off one end to make it just about the right height. Next I tried to make the ends square and level… with a chainsaw… which was a bad idea. I ended up borrowing a belt sander and an electric planner from my dad and spent the next 4 hours getting the log ends as flat and square as I could.

   Finally (FINALLY!) it was time to mount the anvil. To do this I used some heavy chain my wife found some place and brought home to me and some carriage bolts with lock washers and flat washer. I measured out the sections of chain and cut them to length with an angle grinder, drilled my guide holes, and chained down one end of the anvil and then the other.

   My afternoon entire weekend project was finally done! I had my anvil mounted square and level to my log and the log has very little movement to it and it is just a hair over the perfect height, not *perfect* but close enough for me. I’m sure the chains will loosen up some with use and the anvil will start to shift around, but when that happens I have already devised a way to add adjustable tension sections to the chain so I can tighten it back down.

   As I sat in my chair looking at my newly mounted anvil, sipping a beer, I was proud of the work I had done; it had taken a lot longer than I planned but I know that by taking the time to do it right and getting the anvil face level on all axis’s will save me a lot of time, frustration, and reworking in the future. I am excited with prospects of getting to do Blacksmithing at home, the only thing I need to do now is build a gas forge and I will be ready. That *should* be my next post and I will *try* to post info as I go as well as take pictures of what I am actually doing to add to the blog. Even if no one other than me is reading this post that is fine by me, I enjoy recording the experiences I am having working on these projects and look forward to reading over them in the future.

Giant Jenga the Drinking Game… a.k.a. Drenka!

   This was a last minute project I decided to build for a New Year’s Eve Party I was hosting. I did some quick research and decided it was something I could knock out fairly quickly so I left work an hour early on the Friday before New Year’s and went to Home Depot.

   I selected 4 of the straightest least knotty Whitewood 2x4’s that were 16’ long that I could find and figuring I could save myself some time and had the poor guy who happened to walk by and ask me if I needed any help cut them for me… So I had him cut them into 72 pieces 10.5” long. (10.5” long because 2x4’s aren’t actually 2” x 4”… they are 1.5” x 3.5” and 3.5” x 3 = 10.5”) He did a really nice job of cutting them to size and with smooth even cuts, which is great because I haven’t found a table saw I like yet and it would have taken me forever with a circular saw! Normally the first 2 cuts are free and each cut after that is .25 cents but even after telling the cashier several times I had 66 cuts she didn’t charge me the $16.50 she should have.

   After I got home I decided to sand the pieces so they would fit together nicely and we could avoid splinters while drinking playing. I used a jitterbug style hand sander and 220 grit sandpaper… and a six pack of Newcastle… and several hours (about 4.5) to get all 72 pieces sanded. A much larger undertaking than I had counted on.

   After everything was sanded down I hunted around on the internet and with the help of my wife we came up with enough commands to label all 72 pieces for the game. A couple of Sharpie markers and an hour later the game was finished.

 

  We decided that the punishment for knocking the tower over was that you (a) had to set the tower back up (b) finish your drink and (c) you started out the next game as the Beer Wench.

   The final result was fabulous and the hit of the party. We all drank played several times and were so noisy I was sure this would be the day the cops finally came knocking on my door… but alas it was not so. Maybe next time.