Thread: portable anvil

Originally Posted by 32t

Showing my ignorance but the vaporizing of the oil would take place within a small distance of the metal. 1/16 of an inch or less. What difference would it make if you quenched it in a 1000 gallon tank of oil? At that point the heat transfer wouldn't be quick enough through the oil to make a difference.

I'm showing my ignorance here a bit also, however if you watch this video from the DOVO factory starting at about 2:39 and watch what happens when he takes just a couple dozen razor out of the 'hot' and dunks them in what would appear to be around 50 gallons of oil.(You don't need to speak German to enjoy this entire film let alone what I'm talking about)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4tkfN8tAJE&t=2s

Flame On!!

Originally Posted by 32t

Showing my ignorance but the vaporizing of the oil would take place within a small distance of the metal. 1/16 of an inch or less. What difference would it make if you quenched it in a 1000 gallon tank of oil? At that point the heat transfer wouldn't be quick enough through the oil to make a difference.

Yes, but the steel will be transferring heat to the oil for a long time. If the barrel of oil reaches the flash temperature now you have a fire.

Originally Posted by bluesman7

Yes, but the steel will be transferring heat to the oil for a long time. If the barrel of oil reaches the flash temperature now you have a fire.

This is exactly what I was hoping to show with the DOVO video with just a small amount of razors in a large amount of oil. That anvil would have soooo much more heated mass that would continue to heat the oil. Then as you've said, the oil may reach a flash temperature and then FLAME ON!!!!

Originally Posted by cudarunner

I'm showing my ignorance here a bit also, however if you watch this video from the DOVO factory starting at about 2:39 and watch what happens when he takes just a couple dozen razor out of the 'hot' and dunks them in what would appear to be around 50 gallons of oil.(You don't need to speak German to enjoy this entire film let alone what I'm talking about)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4tkfN8tAJE&t=2s

Flame On!!

I see your point but if he had quenched in 1 gallon of oil rather that 50 or whatever I think the resulting flair of flame would have been the same.

The vaporizing of the oil would happen very close to the hot steel and the volume of oil outside of that small are would be relatively unrelevant.

When the whole volume got to the flash point or higher that could get interesting.

Originally Posted by bluesman7

Yes, but the steel will be transferring heat to the oil for a long time. If the barrel of oil reaches the flash temperature now you have a fire.

The flash point will not continue to burn until the fire point is met.

How much oil would be needed to hold it below the fire point with the heat from that much steel?

Seriously it is sort of spectacular but at what point does it become dangerous?

Perhaps a study of how anvils were heat-treated in the old days?

Originally Posted by 32t

How much oil would be needed to hold it below the fire point with the heat from that much steel?

That's the point that we are trying to avoid. If the whole amount of oil starts boiling it is going to be hard to deal with.

Originally Posted by bluesman7

Charlie, do me a favor and when you next have the anvil off of the stand, like before you heat treat again, do the bearing test again with the anvil sitting directly on your concrete floor. Also could you feel any indentations where the bearing hit before. My thinking is that the stand may be contributing to the poor bearing test. The modulus of elasticity is virtually the same up to yield on hardened and unhardened steel. The yield strength is where the big difference is. If the steel is yielding, permanent deformations would be occurring where the bearing is hitting. If the steel is not yielding, the rebound should be the same.

That is some smart thinking.

The rebound was the same on concrete or on the stand. The bearing does dimpling the surface.

I have used anvil stands of similar design and they worked well.

---------------

The project is going to go on the back burner for a little bit.

---------------

Now I am leaning toward floating 3 or 4 inches of oil on top water in a big barrel.

My thinking is only to top 1/4 of the black gets to critical, the whole enchilada is not that hot

Since steel transformation happens so quickly maybe I can get the outer top surface hard before it passes through to the water.

These are my thoughts after several adult recreational beverages, they are subject to mulling over.

Save it for February, Charlie!

You'll have plenty help!

Originally Posted by spazola

That is some smart thinking.
The bearing does dimpling the surface.
.

Thanks. That is what I was curious about. You could just forge on it and let it work harden. I don't know what the work hardening characteristics of O1 are, but the stuff just seems to want to get hard.