I have been plugging holes in my workshop lately, adding a few things and improvising others. One of the things I have been stuck with is making a DIY light-duty anvil. Nothing major here. I don't do blacksmithing. Only the occasional straightening a bent nail or piece of metal. I figured that instead of buying a real anvil, I should just find a block of wood and fix a thick sheet of metal on top. Wood block has been improvised by nailing three 2x4s on each other. But I spent a looooonnng time thinking about a heavy sheet of metal, but got nothing.

My wife threw a few pots and pans, and I investigated them, but they were not thick enough. So, the question is: can you think of anything that is available in most stores, or around us, that is thick enough for this purpose ??

I am looking for anything that is about 4x4 inches.
No problem if it was rectangular or circular, but should be around 5 mm thick ± .

Thank you

Maybe you could find an actual small anvil at an 'antique' store or flea market? I've got a small 30-40 lb. one that grandpa had that went to my dad on the farm that now lives in my garage so I would think some of the small ones are still around in rural areas.

I'm in Iowa and found several in the state for sale using craig's list and a general search on the web. If you can't source it locally, shipping costs would be a deal breaker! We've also got some blacksmithing groups and in the Des Moines area is the Living History Farm where there would be a bunch of folks that may know of a local source to get a small anvil.

If you can't do that or something like that - check out steel targets and with the local gun shops or shooting groups. There are several of those that are thick steel, come in several (flat) shapes and sizes that could work for a flat hard surface. Another idea is to check with any local metal shops in your area for a chunk of "scrap" they may have and/or a heavy equipment or vehicle shop could have some 'junk' parts from heavy equipment or engines you could adapt for your use. Maybe a 'junkyard' if there is still such a thing anymore.

A cast iron pan is about 3 mm thick. I don't know whether that's thick enough.

MacGyver would just use a stick of gum and straighten the bent nail on the foil wrapper. That only works if you connect the wrapper to a battery and douse the nail in hydrogen peroxide. (jk)

The classic improvised anvil is a section of rail track. If have railways near by, might find a discarded small section.

Over here we have Welsh bakestones. Upto 1/2" thick flat cast iron. But probably cheaper to buy raw metal stock unless find one in a thrift store.

Thanks guys



That would be OK. But I am worried about anything cast iron, it may be too fragile to take hammer pounding. I don't know.
Besides, most of these are too big.




Good idea. I will try it.
They will definitely have all kinds of bits and pieces of metal around them.

I don't think so. Even if they were scattered there, lots of people will find them and sell them to metal recycling companies.

A lot of older vises have an anvil on the back.
Other things I've used in the past to have something solid to pound on are an old brake drum or disk.

Another common one, is just an old lump hammer or sledge hammer head.

Thanks guys

Real great ideas

OK, this talk about anvils reminds me to ask you about shovels and spades. What's the connection ? LOL. One of the projects I was planning for in the workshop (using an anvil) has to do with a spade/shovel that my brother gave me after he finished his house construction.

There are two types I use in the home and garden. One type has a concave blade with a pointed tip. I use this type for digging the garden soil. The other type is has a flat blade with a straight front edge. I use this one (just like a bulldozer blade) to clean the tiles from dried clay or leaves ..etc. The straight bottom gives maximum contact with the floor.

Now the spade that my brother gave me does not fall in either category. It has a rounded (concave) blade, with a straight edge !! I couldn't figure out where it should be used. Its straight front edge is not great in digging soil, and its rounded bottom does not help contain debris or leaves on the floor. This is why I thought if I had an anvil, I would bang the blade and make it flat to use it for scraping the floor or cleaning leaves.

Before doing that, it would be wise to ask you guys to educate me about the uses of such a spade configuration. Maybe I could use it where it is intended.

Thanks.

If it's narrow it be for digging drainage trenches or post holes.

Having dug my fair share of post holes, generally want to keep the hole as close to the size of the post as possible. As undug ground to much firmer and does better job of holding the post upright.

No Ren, it is regular size

It's like the spade on the left, except the bottom is round , not flat

Coal shovel?

I don't know. It could be

Sometimes, businesses import stuff without knowing exactly what they are for.
One time I was in a shop and started chatting with the owner (suggesting to him that the market has changed from what it was 20 years ago, and that he has to relocate his business to more customer-dense areas). Anyway, we chatted for long enough he started talking about business difficulties. He showed me something and said : see , I received a container from China and it contains this stuff, I don't even know what it is.

He was showing me a set of lock picks. LOL.
He never ordered then, and doesn't know what they are.

In that incident I was reluctant to tell what the stuff was. But there was another example when I took advantage of the business "mistake". It was a camping store with the usual stuff. In one corner, there were the white BBQ fire starting cubes, fire gel ..etc. However, there were other boxes of similar cubes that looked the same, with a little higher price. Everyone bought the cheaper ones and left these. Not only they were a bit more expensive, but they smelled bad. LOL.

Nobody knew what they were because they were Esbit cubes : no one around here uses Esbit, or other solid-fuel stoves. Most everyone uses propane or butane stove, or wood.

So (evil smile) I grabbed all the boxes for myself.
And sure enough, that shop never imported them again.

Back to the shovel/spade.
It seems they imported it with a 1000 others , and no one cared about the geometry, LOL. So, as soon as I get myself an anvil, I will flatten it and use it for cleaning around the garden.

My bench vise has a small anvil area on it, about 4x4". It's worked well for me.

Yes, I have seen similar models at work. But really, I don't need that big a bench vice. I have two; one is small and fixed on a workbench by 4 screws, the other is portable and can be clamped to whatever table or bench. Neither of them is big enough to have an anvil surface.

Going through my TO DO list, one task requires me to visit a welding shop. So, I will ask them to cut for me a sheet of thick metal for the anvil.

I have settled for the light duty design made of a thick piece of metal (6x6 inches) fixed on thick wood. Half of this area is adequate for most jobs, but maybe some part of the surface is damaged somehow, I will still have more square inches of usable metal. Also, this bigger area allows working on bigger surfaces like a spade, if I need to flatten it.

The other option I've seen is using weights. Find a place like play it again sports that buys and sells used benches and weights and buy a big already banged up weight that you can bang on.

I've used a sheet metal dolly or an old brake rotor for light duty stuff.

Well, Eugene. My son has some weights in his room. However, if one crawled away and he found dad using it as an anvil, LOL, he won't be too happy.

The dolly is something new to me. However, seems my best bet is to ask a welder to sell me a apiece of thick metal. I do have some business to do (other than the anvil) and will ask the guy for some of his scrap metal a few inches by a a few inches and then fix it to a piece of thick lumber.

Thanks for great suggestions.

While we are at it, I may ask you guys another question.
Hope you don't mind.

The other day, my son and I were working in the garden, and the shovel handle broke at the connection point. I bought two other shovels, but kept thinking about the broken one. metal part is almost new but the wooden handle is broken. My question is that if I cannot find a replacement handle in the market, what is the best way to improvise ? Should I smoothen the broken handle and utilize what is left of it ?? Or should I buy a 2x2 piece of wood and improvise it as a handle ?

I will keep looking for a replacement handle in our local market, but it doesn't look promising.

I think a 2x2 would flex too much to be useful as a handle.

Handles are usually hardwood, not soft like construction grade lumber. What quality is the shovel with the broken handle? If it is a cheap shovel the replacement handle will cost more than replacing the shovel. While I don't like disposable tools, sometimes it is more cost effective to throw away a broken tool and buy a new one than it is to repair an inexpensive one.

My 2 cents:
Use a sledgehammer head.
That's sounds like a coal shovel.
Shovel handles used to be made of Ash around here. Hickory or Locust will work, too.

You can use a cement walkway, driveway, and/or curb for a light duty anvil.

Also, you can straighten a nail in your small vise that doesn't have an anvil. Just clamp it in the vise, either all the way in, or clamp one end with the rest sticking out then hammer that end until straight.

Or, you could just buy an assortment of different nail sizes, then you won't ever need to straighten bent nails. That would be cheaper than buying a bigger vise with an anvil. I have both.

the corner piece of a chep pallet. about 4x4 and kinda hard. (i work in a warehouse and we dont really have tools so we have to improvise.) or what I have done is clamp it in a good vice-grip and use a railroad tie step at my folks place. for straightening nails honestly wood is better than metal. if you the need the strength of metal I would ask around at machining shops or welder buddies, an I beam or solid c channel should do ya. prolly free if you are friends. also you can use your hitch in an pinch.