Sand Filled Anvil Stand

Today I finally got around to making my anvil stand. Not having my forge completed I haven't been in any hurry to get the stand completed. The beginning idea for this stand came from a photo in Wayne Goddard's $50 Knife Shop book in which he just nailed 2X4s together. Pat had also suggested a sand filled base that would reduce the amount of ring since I live in a vinyl village. And thus the following contraption was born.

I wanted to make a sturdy box that I could move around with a dolly that could hold up to the weight of the sand.

I simply nailed up 2X4's in a log cabin design. I used pressure treated 4X4's on the bottom for two reasons. I wanted to be able to get my foot under it to get up close to the anvil and pressure treated because that's what I had and it would hold up better if I decided to put it outside.

I then boxed it up with salvaged plywood from my neighbor's trash and sealed it up with Liquid Nails. In the end I used some 1X's in the top corner to sturdy them up a bit.

My anvil is 9" and I wanted a total heighth of 30". Upon getting it together I realized the 21" heighth I made it was really where the top of the sand should be. So I probably will add an additional 4" to it later with the left over plywood. Now I just have to go get the sand and finish my forge!

Materials Used:
1/2 sheet of 1/4" plywood (salvaged from trash)
27" of pressure treated 4X4 (in stock)
2 2X4's (salvaged from construction trash)
1 can of Liquid Nails (in stock)
3d nails and 16d nails (in stock)

Total Cost - Sand = $0

More pictures here.

**UPDATE**

I added 100lbs. of sand tonight. As I thought, I'm about 3" shy of where I want to be. So I'll have to add a lip and raise the sand level. But I'm very excited and I think my neighbors will thank me, the sand does a great job keeping the ring down!