Rail Anvils

I just put up a page one rail anvils. It contains all I know about them at present and what I am doing with them:

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When folks (including me) have posted on this subject in the past, several guys flame us for even thinking about using a rail anvil, but we do it anyway.

Pete Stanaitis

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Reply to
spaco
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I am very happy with my homemade anvil

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I have a 200 lb Peter Wright too, but this is a small and portable one.

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Reply to
Ignoramus24647

Dumb question: Where do you go to scrounge rails?

Reply to
Tim Wescott

About half way through that I said "d'oh", and emailed my brother to see if he can scrounge some. But not everyone has a brother who helps to restore antique steam locomotives. So I'm still interested.

Reply to
Tim Wescott

I keep seeing them at garage sales in one to six foot lengths for five to twenty bucks. I got 2' thrown in with a weedeater purchase for free.

-- Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens. -- Epictetus

Reply to
Larry Jaques

In my case, it was a father in law.

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Reply to
Ignoramus24647

My son stopped at a RR crossing where guys were working on the track and they gave him a chunk. My other son bought a couple of 20 or 30-some foot lengths at a salvage yard. I have usually gotten mine at the tailgate sales held at our annual blacksmithing conference, and at farm auctions.

Pete Stanaitis

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Tim Wescott wrote:

Reply to
spaco

My own personal experience with it is that unless you are going to beat on it eight hours a day hard, that a piece of rail will serve most purposes.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

My last piece, about six feet, was picked from a sand pit boneyard. They had welded chains to it, and were using it for a drag.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

I use a couple for blade smithing and small stuff. Works fine. Plus they are much easier to move around.

Reply to
Steve W.

I've got a small one that's very handy for punching pins out and such, I've got larger ones that work better for hot work and cold bending.

Reply to
stans4

I've got a small one that's useful for benchtop work, picked it up somewhere for junk. Worked the horn over with an angle grinder and polished the top up. I've bigger anvils for hot work and cold bending, this one's good for punching pins out and whacking a bullet puller against. Better than the small HF cast iron wonders.

Stan

Reply to
stans4

I put a flattop plate on mine, and it is really great for straightening things.

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Reply to
Ignoramus18879

My "small one" is a piece of tee shaped cast iron that broke off of some machine. About a 1/2" thick, 4" x 12" or so. To use as a anvil the stem of the tee gets clamped in a hefty bench vise.

Bob

Reply to
Bob Engelhardt

There is heavier rail available than the one listed in the OP website.

172 and 175 lb/yard crane runway may be available in certain scrap yards.

I have a 12" piece of 172 lb/yd rail given to me by railfitters on a job I project managed.

Great for flattening stuff.

Wolfgang

Reply to
wolfgang

Did it hurt much when it hit you? ;-)

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Nice. Thanks for posting that. My dad has a couple chucks of railroad iron he uses for beating on, but nothing shaped so nicely. Just out of curiosity, have you or anybody you have read about tried hard facing some surfaces and regrinding flat?

Reply to
Bob La Londe

Go to Sci.eng.joining.welding and look for Ernies website. He has tons of information , including how to make an anvil.

Dan

Reply to
dcaster

Yep, Redid the face of an anvil. Used a stick machine, ground the face down some, welded the entire surface, heated the entire anvil and cleaned the weld slag off. Then welded a second layer on. After the second layer I faced it and checked it all over for pits/dirt. Then had the surface ground flat and radiused one side at 3/8" while the other was at 90 degrees with just the edge broke.

Works OK but it's a LOT of work. One thing I thought about doing would be to take a chunk of good tool steel, grand a double chamfer on the back and then weld that to the surface one pass at a time. Then grind that surface true and see what it does.

Reply to
Steve W.

I simply welded a thick flat piece of 4140 on top of the rail.

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Reply to
Ignoramus7397

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