Doublewide rail anvil; think it'll work?

[Glenn]

You may want to weld a plate of steel to the each end of the anvil to both close off the interior but also strengthen the anvil.

[Bjorn]

You could probably poor lead into the center of the anvil if you seal off the space under the horn. THe extra weight would make the anvil more eficient.

[ksb]

Hi Doc .. I made my 1st anvil from 2 pc of rr iron. Did like you - welded the 2 side by each. Then Welded 2 pc of grader blade together and welded it to the top of the rr iron. put in 1" hardie hole. Didn't HT. It ain't the best in the world but it workes fairly well as is. Got a small Nash also. Try to do a bit of blade work and wind up using the rr anvil for that. Here are some links to pic of it.

http://static.flickr.com/45/107912652_bdfbb81514.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/46/107910702_bbe1f50e16.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/40/107910496_9c3ec09abb.jpg

Ken

[DocsMachine]

Glenn- That's the plan, to plate between the rail ribs to help tie everything together.

Bjorn- I was thinking about that. Well, actually first I was thinking grout, mortar or cement, but I suspected it'd eventually be beat to dust. I do have some scrap lead... I'd guess given the volume in there, it'd add an easy 40lb in lead, pushing the finished weight to 150+ lb.

Would it help any? Would it do anything except maybe dampen the ring a bit?

I will have to carry this thing around on occasion.

KSB- That's not awful. Looks pretty sturdy, actually. (Interesting stand, too...) I used to have some grader blade floating around, not sure where it all went. It was serrated though, like a comb- I wouldn't have gotten much usable width out of it.

irnsrgn- I've heard the name 'stress proof', what's the alloy? I know both the metal supplier and the college shop have chunks of various alloys, though most of it is "mystery metal"- scrap from the local industrial plants. Might be some great stuff, might be some exotic alloy that takes special welding and tempering techniques else it shatters. (Don't ask me how I know that.)

Mild I can get by the ton, but I was thinking something that could be at least a bit harder than that.

Doc.

[ksb]

Doc - 'bout the anvil stand - I used what I had at the time. I have learned to work around it but am gona build one like on the other anvil (one day ..... maybe ). Also anvil weight is 98 lb.

ksb

[HWooldridge]

I'm not dissing your idea of using railroad track but if you can get tons of mild steel, buy a square block and weld a piece of scrap spring steel the the top. As stated elsewhere, the main problem with a railroad track anvil in the lack of mass directly under the hammer's blows. It will work but not as well as a more solid design. I have also seen some good designs based on a round shaft set on end - a piece of 6" round, 24" long will weigh close to 200 lbs.

[Nolano]

Doc, the lead is a good idea, in my opinion, as you will want that extra weight. After blacksmithing for a few months, carrying around 150#'s wont be much of a problem. my 80# fisher used to cause me a few problems, but now I can carry it with relative ease.

[Glenn]

If the bodies of many brands anvils are made from wrought with a tool steel face, why would you have to harden anything other than the face on your RR track anvil?

I can not see lead adding anything to the anvil capibilities. Lead is not one of the things you would want get loose in your shop, either being spilled during pouring, or being vibrated out from between the anvil rails with each impact of the hammer.

This construction project is an assembly of materials to approach the solid mass of a real anvil. Considering the actual area of the anvil being used is about the side of your hand, and the ideal location for the mass of the anvil would be under the impact area, why not look for some round shafting in the 4" to 6" size. Consider a set of Rail Road wheels and axle. Cut off one wheel. Bury the other wheel into the ground leaving the axle sticking straight up as the anvil. Just do not walk into it in the dark. :shock:

A block of steel 12" x 12" x 4" thick is 163 pounds. That is 4 anvil faces of 4" x 12" and two more anvil faces at 12" x 12 " in size. Mild steel will show some wear but by the time you wear out the 6 anvil faces on the block of steel, it will be time to move up to a real anvil anyway.

This is not to rain on your assembled anvil project, just that there are many ways to skin a cat.

We also need to rethink the design of the anvil. Do not weld the ends closed like I suggested earlier. Instead, lay the welding rod down and back up 3 paces. Now "look" at this and "see" if you can find a bridge anvil. :idea:

[DocsMachine]

When I said I can get tons of mild, I didn't say it was free.

Sure, if I wanted to pay for it, the college has some old 1,000-hp electric motor shafts roughly 12" in diameter. They don't know exactly what the alloy is, but they've been tested at 48 to 50 Rockwell C, and I'd bet they're extremely tough for their apparent hardness.

But between cutting of a chunk, facing it and paying for it, I think it'd be cheaper to buy a real anvil.

The benefit to this rail anvil is that it'll be largely free. As I said, I'm fairly new at this. I've used a gas forge once or twice before, and I've been beating on metal since I could hold a hammer, but really, it's the beginnings of a minor hobby at the moment.

If the rail anvil works until I decide whether or not it'll be worthwhile to buy a "real" anvil, that'll be fine. But I still want to do it "right".

Doc.

[rthibeau]

Can you get a piece of steel plate to fit the top of the rail pieces and weld that on? You'll be using only a hand hammer on it and if the plate is thick enough, it will suffice. Thick wall pipe in a vise will replace an anvil horn for the time being. A piece of 1 1/2" round forged or machined or even ground done to a cone and in a vice will replace the tip of the horn for that function. "Doing it right" is a function of money, time, and your imagination. If it works for what you want to do with it, you did it right.