KpdRetired

It always fascinated me, especially looking at things made prior to the Industrial age, purely by hand.  The local Historic Farm has a blacksmithing demo a couple of times a year, and a few hours spent watching the smiths at assorted Ren faires when I was younger kept the interest going.  Add in the plethora of youtube videos, and i finally got off my butt and did a one day class on making a knife from a railroad spike...now i want to put together my own setup where i dont have to drive a couple of hours, or pay $50 in tolls to use someone else's equipment.

$200?   I;d jump on that for that price

As Matto said., Location, Location, Location.....In my area, they are selling rusted beaten to scrap anvils for huge money just to sit in someone's yard as decoration.  Apparently if you slap the term "Vintage' on something now, it raises the price by a decimal point even if its useless for any practical purpose.  There was a guy in pa that was selling Peter Wrights in good Condition for $4/lb.  

From someone who's wife used to make candles....dollar store cheese graters work wonders on beeswax

Too late now, but Northern Tool has a Bead Roller setup for about $160

DSW beat me to it, Harbor Freight had 4 1/2 in Grinders for around $10 and multipacks of cutoff wheels.  Are they DeWalt or Milwaukee?  Of course not, but they get the Job Done

I've got a local Butcher;s shop that i plan to hit up for fat to Render...before theing the PD job, i worked at a local ethnic (Scots) Butchers for a couple of years, and we got Lovely Beef suet in, but it all went into Black Puddings....ugh

I wasnt going to go with the whole AR500 top plate, just a hardcoat rod final pass over the joint, Im liking your idea a lot more frankly.  in the end it;s going to depend entirely on how much track i can get my hands on, and what kind of Welder i can get access to.

Rail Anvil part 1

its in two Four parts...if i could get a big enough track section i was thinking about trying it...after a WHOLE lot of welding practice though  The difference is he welds a faceplate of 1" Ar500 on top instead of using a 3rd rail section as a face

I bought a couple of HF 4 1/2 In angle Grinders a month or so ago because I was going to start doing some welding......i have no qualms about burning them up on this....  I also like the suggestion in the other thread about the portable Hardy, rather than spending a week drilling and filing to get a square hole.  Thanks Folks, all of your advise is Greatly Appreciated.  I'mmslowly getting together the stuff to make myself a "Super C" Style forge as well.  I need to be able to break everything down to put away, i just dont have the room for a dedicated Shop for the time being.

Fixed..I forgot all about the Prifile, Thanks for reminding me.. And Thanks for the Welcome, and Information Folks, Glad to be here.  Frosty, It's funny you mention the Welding  a couple of sections together, I just watched a youtube video of someone making an Anvil like that out of Heavy Gauge track that way.

Oh, One other question for you folks...would it be easier to Anneal the rail before starting to work on it for shaping then harden it afterwards?  Between the initial hardening, and the work hardening from being in use for who knows how long, I was wondering if it would make life easier in the long run.

Frosty, can you give me some hints to info on the Imroved Vertical rail?? Im drawing a blank, and for some reason i cant seem to get to any of the blueprints.  For the time being since im just starting out, im pretty much settled on a Rail anvil, ive got feelers out all over for rail sections, im also asking and looking for Anvils, but in my area at least they are asking ridiculous prices for clapped out junk..so anything useable is really out of sight.

Thanks,

Al