Hello all, I'm a long time reader first time poster.
I've been getting more into blacksmithing and have been wanting to make a better anvil than the short hunk of railroad track I've been using. I have access to about twenty feet of track and have been researching how to make a better anvil out of it. I have two ideas sketched out and was hoping for some feedback.
(Sorry it's side-ways) The first idea i took from a video series
It uses two sections of rail (blue) welded together and filled with weld (green) on top. A tool steel plate (pink) is welded on top and then a box (red) is welded on the bottom and filled with lead (grey) to add mass. I'd fill the section inside the rails with lead as well. From what I understand the lead would only add mass to the anvil, and would not be akin to solid steel all the way through. But I figure it can't hurt. Especially if it's cast into place and completely enclosed with steel caps so it can't rattle around and turn into a 90# dead blow mallet.
My other idea is an evolution of the first.
This use three sections of track (blue). Two upright sections welded at the base supporting a third placed upside-down and nested into the others. All three would be welded substantially at every point they touch. Again a box (red) would be welded on the base and all voids filled with lead (grey). The top would be filled with weld (green) and ground flat, with a tool steel plate (pink) on top. The green weld on top is exaggerated a great deal.
My thought is that this second design would provide a wide surface (which maybe I don't need, given a long anvil?) supported straight down through three track webs.
Though the lead in these designs doesn't rebound the way steel does, of course. I'm thinking that if it is encapsulated in steel with nowhere to go, it can't act to much like a dead blow mallet and defeat the purpose of adding all that mass.
What do you all think? Will one of these combined with stout attachment to a large, heavy log-stand planted a few feet into the ground make a decent anvil? Or am I nutter?
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