scjohnson243 Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 Morning IFI - I have about a 6' section of railroad track - I was wondering if I could cut it down and get it hot enough to reshape it to something (Basically cut off a chunk of the metal, put it in the forge and reshape it for something else) I need as much practice as I can get with the ol' hammer, was just wondering if this was a decent source of metal, or if It wouldn't work for one reason or another? I read alot of making anvils with it, but not anything about any other uses... Any ideas? Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRiley904 Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 I've heard of people using the rail to make hammers although I'm not sure how practical this is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njanvilman Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 Railroad rail is tough stuff. I would practice on mild steel, expecially if hand hammering. Save the rail for power hammer work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgewayforge Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 I experimented with this the other day, making a stake anvil. It is 1080-1090 steel, high carbon, so I would not use it unless you already have experience working with tool steels. At least, get some experience on smaller tool steel. Hamer control is better learned on hooks, letter openers, forks, punches, tongs and the smaller stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timothy Miller Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 If you need steel visit your local fab shop with beer or doughnuts. Explane that you are learning to forge and need some scrap to practice on. You probably end up with a good amount of steel. Find out what they like and stop by from time to time trust me you will be popular person if you know how to handle your self. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
physicsguy91 Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 Track is a bear to cut. It can be done with a torch, but with a band saw or chop saw it'll be much more trouble than it's worth. http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/28668-spliting-rr-rail/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrankow Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 If you have a means to SAW the rail (that is a power hacksaw, abrasive cutoff saw, or stock cutting bandsaw, not a hand saw, although determination will get you there...eventually) saw a few pieces about 1 inch thick, or the size of your hardy. You can then cut these down and/or reforge to make tooling.Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picker Posted January 16, 2013 Share Posted January 16, 2013 I had an engineer buddy who picked up junk on tracks all the time. He brought me a 20" piece of 137 track. Must have been an end cut, because it was shiny and new. My other buddy had a nice Clarke metal cutting bandsaw and he cut it in half. It took several hours to cut through it. The railroads get all the best metal. The 137 grade was top of the line. I traded one half, and kept the other, mounted it on a stump and used it for incidental work. It was impervious to anything I did on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 It cuts easily in a bandsaw if you clamp it rail side down and tilted a little so the blade cuts from under the wear surface. RR rail is induction hardened for the top few thousandths for wear resistance and the remainder is left at a tough tough state. Heck, buy the right hacksaw blades and you can hand cut it in an hour or so. Lots of work but not as hard as one might think. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njanvilman Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 I have cut rail upside down on my horizontal saw. Yes, it take a long time. And I found it is best to stop the cut about 1/2" from the top of the cut and hit it with a heavy hammer and break the last part. It is usually so hard that is snaps off clean. I found that if you try to cut it completely off it will destroy the blade in that last part of the cut. Learn on mild steel and save the rail for pounding on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laertius Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 I second frosty's remarks -- I clamped it down to a table and used a recip saw, cutting from the bottom on an angle-- took about an hour to cut through, the face or rail side was much harder but cutting from the back helped a lot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Everything Mac Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 If you have a means to SAW the rail (that is a power hacksaw, abrasive cutoff saw, or stock cutting bandsaw, not a hand saw, although determination will get you there...eventually) saw a few pieces about 1 inch thick, or the size of your hardy. You can then cut these down and/or reforge to make tooling.Phil I can testify to that. I cut my rail anvil to shape using a mix of hack saw and cutting discs on a grinder. It took .... A very long time. Rail does make good hardy tools though. I used one piece as a cut off tool for quite a while. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 Another method for cutting rail as used by the RR track gangs is to score the rail where you want the cut and drop it on something, like another piece of "upright" rail, either on the scores or the end. The rail snaps cleanly at the sore marks. The one time I watched a R crew do this the guy was using a long handled chisel as in a tip tool striking with a sledge hammer. He said one of the guys on another crew could make the final break with the sledge. A little grinder work and the breaks would be as clean and smooth as you wish. I'll use my bandsaw. You do have to get the tip just right and sometimes the rail will have a little mushrooming so it's just not possible to keep the saw blade from blunting on the hardened steel. A little clean up with a grinder will take care of it quickly and easily enough. Another thing is using a saw blade with the right TPI. The web is typically around 1/2" thick so at a ratio of 3 teeth on the steel at all times a 6-tpi blade would be perfect. Being as I don't fave a reason to buy industrial grade blades I use the coarsest I have being 13-tpi. When you get into the rail you could use what around 1/2-tpi? as in one tooth every 2". Not practical at all so don't sweat the perfect blade. The thing about having the correct blade is clearing the kerf. what happens is you use too fine a blade is the gaps between teeth gets filled with cuttings and shortly the blade is riding on a bed of cuttings generating heat without cutting. Too few teeth and you have a situation where the teeth dig in and grab and curl back or snap off or(?) all bad things. However if you need to cut stock that's too thin to obey the "3 on the cut" rule reduce the down pressure and float the blade. Sure it cuts a lot slower but this reduces the chance of binding the blade. This also works if you have too many tpi but not so well. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drewy Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 As an apprentice we were encouraged not to use railway line for tooling that would be struck, as it has manganese in it and work hardens and the chips are quite sharp. We made all our tools out of train tyres (tyre steel official name) and used water for hardening. Also having access to large hammers made knocking down to size easy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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