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Another rail road iron anvil


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I've two 30cm lengths of 50kg brand new track sitting in my shed I scrounged a while back from the new rail line they are putting through town. I cleaned the rust and scale off and oiled them to keep them in good nick and tossed them in the back of the shed while I thought about it for a while.

Think I have just found some inspiration on what to do with them!

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  • 8 months later...
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I appreciate you revived this thread. I had read it a few years ago, but had forgotten entirely about it until now, and I was already thinking of what extras I could add to my rail. So far it's on end, and I was thinking of a hot cut and a fuller, but it will be some time before I make a final decision. Seeing this brings me some more inspiration!

The piece of Rail that I have has 3 holes close to one end, and I'm thinking that they could come in handy for some things. I don't have any measurements right now, but here is a drawing.

I'd really like to hear ideas on what they could be used for!

RRTrack.png

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Well I was inspired by this thread. Un bolted my rail and flipped it up on end. Cut out a small horn, made the web in to a fuller. I'm loving it. Much better than before!!!  Haven't decided what to do with the other edge. May go with a hot cut tho idk if I like having a permenant sharp spot on the anvil. My post vise holds my hot cut just fine so I my go with a slightly sharper fuller.

image.jpeg

image.jpeg

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  • 1 month later...

I was planning on just putting a piece of rail road that I found on my grandfather's shed and put in on tree stump and call it a day. But reading the Anvilfire article on RR Anvils and this thread I found out that a RR Anvil on the horizontal are not that good. Fortunately, this thread and the article gave me an idea, that I really hope will work, of using an I-beam with two plates welded in each end: One to provide a way to bolt the RR Anvil to the base and other to provide a good base to the ground (I will be putting it in a 8cm (3inch) deep whole so it has contact with a more compacted soil and has a bit of support so it will not tip to the side). This base would add about 16kgs (35lbs) to the anvil. The I-beam is 152cm (6") x 9.1cm(3.5"), the outer walls are 9.1mm (0.35") and the middle wall is 11.8mm (1/2").

Here is a quick sketch to make things clear:

untitled.thumb.jpg.484ea68974cdd46c4bc09326beb19eac.jpg

Is my idea will really gonna improve the RR anvil or it will end up being just a gimmick?

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Much like the RR track in the horizontal position, the I beam only has solid steel of reasonable thickness under a very narrow cross section.  You want as much solid steel directly under your hammer blows as possible.  You're still better off with the RR track in the vertical orientation no matter what you use for a base. 

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It wouldn't be a bad idea to mount one piece vertically and one piece horizontally to have a larger face when you need it. Although it is true that you only NEED an area the size of your hammer it sure is nice to have a bigger face for things like veining leaves while holding stock between your legs.

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This is one of my favorite Iforge threads it opens so many avenues I don't know where to start. Well, okay I do. :ph34r:

Jasent: If you want a hardy grind it in the other end and flip it over as needed. You can also make the stand so you can lay the rail horizontally and use it that way too. A couple feet of rail isn't to heavy to move around as necessary.

Mateus: You're over thinking the stand a little but as you show in your drawing that's about the only good way to use I beam or wide flange. It's true the only way all that steel helps an anvil is what's directly under the hammer and that's part of the problem using rail on it's side, only the center of the rail is backed by the web. So, mount it with the rail's web directly over the I beam's web and that's about as good as it's going to get.

RR rail makes fine anvils it's up to the blacksmith to do well with the anvil s/he has.

Frosty The Lucky.

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1 hour ago, Buzzkill said:

You're still better off with the RR track in the vertical orientation no matter what you use for a base. 

Yeah I know, but the piece of RR track I got will gave me a "usable" surface of 3cmX10cm if I put in on the vertical. That's seems like a really small work surface.

39 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Mateus: You're over thinking the stand a little but as you show in your drawing that's about the only good way to use I beam or wide flange. It's true the only way all that steel helps an anvil is what's directly under the hammer and that's part of the problem using rail on it's side, only the center of the rail is backed by the web. So, mount it with the rail's web directly over the I beam's web and that's about as good as it's going to get.

RR rail makes fine anvils it's up to the blacksmith to do well with the anvil s/he has.

Frosty The Lucky.

Over thinking is what I do best! 

To have the I-beam web directly under the web of the RR track is why I thought of use an I-beam instead a steel tube for the base.

But overthinking a little bit more, It seems I am better of using the money of the I-beam in something like a 4" by 6" of round stock and use it instead of RR track.

 

Thanks everyone for the help!

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Frosty

i been using the post vice as a hardy and it works great. Loving this setup. I'm planing a swage block with the weight in the pic and may put a hardy in that since it's half way there already. 

image.jpeg

image.jpeg

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Don't bother modifying that square-to-round hole; just make hardies with a short, square shank just below the shoulder and a longer round shank extending beyond that. As an added bonus, you won't have to worry about visitors nicking your hardies!

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Tapering the shank is a good idea, especially if you don't have access to the bottom of the hardy hole, to drift out a stuck tool from below (don't ask me how I know this).

If you look at Mark Aspery's video about making a bottom swage, you can see that he tapers the shank pretty dramatically. Yours will be round, of course, rather than square, but the same principle applies.

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  • 2 months later...
On 7/25/2017 at 9:41 AM, Frosty said:

Good job on the Hardy Jasen. There sure are a lot of interesting and useful looking shapes in that counter weight, have you tried working on its edges?

Yes frosty this was my anvil till I got the rail. I use both depending on what I'm doing and prob will continue to do so. Haven't gotten the chance to forge lately. Work is slamming and when I get home I eat and sleep.  Haven't gotten to even bang on my newest project.   I'll have more free time than I like come winter. 

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  • 1 month later...

This is brilliant...solves a big vertical rail problem for me...thanks for creating and posting it.

On Friday, May 22, 2015 at 8:20 PM, Charles R. Stevens said:

All the new guys on the rail road anvil band wagon got me to thinking (I can hear Frosty and TP's keyboards smoking as I hit post) why not build a few for demo perposes? I coned TJ Watts into dicing up a 24" peice  of heavy guage for me, 1 peice 12", 2 at 6" and few bits (I'll post the prjects for the rest of the rail later). Every one has seen london paterns carbed out of rail, and most have seen them on end as "post anvils" but this is my take. 

Now I'm solisiting ideas for the other end

 

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