October 22, 20169 yr I thought folks might enjoy pics of these two hot cuts I made from two 7" long pieces of light gauge railway. Jumping them up under the power hammer to fatten it up & square it was probably the hardest bit. I'm not really the sort of person to get out the calculator & start working out mass & where to neck in for the hardy shank so I'm pleased to say that in both cutters my guestimations were bang on & the shanks' lengths are exactly the depth of my hardy. Non tapered shanks, made to fit my hardy which is a hair under 40mm square. No grinding, just a tickle with a file.
October 23, 20169 yr Okay, perhaps I should have worried about the aesthetics of the cutoff I made. Yours look nice and symmetrical. I am rethinking my beliefs about the balance of form and function.
September 5, 20178 yr Those are awesome. I can't recall what steel rail is made from... is it something like 1018 with just a hint of alloy?
September 5, 20178 yr More like 1070-1080, high manganese. 1018 would be rolled flat after just a train or two... Can anyone post the spec for various types of rail? I'm on a different computer now and haven't transferred my files on steels used for X, (and no they are NOT a Junkyard Steel list, they are specs for various products rather than guesses!)
November 13, 20178 yr Author The light gauge railway I use is various ages according to when it was laid & pulled up for replacement so I don't think there's a guarenteed constant in steel type. The stuff I used for these is the newer track with a larger profile. It's strange stuff because it drills very easily with a cordless hand drill, as easily as mild steel, but seems to hold an edge on cutters.
July 21, 20197 yr I just redressed my upright railtrack anvil with a hot cut built in. not sure how well it will fare. It is from the Loraine Street Railway. Later renamed the Cleveland, Lorain & Wheeling, it would be absorbed by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in 1909. manganese steel (mangalloy) was created in 1882 and was used widely but not much info on who used them for rails. Mangalloy is funny stuff.
July 22, 20197 yr Those look great. I need a power hammer. I can barely dent hot rail with my big hammer. Rail is usually .72 C, .80 Mn and little else.
September 30, 20196 yr Hello Guys; Railways are usually 0.7 to 0.8 % Carbon steel; with lots of maganese. i'll add a picture of the various grades in use in europe. Without a power hammer; that seems verrrrrry hard. I know the steel doesn't move well under the hammer.
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