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Alright now THAT'S an anvil! Remember it has another end you can grind handy tools in too. ;) 

Charles Stevens has a few excellent posts about rail anvils and what a little grinder work can give you. 

Cutting the rail the right length to fit you isn't getting fancy it's making the tool right for you. There's no better time than when you start to get your anvil the right height. No fooling It's an important detail that isn't hard to get right.

Frosty The Lucky.

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yea, i already looked at his Swiss Army Anvil xD Thinking of putting a horn opposite the cut off. I am still a novice with a grinder so the other end is not even lol.

an issue with my rail is as you can see it's lost a lot of mass around the base due to weathering and sitting partially buried.

I just got off work so I'm relaxing then going to touch up a couple spots. 

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i also forgot to mention this morning, my brother's friend has a coal room in his basement that still has a bunch of coal in it his dad bought back in 1990. I was given permission to get some. if I'm right in the googling, it should be bit coal. according to the results i found Bit coal is actually the more common coal. I may wrong not sure. I know we had strip mining for coal in this area. Big Brutus sits a few miles away from here.

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Well made my last modification on the anvil for the time being. Added a small horn opposite the hot cutoff. now I have an Idea for what I want to do with atleast part of the other side but i don't need it atm. I also think i know how i'm going to make the stand, and a later "workbench".

that last link shows the decay on this. that big divet i believe is from the RR company when they laid it. I'm goin to use that, by cleaning it up and shaping it a little i can make some kind or insert for a pin for holding it in place on the stand. 

Speakin of the stand My idea is to keep the Swiss army Anvil in place. so it would be something i can slide the RR Anvil into and secure it while in use but not permanent so i can swap the ends i'm using.

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Ah, there's no hurry is there? You don't know how to use the couple few things you have now, you won't miss the things you don't know you don't have for a while yet. If you're on hard ground you can mount a rail anvil on end with 3 long stakes. A couple feet in the ground and top them out a few inches below the top of the anvil. One on each side of the web in the corner with the flange and one on the other side of the flange in the center. You can just lift the anvil out and drop it in. If you can find a RR track plate you can drill holes in it for the stakes to pass and it'll make a dandy footer so the anvil doesn't get driven into the ground any.

OR you can do similar with wood screws, construction adhesive lumber and a piece of say 4" x 10" for the foot.

If you have access to a welder the world is the limit.

Frosty The Lucky.

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my brother has a stick welder i think is what is called.he's not very good with welding. I don't think i ever saw him weld anything TBH. I know its like 100+ amp. its something i plan to learn in due time. 

I was thinking of making my stand from RR Ties, we have a few piled up behind the chicken coop xD

Question, I see a lot of hammers that are flat on one side and rounded on the other. it wouldn't take much to round one side of my hammer i tossed into the pic, he red hammer in the 3rd pic above.

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Eric, if you decide to "round" one face of your hammer, be sure to not get the face too hot.  Only grind in small increments, not too hot to the touch and let it cool.  Might take a while, but if you grind too fast and too hard, you can overheat the face and remove any temper that might be in it.

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thanks Arkie and Thomas, info is appreciated.

Not gonna round the hammer. probably find a hefty ball peen. or just wait and get  good hammer from someone here =]

so is there some modifications i can do to some Farrier pliers to make some makeshift tongs? its the kind with the nail clipper tip. the guy with the hand crank fore blowers at the flea market has a bunch of these in varying lengths. they're worn and a little rust but still good. I figure a little shaping of the clipping end and i could get a decent pair of tongs for working with things like RR spikes.

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PROGRESS!!! 

It's simple but effective!

A chunk of RR Tie with 3 2x8 pieces screwed to it and each other 1 at a time. then a 1x6 screwed to one side. drilled a hole and stuck a bolt through. I need a new bolt though. slightly longer and I would like a wing nut as well.

just gotta jury rig the air supply with a cut-off valve for airflow control and I should be able to test fire this weekend. gonna stop by my brothers friends tomorrow to get some f his coal and test it for forging viability.

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On 6/1/2017 at 10:03 PM, Eric Green said:

is there some modifications i can do to some Farrier pliers to make some makeshift tongs? its the kind with the nail clipper tip. the guy with the hand crank fore blowers at the flea market has a bunch of these in varying lengths. they're worn and a little rust but still good. I figure a little shaping of the clipping end and i could get a decent pair of tongs for working with things like RR spikes.

There are a couple of threads on IFI about this. If you do a web search with "iforgeiron.com" as one of your search terms (in this case, I'd suggest "farrier" "nipper" and "tongs" as well), you can probably find what you need.

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Sweet TY JHCC,

I looked at a few articles. some with pics for construction, that, sadly, the pics are broken links and i didn't get to see em. 

Should i remove the Rivet? or try to make the tongs with it in since i don't have the easy tools for making rivets.

 

On another note, I did my first fire today! using a bunch of scrap wood and a shop vac in reverse mode. 

that Shop Vac moves the air. Going to get some stuff to make a simple Air gate(shut off valve) until i find a better source for airflow. this set up i could only get the fire hot enough for Dark Red, and it cooled very fast.

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25 minutes ago, Eric Green said:

Sweet TY JHCC,

I looked at a few articles. some with pics for construction, that, sadly, the pics are broken links and i didn't get to see em.

There was a glitch in the forum software some years back, and a lot of photos got lost. However, if you do that same Google search and click on Images, you can sometimes find the original photos, even if you can't see them in context.

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So, I Been an idiot... Being a PC nerd/IT Tech I have a crate, or two, of old PC components. In these crates i have a couple 80mm and 120mm case fans. Since I decided from about the beginning I wanted to do charcoal,coal was convenient due to being free. Now I believe a little tinkering and i should have sufficient airflow for charcoal.just gotta build a small box that I can screw a 120mm and maybe a 80mm case fan to and attach it to my air intake on the side. 

Picked up this stuff today after work. 

what you're supposed to see is the 20lbs of lump charcoal, the hoof nippers, the 1/2" bar stock and the little bit bottom middle of a plastic shut off valve(air gate if the PC Case Fans are a bust)

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Well some digging in my crate and found a nice Delta Electronics 120mm Fan. 12v and if the specs i found on a website are correct it will output 75cfm. just need to build a box to screw it to. Wired it up to a 12v AC/DC adapter. 

now. . . about these nippers. do i need to drill out the rivet? because i don't feel i can do a rivet at this time. pretty sure i could make one without the rivet tools people have made but, I don't think i have the right barstock >.> I'm looking at them and it looks like it's going to be easier to work them with it removed but I don't know if i can replace it. 

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Well that was an afternoon and learning experience. did some shaping without removing the rivets(no metal bits and broke) ended up burning a little of the tip of my Tongs so i practiced my cutoff and got rid of the little section where it burned. 

I used a lot of time fighting the fire. I learned a lot and decided to switch to wood until i get a better Idea of forging. i used most of my 20lb bag and didn't get much smithing done. well time for bed, 3am comes quickly.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The shop Vac has a shut off valve on it, mostly closed to restrict the air flow. 

Well separated the nippers today, when i tried to shape it last the rivet loosened up. So, I used c-clamps and ground some of it off then used my hammer and a punch to pop it out.

Also made me a table to keep my stuff on that's not hot.

Probably firing the forge up tomorrow, see if i can finish the tongs up.

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I need to get a little more on Side blast Forges. the tip of my steel pipe i used to deliver the air from the vac got melted. and the hottest coals were right next to it. 

 

so this answered a lot of questions I had. mainly the first part where he explained the fire set up.

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  • 3 months later...

WEWT!!! So I taught myself to weld today. the main issue i have come across with the Railroad Anvil is the very small area for working with. so, I watched a Training course on the Tube to learn welding techniques. and Today i put them in practice. I welded some 1/2" plates of Iron together in a sandwich and next i'll need to clean it up and mount it to my Anvil Stand. 

 

On another note. with the nicer weather i'll be working the forge more and building my skills so i can start my first Project. My lady friend's favorite flower is a Daisy. Pretty sure you know where i'm going with this. 

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WEWT!!! So I taught myself to weld today. the main issue i have come across with the Railroad Anvil is the very small area for working with. so, I watched a Training course on the Tube to learn welding techniques. and Today i put them in practice. I welded some 1/2" plates of Iron together in a sandwich and next i'll need to clean it up and mount it to my Anvil Stand. 

 

On another note. with the nicer weather i'll be working the forge more and building my skills so i can start my first Project. My lady friend's favorite flower is a Daisy. Pretty sure you know where i'm going with this. 

AypuYNS.jpg

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here is the pics of the progress. 

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