First anvil

[Benjamin Fisk]

I am trying dive head first into blacksmithing as a hobby and I am trying to do it by spending as little as possible. Lucky for me I have some really good auto scarp yards close to me.  I am thinking of attaching a 2 foot length of railroad to this i-beam. This beam is really heavy and with the weight of the rail I am guesstimating that it will be well over 100 pounds. 

I see that most people attach anvils to tree stumps. Am I going to run into problems with this plan?

 

[Lou L]

That's a nice little stand for any number of things.  I'm not certain how you intend to attach it but I'm assuming you will be putting it on the top "shelf".  The issue with that is that, if you stand the rail on end, it will be too tall.  If you put it horizontally it will be low.  On top of that, if you don't put some shock absorbing material between the two I fear it will be quite loud.

You will find that the gurus here all advise that reailwoad track is best used in the vertical position.  I have seen a video of someone rebound testing a rail anvil and it did okay.  But you get a lot more out of it hitting on the narrow end.  Truth be told, you don't need a big, wide surface for an anvil...at least not when you are starting.  I just posted my epiphany in another thread today. People always think Forge and anvil and overlook the oat important tools they should be seeking: tongs.  Start grabbing up tongs of all shapes and sizes.

 

I remember CTBlades (an IFI member) posted a while back about his process of building a stand for his railroad track anvil.  There was much discussion (and pictures galore) and I think you would get a lot out of it.  Do a search for his posts and you will find it.

 

Welcome aboard!  Oh, and help us all out and put your location in your profile.  Odds are one of us is near you.  BTW, that scrapyard is a gold mine!

 

Lou

[Benjamin Fisk]

The anvil that CTBlades made seems to use a heavier gauge rail. Mine looks smaller, but it may just be the way that CTBlades took the photo

. 

[Charles R. Stevens]

The important part s the head of the rail. When set on end it should give you a 1 1/2x3" working surface. As this will be bigger than a 1 1/2 - 2 1/2# hammer its more than big  Enugh. Do a google image search for " Iforgeiron rail anvil for more ideas. 

 

 

The flange is good for tin work, but not as an anvil. 

 

[Lou L]

Make sure to read the entire thread on his stand.  The discussions offer a variety of insights and ideas.  I remember we talked about the advantages of setting the rail on end.  You can grind all sorts of fullering shapes into the narrow portions of the rail to make it a real Swiss Army Knife of anvils.  Just because you can find a thousand examples of people using railroad track horizontally doesn't mean it's the best way to do it.  You can still use that awesome stand you pictured above.  You would mount the rail vertically along the spine so that it sticks out above the table.  If you have the ability to weld it would be easy to build a shelf for it to rest on.  On the other hand, that would also make a perfect stand for post vise down the road.

[Benjamin Fisk]

I know it's a crude sketch, but I think it gets my idea through. I feel confident that I can do simple welds. I haven't done any in the last decade, but I can do some practice beads. Since the vast majority of the force is going to be directed down towards the ground the welds should not have to be the best. I do plan that many of my first projects are going to be tools.

I have access to some one-inch plate, quite a lot, a few inches of that welded under the rail would act as a stabilizer and give the rail some more height.

 

[Lou L]

That looks good to me!  I wouldn't weld the rail itself.  You would create unnecessary limitations on your use of it plus the welds would likely fail unless you really went at it....which would make my first point even more true.  Some bolted brackets would probably do the job.  Get that thing built and start hammering steel.  All the planning in the world won't tell you what a few hours of use will.

[ThomasPowers]

If you weld rail don't forget to treat it as high carbon and do the proper preheat and post slow cooldown!

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

I would bolt/clamp the rail. That way the rail can be removed if you need to use the other surfaces and edges for a project. There is a video of a guy in Haiti? using  rail to make charcoal ovens. He uses all of the surfaces for different parts of the oven. 

[Charles R. Stevens]

 As Glenn has pointed out before. "You payed for all of the anvil, use it" or somthing to that efect. The little 12" I carved out works well. It only realy has 1 original idea.