Added some radii to the top for better utility. 

That'll work a treat fit to cheer up a Rivet!

How do you like it now?

Frosty The Lucky.

I haven't had a chance to forge on it since dressing it but I think I'll like it quite a bit. I'm hoping to try it out this weekend. 

A rivet doesn't stay melancholy for long when there's a hot forge!  

I've sat out for this year because my piece of junk soft steel "anvil" was working me more than I could handle.  I'd gone down far enough to seriously consider cutting an old unused and mostly buried rail road rail. I hadn't done anything toward actually cutting an old rail beyond find some rails not used in over 50 years.  I  had asked around and gotten nowhere. I found out used steel costs $1 a pound  at the local scrapyard so that was off the list forever. I had just about given up.

 

Then my mother was driving by a group of rail road workers a couple weeks ago and she stopped and asked them about it. And they gave her 2 pieces!!!! One was for me. I've spent the last 2 weeks working on the new anvil. Glad I never tried to cut one. Had no idea they were that tough. Took me over a week to cut a small "horn". I gave up after so long. It's not perfect by any means and I've seen far better online, but I am a 7 stroke survivor so everything I do is much harder than it is for a normal person. 

 

Here's a picture. I've got it mounted where my old anvil was and it is much more solid and stable the other one was. 

Good for you Hondo. Being a TBI survivor I know about some of the issues and getting so much work done is a major victory. Woo HOO!

YAY YOU!

Frosty The Lucky.

  It's good to see you post, Hondo.  I will pm you.  I'm only an hour from you, you know.  I can help out some, I imagine.  

Great video and explanation on a shop built diy anvil.

https://youtu.be/gUVsLMc5Njs?si=pHobb9QRMeAejm5U

That is a very cool setup. 

For those who want a preview, here's a couple of screen grabs:

So yeah... if someone had told me how tough rail road track is to cut/drill, i would have happily spent a small fortune on proper anvil. I found using a bit of paraffin wax on my portaband blade really sped up the cut rate to remove the large chunk but i've still got a long ways to go. I've found the top surface of the rail is especially hard and i've been having a hell of a time trying to get a 1/2" hole drilled in it. even my Viking m42 cobalt bit only makes so much progress before i gotta sharpen it again. ugh.

What are these tracks made of? It's definitely not low carbon steel.

I would think the surface of the track would also be work hardened from years of trains traveling across it.

And a lot of railroad steel has high manganese levels so precisely so it does work harden. Make sure you sue enough feed pressure so you’re making chips and not just hardening it more. 

Lary, while it is true that the surface of a well used rail will be work hardened, IMO that surface is not the best choice for use as the face of an improvised anvil because 1) it is curved and if you mill it flat you lose the hardness and 2) using it on end gives you a flat surface and puts more steel and rebound under the hammer.  Both will work but a flat cut end is better IMO.

Anyone trying to select one surface/orientation should experiment and see which works better for them.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Andrew, I've made I don't know how many anvil looking rail anvils back when. Having used them mounting a length on end is FAR superior for moving steel. As George says above the greater the depth of rebound the more effective the hammer blows. Milling or grinding the curved rail cap flat is a waste of time, tooling and hard steel. If a person needs a "flat" surface work lengthwise on the rail. The gentle curve of the rail cap acts as a gentle fuller moving steel farther, faster and with less effort. You can access all the rail cap, the flange and the inside angles between web, cap and flanges as fullers with it mounted vertically. 

Give both a try, lay a piece of rail flat and just do some smithing on it, then stand it on end clamped or duck taped to a post and try it on end. 

Don't forget all the bottom tools you can grind into the ends of the rail.

Welding up a hardy or drilling a hole in a piece of mild steel bar for a pritchel hole are EZ PZ. Want a horn they're everywhere, just not attached to anvils. Alignment spikes can be had for not much at pawn shops and such. Heavy equipment repair shops often have alignment pins from equipment equipped with interchangeable buckets and such. 

Don't get hung up on a horn though, they're really over-rated you can do almost everything on the face with a little practice.

Frosty The Lucky.

 Rail is usually made of mid-carbon steel, think 5160-ish, but with lots and lots of manganese to make it wear resistant. Makes them a righteous pain to move under the hammer. You can make a lot of cool tooling with a slice cut off and forged to a hardy shank, but you'll want a striker when you do it.

They also reroll used rail into bed frames sometime - you'll know it if you ever encounter it in the wild. You think you're cutting up regular bar steel, maybe mild, and then it just doesn't want to move. I used to be a freight train conductor, and I'd pick up a slice where they'd cut a bit off when they welded the rails together...after forging a couple I took it home a lot less often.

21 hours ago, George N. M. said:

 a flat cut end is better IMO.

 I agree, yesterday I was looking for a small solid mass to ruff out the boss area for tongs. 

NEAT. I had a RR anvil but never used it standing up like this. 

I believe most modern RR track is 1084 equivalent or possibly even higher in carbon content.  It's not heat treated like cutting tools, but it does work harden at the surface.    If you have the desire and means, you can make good tooling or blades from it.

Thomas had a good track steel reference and I can't find one nearly as clear. Most of the article seems like it was written by the same people who write IKEA assembly instructions. (Thank you whoever I stole the line from!) So o o o o I'm just cutting and pasting the carbon content part. 

1

C

Improve the strength, hardness, and wear resistance of the rail. The carbon content of domestic rails is 0.65% to 0.82%. When the carbon content is relatively high, the steel becomes brittle, and its plasticity index will be significantly reduced. At the same time, it will increase the chance of white spots in the steel. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- RR rail has to be tough and flexible rather than hard. The contact surface of the rail cap is often induction hardened to a depth of a few thousandths for wear and to reduce waves.

Frosty The Lucky.

Forsty, I don't know how many IKEA projects you have assembled but we have done a LOT (and we just ordered more for the hall bathroom) but there is almost no text in IKEA assembly directions.  It is all done with diagrams and cartoons because they sell worldwide they need to have the instructions be comprehensible by just about everyone, no matter what their language is.  When they do have text it is in about 15-20 languages.

I find IKEA instructions pretty clear and easy to follow, not to mention well engineered and designed and very good value for the money.

Where you do get garbled instructions is with a number of Chinese products where whoever wrote them only had English as about a 4th language.

G

Okay, I fess up. I stole the line from another member from earlier today or maybe yesterday. I don't recall the couple IKEA products I've assembled so the instructions must've been more clear than most. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Hi All, I've got a question about fork lift tines.   I've found a couple 4 buried at the local scrap yard.   All measurements are eyeballed. The biggest ones maybe 3x8  maximum thickness and the smallest is  1 1/2x6".  Last week I dragged home a 6 1/2x 6 1/2x 24"  chunk of something hard that weighed around 200 lbs. I also have 8x8 cut off cube as well as various small chunks I've picked up over the years.

My question is whether I should have the tines torch cut before I bring them home. Their orphaned single tines, so I can just buy part of them,  I figure it will take a long time for me and my 4"grinder to cut , so there's one plus, as well as  smaller chunks be easier to transport and handle.

I am assuming that I would not want to use the torch cut ends as striking surfaces, even if ground flat. 

The 200 lb block hasn't been played with much besides making sure it would ring at the scrap yard. Assuming its good enough as a primary working surface,  I would like to be able to use the bend of the tine as my "horn".

Would that work if I cut most of  the "blade" off and  leave a tapered "stub"  ground to a  segment of a cone cantilevered off the side?  Or   leave it longer and have a horn off at 90 degrees?   Maybe use the fork blade cut off on end  as a fuller and cutter?

  The immediate concern is whether to cut or not. I'll have to buy one with in the next couple of weeks, as I've been running around writing my name on all the potential chunks. 

My goal is to put together some sort of "anvil" work station that will live outside.   I have an old no name 120 pound-ish anvil cast with a hardened  plate, which I bought after the first was stolen, so its staying in storage until when or if I build some sort of securable shed. 

Thanks, Woody

10 minutes ago, bark-eater said:

I am assuming that I would not want to use the torch cut ends as striking surfaces, even if ground flat. 

Why not?

1 hour ago, JHCC said:

Why not?

I'm assuming the  hardness  would be effected by the heat, and that the effect would make for an inconsistent working surface after ground flat. And the time spent flattening a "free" cut at the scrap yard might be comparable to the time spent nibbling through with a 4" cutting disk. 

I used a small piece of crane rail on its side. Was cut with torch to length.

Had more problems with me cheapskating on the anvilstands than with the rail itself.

Don't worry about it. The metal you hit on it is hot and soft. 

Use it, have fun with it, learn.

 

If possible, a long piece as possible. So you have enough mass underneed. I also have a pin of a big crane, it stands on the ground, in a bucket filled with sand so it remains stable.

I think in this topic, you can find nice examples of what to do.

13 hours ago, bark-eater said:

I'm assuming the  hardness  would be effected by the heat, and that the effect would make for an inconsistent working surface after ground flat.

In theory, maybe. In practice, not enough to make any noticeable difference. 

13 hours ago, bark-eater said:

And the time spent flattening a "free" cut at the scrap yard might be comparable to the time spent nibbling through with a 4" cutting disk. 

That depends entirely on the quality of the torch cut. If it’s possible to have the person making the cut take some extra care to cut clean and square, that will be all too the good.