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How to use a rail road track anvil


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The terminology for the rail road track.

RR Track 00.jpg

 

There is nothing that says that you MUST use the rail road track in only ONE way. Improvise, adapt, and overcome.

Make the rail road track anvil stand in such a way that the track can be used vertically, using the head of the track as the anvil, with the mass of the track under the impact area of the hammer.

Move the track so it can be placed horizontally with the impact area of the hammer on the running surface of the head of the rail.  

Move the track so it can be placed horizontally with the impact area of the hammer on the base of the rail. 

Move the track so it can be placed horizontally and the areas between the head and the web, and the base and the web can be used as a swage. 

 

It is not the rail road track that makes the product.  It is the blacksmith that makes the product. 

 

 

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My chunk of RR track fits on my striking anvil/portable hole in five positions:

Round end up:

A778F578-0641-4D47-85FE-3752126CAC80.jpeg

Square end up:

1DF6B8E7-9B2C-4DF3-AD4C-51C2C0F5F980.jpeg

Running surface up:

CCEE326A-482C-4386-84EA-0CD6939D6634.jpeg

Web-to-base fillet up:

9BE20570-0813-475B-9891-57CF9223C987.jpeg

Web-to-head fillet up:

1DC32C3A-057B-431F-9150-8FAF075ED54F.jpeg

The maximum height is just under 36”, which is a bit taller than my anvil. 

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Yes, but that would leave shanks sticking up when you rotate the track. 

The two “fillet-up” alignments are supported by brackets on the edges of the striking plate, and I can throw a c-clamp or two to hold it down in “running-surface-up”. I’m playing with an idea for a springy two-tined bracket that would drop into the hardy hole, so you could wedge the web down into it. 

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On 8/9/2018 at 7:03 PM, JHCC said:

I’m playing with an idea for a springy two-tined bracket that would drop into the hardy hole, so you could wedge the web down into it. 

And then it occurred to me that a wooden wedge on either side of the web would do the job just as well. 

A0592E22-CACD-45E4-8C2B-4AF824545E0D.jpeg

2E9558B1-3E97-42C7-8224-69F65BE88A34.jpeg

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