Tool Talk
Blacksmith and Metal Working Forum => Blacksmith and Metalworking Forum => Topic started by: rusty on September 21, 2011, 07:34:07 PM
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American Blacksmith, April, 1916 has this kewl anvil made from rail, in a form I never thought of..
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Easy enough to fab up, but would be heavy! It would stay put, though.
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Only problem with the design is being able to stand properly next to the anvil, so there is proper form for hammering. The cross supports between legs would hamper being able to do that without stooping to use it.
I like the idea of a long surface, though. A person could grind different radiused sections, allowing for fullering, or drawing out of the stock being worked. Weld on an old 1" socket, upside down for a hardy hole for various tools such as home-made swages, bending jigs, hot cut, etc.
Kind of like a Brazeal type anvil-all you need within easy reach, just move up and down the anvil.
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American Blacksmith, April, 1916 has this kewl anvil made from rail, in a form I never thought of..
Never thought of this permanent form, but I have seen a Civil War photograph showing a length of rail laid across two saw horses. I 'spect such field expedient anvils were not uncommon.
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Here is a similar idea that I have been meaning to make a version of but havent gotten around to yet. It is out of an old book I picked up at a yard sale earlier this summer called... Shopwork on the Farm by MM Jones 1945 (This book was produced in full compliance with the governments regulations fo the conserving papaer and essential materials). All sorts of good info in here..metal work, ropes, woodwork, painting (how to make your own white wash) hand tools, harness work etc....
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Cool !!!!!!
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An anvil like that could come in handy, but am thinking a second one, maybe shorter, 12-15 inches long, upside down, with the flat bottom of the rail available for flattening and straightening, cause the top of a rail is anything but flat. Look around too, there are several weights of rail, from railyard to mainline, switching yards.
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I have a 15" section of rail -- I just put it on one of the rail plates that was also abandoned by the side of the rail road. When I'm not using it (most of the time) I lift them both off the bench -- they don't move with light work.
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Here is a similar idea that I have been meaning to make a version of but havent gotten around to yet. It is out of an old book I picked up at a yard sale earlier this summer called... Shopwork on the Farm by MM Jones 1945 (This book was produced in full compliance with the governments regulations fo the conserving papaer and essential materials). All sorts of good info in here..metal work, ropes, woodwork, painting (how to make your own white wash) hand tools, harness work etc....
Oooh! I'd like to find a copy of that book! And the illustration is terrific! Thanks, Fliffy.
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Branson
I have both the 45 and 55 (2nd ed) rail anvil is in both. 2nd ed has 140 more pages, both are classics and both of mine are ex college/high school. You will find they are readily available secondhand (alibris for one) in US for as little as $6.00 +pp.
Graeme
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Made up an 8 foot anvil from rail back in the 80s for straightening the needles of an industrial bailer. Beat quite a few needles back with a 10# hammer until somebody in management decided the Manual Override button needed to be inoperative.
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Word of WARNING I have a 5' piece of RR track ( very old and super rusty) that I tried to Scrap. The kid at the yard said " I don't see that !! and you better hide it. It's a Federal offense to have it with out the proper paper work and bill of sale ! " I checked it out ! He was right. Even if a line was abandoned the RR still owns the rails, Plates and spikes .
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Branson, Amazon has that book available- http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_8?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=shopwork+on+the+farm&sprefix=shopwork (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_8?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=shopwork+on+the+farm&sprefix=shopwork)
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Branson, Amazon has that book available- http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_8?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=shopwork+on+the+farm&sprefix=shopwork (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_8?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=shopwork+on+the+farm&sprefix=shopwork)
Thanks!
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There is one in a very old sheet metal shop on the south side off Milwaukee that I saw many years ago. I think it was a heavy, like 1/2" thick, I Beam. They cut a long slot in the floor. I'll guess it was 20 feet. There was a large wooden beam in the basement to support it with 3 or 4 posts holding the wood beam up. It was dead flush with the wood floor and they used it to hammer sheet metal seams flat on duct work. A bottom side up rail would have worked just as well.
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I am not sure if I posted my own rail anvil here or not?? Old age you know heehehheh
But in case I didn't here it is.
A section of track, and some ground engagement steel (cutting lip) from a backhoe repair job. The cutting lip steel is pretty hard, also but super tough. The side gussets are because its the weakest part of any rail anvil. The narrow waist. I had the welder cranked up hot for this job!! 300 amps from a big old 3phase Miller, but the old rheostat was pretty grungy at that point, so it wasn't really the full 300.
(http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/hometools/anvil3.jpg)
yours Scott
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First time I've seen the anvil. Can't say it's pretty, but it looks like it will really do the job. I like the idea of hard and tough steel, but I don't know this stuff. Tell me more!
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Thanks Branson
Well it will do a small job. Fortunately most of my work is small.
Nobody ever offered me a real anvil, not one. I have seen a lot of them change hands but never to me.
Plowing straight into the earth and rocks will wear regular steel away very quickly, you can imagine.
They weld a special steel to the fronts of loader buckets and backhoe buckets and caterpillar blades, etc.
Its harder, but its mostly 10 times tougher than regular steel.
In time even this wears away.
So once or twice in the life of every large earth moving machine, the old lip is cut off and a new one welded on.
Its a pretty big job. The steel is over an inch thick on a Caterpillar 950 loader. This is a medium/small sized loader with tires about as tall as a man, btw.
Cutting off the old lip and installing a new one took us 1 1/2 days at the mine where I worked. A guy had started it and when I came on shift I worked on it all shift (in between regular duties) and then he finished it up next day.
The old lip was gone in the middle, but short sections along the outside edges had lots of meat left.
The rail is a fairly large size rail. Rails come in lots of sizes. There were several sections of it piled up in back of one of the buildings. Its kind of a trip cutting rail and cutting lip steel. Turning a torch up to a long flame and advancing slow and steady.
I use the little anvil inside my shop and it serves for light duty.
I still need a real anvil for serious work.
Every week I hear of another Peter Wright or Fisher. Some 22 year old newbie just back from a yard sale with another one, sincerely asking me if its any good. Like I have personal experience.
Practically everyone I know back east has 3 or 4 laying around. Todd Hughes won't even buy them anymore unless they are super special and near free, because he has them stacked and piled dangerously high all over the place already.
sigh
yours Scott
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Hmm, heh, you have the only manganese steel anvil I have ever seen.
I hope you aren't planning to put a hardy hole in it tho - P
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Word of WARNING I have a 5' piece of RR track ( very old and super rusty) that I tried to Scrap. The kid at the yard said " I don't see that !! and you better hide it. It's a Federal offense to have it with out the proper paper work and bill of sale ! " I checked it out ! He was right. Even if a line was abandoned the RR still owns the rails, Plates and spikes .
Second that. Railroad track is private property. I tried to score a couple feet from a track replacement crew, but every inch has to be accounted for.
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A while back there was a guy celling 3” sticks of RR track on ebay and I see it sold out of salvage yards all of the time here in Phoenix…
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Guess I'm a Federal offender. I found a 12 inch section of track abandoned along side of a RXR, along with several of the plates -- the result of a repair.
Picked up the section and one of the plates.
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Word of WARNING I have a 5' piece of RR track ( very old and super rusty) that I tried to Scrap. The kid at the yard said " I don't see that !! and you better hide it. It's a Federal offense to have it with out the proper paper work and bill of sale ! " I checked it out ! He was right. Even if a line was abandoned the RR still owns the rails, Plates and spikes .
Not all rail of this type is owned/used by railroads. There are millions of overhead cranes on industrial sites that run on rails.
V/8
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Word of WARNING I have a 5' piece of RR track ( very old and super rusty) that I tried to Scrap. The kid at the yard said " I don't see that !! and you better hide it. It's a Federal offense to have it with out the proper paper work and bill of sale ! " I checked it out ! He was right. Even if a line was abandoned the RR still owns the rails, Plates and spikes .
Burden of proof would be on the authorities as to which rail-road originally owned it, when they lost possession, how, and who had it next. My dad used to have an 18" section. No idea where it came from.
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I have two-four foot sections of smaller rail that originally came from the coal mines, sometime around the 40's or 50's. My grandpa had it on his farm. There are plates welded to each end, and look like someone used them as shoring posts or something. I'd like to see them find who originally owned those. Grandpa's been gone since 1967, and none of the mines that operated back then are still in business.
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My little scrap of rail came from Noranda Gray Eagle mine. I worked there a decade and a 1/2.
Lots of old rail came from mines. Private property.
yours Scott