I decided to make a little anvil.

[Mart]

I saw a post on the hamb, in the very interesting "Home made tools" thread, showing a small anvil made from a piece of railroad track. This is quite a popular thing to do and mostly involves large amounts of grinding. There are lots of videos on youtube that I found after I made mine. (Doh!) Anyway, my approach was to try and do as much as I could on my 4x6 bandsaw, and finish it on my milling machine. It's a neat little item, you wouldn't want to do serious blacksmithing on one of these, but it's nice to have in the workshop and I treated it as a learning exercise. If you have some time to spare you can follow the video series. There are four in all, one shows cutting it out, the others show the machining.

I would appreciate any feedback, good bad or indifferent, especially with regards to the videoing.

So if you are not doing anything in particular, why not join me in my shop for a little while.

Here's the first one:
https://youtu.be/RBFi30SXJs4

Part 2:
https://youtu.be/Bqoc1cNmLlg

Part 3:
https://youtu.be/gQgbC67b8pc

Part 4:
https://youtu.be/g6ysPF2EERk

Thanks

Mart.

[JSeery]

I've had one for years, think my dad picked it up somewhere. Never attempted to make one myself.
Just watched the first video so far, but thought it was excellent!

[RalphG]

Yes, nice little anvils have been made out of railway tracks for years. I remember seeing one at my Grandpa's place years ago. Not as fancy as yours. Just a hacksawed piece of track about 6 to 8 inches long. The video was well made that I watched. Time is a little short supply here right now so I have not watched as much as I'd like.

[37 Cab]

I have a short section of track in my shop too. Just a 6 inch piece of track but I have beat on it for the last 30 years or so. Handy little chunk to have around.

[mrtexas]

Amazing you could actually cut the track. Some steel tracks can be pretty hard. I've had a foot long piece of track for pounding for 40 years.

[RalphM]

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I have a small, 6” piece of standard track I’ve had for 30 years, nice anvil, and door stop when not being hammered on.
I also have another 15” piece of standard track with chalk outlining the shape of an anvil. Someday it will get cut out.
I also have some small gauge track as used in the gold mines, a 2-1/2” piece of that makes a nice body dolly.

[19Fordy]

Great little anvil.
It will be around for the next 100 years. Be sure to
engrave it with your name, date made and location.

[Chris Haynes]

I have a 2' section of 130 pound rail. I have been planning to make an anvil out of it for 45 years or so. :-)

[RalphM]

Great job Mart!
Here’s my planned anvil, I’ll get to someday.
It has the “hole” you talked about for making the cut a little better.

[Mart]

That's great, Ralph, I love it!

Mart.

[tubman]

Thanks guys! I have a piece of track about 19" long that I want to use. This gives me the inspiration I need.

[Tinker]

Picked up an old 200lbs anvil a couple yrs past. Always wanted a rail track also.


Metal working tools come from strange places. A baseball base bag works well for a sandbag. As well as a bat cut down for a shaper.

[3739ford]

Here is the 12 inch one I have used for years, not very pretty, got another 2 foot section for some serious pounding.

[RalphG]

Originally Posted by Tinker

Picked up an old 200lbs anvil a couple yrs past. Always wanted a rail track also.

.

Old anvils bring big money at farm auctions here. Mine came from a farm auction about 1973. With all the rail lines being taken up here in Sask. there was ample opportunity to buy some. I bought one just as a souvenir. I think it is over 20 feet long.

[Tinker]

Originally Posted by RalphG

Old anvils bring big money at farm auctions here. Mine came from a farm auction about 1973.

Think mine ended up being 300$. and that was a relative price (2009ish?). Happy and grateful to have it. Maybe overpayed but it was to the widow and I really wanted it.


Railroad rails are nice! Not something easy to find always.

[alandomer]

That is a nice little anvil.

[richard crow]

when i was in high school a trade school i made one it was part of the mechine shop training we also made a ball peen hammer

[19Fordy]

Yes Richard, those were the days when working with your hands and getting them dirty was honorable.

[rotorwrench]

I found a cut section of new rail at a flea market for a good price. I already have several purpose made anvils since they used to be easy to find back when I purchased them at farm sales. I like the crown on the section of new rail for forming gentle curves. I can flip it up on end and use it that way as well. There are several angles there that work well for forming. A person interested in metal forming can never get enough forming tooling. I have never thrown away a chisel and I find piles of them at the flea markets now and then. A person can make a lot of different forming shapes with them.

[hook00pad]

Pretty nice, Mart,

My brother was a metal sculptor/smithy for years. He had several anvils he had bought at sales. He claimed that they were a very good buy if he could get them for $1 per pound, that was 20-30 years ago, tho.

Al Hook