I decided to make a little anvil.
 

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.

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

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!

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

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.

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

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.

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

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.

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

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.

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

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

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

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. :-)

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

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.

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

That's great, Ralph, I love it!

Mart.

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

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

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

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.

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

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

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

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.

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

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.

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

That is a nice little anvil.

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

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

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

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

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

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.

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

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

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

I also have one that I made from a piece of rail that my dad used for years.

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

nice job g.m.

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

Nice. They ripped up the railroad track over the last few years that used to carry one of the few steam trains still operating in Canada from Gatineau, QC to Wakefield QC near me. It was heart breaking. We still have a local "blacksmith" that gives classes and I thought about taking a few.

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

I made a couple of plattens for the press from the two offcuts. (The pieces knocked off with the sledgehammer.)
They were gangmilled so all the faces are true and the same height.
Can't load the pics. You can see them in this thread on the hamb.
home made tools and equipment...

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

Mart, did you want them loaded here in the thread?

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

Thanks J.

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

Whilst on the subject of anvils. As an engineering apprentice I made this in 1961....much foul language, bruised knuckles, many broken hacksaw blades and discarded files.


It was more pleasant being sent to the shops for spirit level bubbles, a long tale and so forth

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

I too have a 20" section of rail that I have used as an anvil for years

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

I was keen to make one of these, but found they are selling used rail for $60/ft, if you can even find any. The railroads don't sell rail, and scrap yards won't buy it, otherwise the tweakers would rip up every inch of track.

Re: I decided to make a little anvil.
 

“and scrap yards won't buy it, otherwise the tweakers would rip up every inch of track”

That’s funny Ross! But sadly it’s probably true. You ought to see the things they do here.