Ok, /diy/ i want to harden an anvil. I'm going to buy 2 feet of railroad track and shape it for an anvil, i want to at least. Before i drop the $65 for 2' of track I'm curious if i can case harden it myself. I have a budget if $50 (after buying the track) and lots of eucalyptus wood to burn, some coal, and a blower to pump air in the fire. What steps and materials should i get to successfully harden an anvil? Pic related, the size of track
>>954672
I'm curious, if you have 115 dollars why don't you buy a used anvil or are they ridiculously high priced where you are?
>>954677
All the used anvils I've seen in a 100 mile radius of me in that price range arebeither small jewellers anvils or hornless anvils. I dont jave $300-500 for an anvil right now.
>>954672
First, do you need to harden it? Depending on how much you're going to use it, you may not need to. Find out how hard it is, see how aggressive a file is on it, hit it a time or two with a hammer, it may be hard enough. If you still need to harden it, try to find out what kind of steel it is, you may not be able to harden it anyway. The steps to harden are heat, quench, temper, but on a piece that size... Good luck controlling the tempering heat long enough to do it right. That's if you can get it hot enough, and find what I assume will be a 100 gallon oil tank to quench it in. Even just trying to do the striking surface is hard to consider for a diyer.
>quenching that much steel at once
so oil i suppose? i imagine water would be a good way to get a fullbody steamburn.
>>954717
Water is best.
>>954717
Sure. Just pick it out of the fire with some welding gloves and drop it in the tank.
>>954672
Don't buy stolen stuff, railroad track most definitely is stolen. The guy doesn't sell it to a scrapyard because they require documentation.
im going to be doing the same with my homemade anvil ( aproximatley 200 -300 lbs of steel) i may try water cooling, depending if it isnt hard enough
>>954816
>stole
>1000ft of track
He doesn't sell it to a scrapyard because he realized he can pawn it off on fags like OP for $30/ft.
hello , im using a piece of railroad track for anvil. It's relatively soft and there are marks if I hit directly on the anvil with the edge of the hammer. For now this is not a problem , i only forge small damascus billets and blades on it. I think you will be good for maybe year this way and then you will probably buy a real anvil . cheers !
>>954816
>documentation
>from the fucking 1950's
dude, most people don't even have a receipt for shit after a year, let alone know where bullshit paperwork their great grandfather got when he was taking care of his bullshit hoarding habits he developed in the great depression.
>>955004
Thats not the documentation you need you fuckin retard.
You need shit from the railroad (or whoever owned it) that says you were allowed to take it, if you have taken it without permission its a federal offence and any scrap yard will not accept it because it would be buying stolen property.
>>955010
>You need * that says you were allowed to take it
what is a receipt for 300
do you have any clue how many cars from the 1990's have lost titles?
you think someones bullshit scrap heap gets more attention than a car from this part of the century?
>>954717
>drop anvil
>run really fast in the opposite direction
>hope everything goes well
what could go wrong?
Posting in hopes of some help , I was planning on making this railway switch into an anvil but it completely slipped my mind that it would be hollow
What would be my best bet? Filling it with cement, just using the top plate
, the thing probably weighs 200-300 lbs as is right now (size 13 boot for reference )
>>955312
Just make sure you harden it first.
>>955327
its actually surprisingly hard, and there wouldnt be any good way to oil cool it, so do you think cement filing it or what woul work best?
Look ok this isn't difficult. If you don't know what steel it is always quench in oil first as water may be too aggressive and crack the steel. When quenching, you need to move the material around or the hardening will be uneven. This is much more important with water than oil but applies to both. Also it won't make steam if the whole thing is submerged just shove it in the water and swirl it around. For tempering just make sure it's clean so it doesn't stink your whole house up and throw it in the oven at 400°f for 2 hours or so and it'll be good to go. Most importantly, however, is that $65 for 2' of RR track is insane. You could have a 4" x4" x6" piece of 1045 shipped to your house for less than that. It will make a much better anvil and you can look up proper heat treatment procedures.
>>955312
It's hard because it's probably cast iron and will likely break if you use it as an anvil. Filling it with concrete may prolong its lifespan but the expansion of the concrete might also just break it.
>>955331
it is cast, it was either grab this or 8 ft of rr track a d this was more convienient to unberry and carry 1/4 mile on a hand truck
One of my Blacksmithjng books has a section on turning a piece of RR Track into an anvil. When I get home after work I'll re-read and try to summarize it on here.
op im going to be ( probably ) getting a section of rr track, and i may sell it to you for cheaper depending on shipping
>>955373
eucaliptice , well australia probably wont be less on shipping
>>954672
You don't need to harden RR track, I used a 200lb section of track as an anvil for a while.
Hit the piece on the top in a bunch of places with your forging hammer (don't use a regular fucking hammer) and see if the piece rings and your hammer bounces back well, if you can't get it to do this then it's too soft. Try about one or two inches from the very end of the track.
I've also heard of people turning short sections on their end , mounting it on a tree stump and using the cross section of the top as the forging area.
If you have any other blacksmithing related questions, ask the guys over on anvilfire in the guru's den section.
>>955004
When you scrap it they take your information down so if someone reports it stolen they know who you are.
That said I'd be surprised if someone stole a piece of rail road track.
>>955444
cough cough
