Hardness of railroad track for machining anvil?

Liam Ryan

Liam Ryan

Joined
Sep 26, 2005
Messages
3,516
Picked up a two foot chunk of track today, and am hoping to flatten the top of it. I could go to town with the mini grinder and a half dozen discs, but I would rather use a cnc mill. :)
Question is I would like to have the ballpark hardness before I begin, to get some idea of speeds and feeds before I ruin some carbide inserts on the button cutter.
buttoncutters.gif


Depending on how used the track is it could have a lot of work hardness, correct? But these tracks must have been tempered to some hardness before use as well.

Also, it would be good to know for using the band saw to shape it a bit, as well.
 
Last edited:
If all you need is ballpark use ye olde file test.
I'd think it wouldn't bite much if at all.
 
I did a bunch more googling and happened upon a machinist forum with 4 pages of just this topic. Apparently there is wide variation among experiences, but most had no real issues with using band saws or machining. Any issues were with extremely work hardened faces.
Most seem to think it makes a half decent anvil, at least it's much better than no anvil. But some say to mount it vertical and use the small sweet spot, with a lot more mass underneath it. Makes a lot of sense when I think of it.
 
It is also a lot easier to shape the end than the whole rail face.

I have a drawing anvil made from a piece of very large gauge track ( the kind ship yard cranes move on) set on end in a drywall bucket of concrete. The end of the track section is rounded to act as a drawing die. When hot steel is worked on it with a 3# drawing hammer, it makes hand drawing out a billet or a tang much faster.

Setting a piece of RR track on end as a post anvil and grinding it smooth and flat will give you several areas to work on. The end of the track top makes a nice solid forging area. The web can be ground into a "V" and used as a hot cut-off. The foot can be rounded for drawing.

If putting it in a dry-wall bucket of concrete, place a circle of 1/4" to 1/2" steel in the bucket bottom first ( have someone with a plasma cutter cut one, or just cut a square plate into an octagon that fits the bucket bottom). You can weld the post to the plate first if you have that ability, but even if the rail just sits on the plate, it will make a much better working anvil.
 
Awesome, great tips, thanks! It's been at least ten years since I first dreamed of hammering some soft steel, very close now. :)
 
When I started forging, my anvil was a 2' section of railroad rail that was left behind when they redid the tracks behind the house. It was already cut square and flat on the end, so I just mounted it to a small post stand. I still have it set up near my "good" anvil and use it occasionally when I need a different angle.
 
I use a 2' piece for track for an anvil and it works fine. As far as hardness... I guess that depends on whether it was used or not. I have a friend that said he bought a 4' piece of it that had never been used from someone he knew that worked for one of the railroad companies. He said that it was extremely soft and did not work very well at all. However if it's a used piece like mine they are very hard and work well. I used a grinder to flaten it and it took a while and quite a few disc's but it was worth it. I have noticed over the years it just gets better.
Bottom line they work fine as long as they are not brand new.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top