On Fri, 30 Jul 2004 00:15:42 -0400, Shawn wrote:

At the objection of some, I finally got around to building the anvil. It
needs a paint job but is basically completed. Sorry about the .txt file, I
had word wrap on so most of it is one VERY long line. I'll post it below so
you can skip the hassle of the one in the dropbox.

Shawn

http://www.metalworking.com/DropBox/RR_Track_Anvil.txt
http://www.metalworking.com/DropBox/...ck_Anvil_1.JPG
http://www.metalworking.com/DropBox/...ck_Anvil_2.JPG
http://www.metalworking.com/DropBox/...ck_Anvil_3.JPG

Having used a chunk of rail as an anvil, I can say that it's
*very* handy to have a flat area on the anvil's face (mine
was borrowed from a neighbor, so I didn't feel free to modify
it). So one thing you might consider is to grind a flat area
on the top of your anvil, with one edge being "sharp" and the
opposite edge having a small radius. Once you've ground the
flat area you can toughen it up (although I guess railroad
track must be pretty hard/durable stuff) by laying beads of
hard facing rod to cover the top surface and then grind and
sand it smooth. Having one side "sharp" and the other side
radiused gives you more versatility when working things to
a right angle.

I forget what they're called, but you can buy (if you can
find them), or make attachments for anvils that drop into
the hardy or pritchard holes which give you all sorts of
odd-shaped striking surfaces. I have no idea how you
would make a square conical hole in that chunk of track
though.