Originally Posted By: Stan


Another bit of trivia ....... anybody ever seen a little anvil handmade out of a section of railroad rail? They may not be all that useful, but they are cute.



Originally Posted By: Ted Schefelbein
I have seen those. Ive always wondered if acetylene and/or high speed hacksaw blades were ever cheap enough to make the endeavor of producing rail anvils profitable, or, even doable.

Best,
Ted


I'll try to remember to take a pic of a little one I made at work years ago out of a piece of overhead crane trolley rail. I vividly recall spending almost an entire midnight shift scooting across both bridge girders about 50 feet above the ground, without a safety harness, burning the welded rail clips off to remove the worn out rails. Somehow, this work was considered an Electrician's job. My co-workers were smart, and said they weren't all that good with a torch, and the boss knew I could burn well. The acetylene torch tip was about shot from idiots using it to hammer slag, and there was no replacement in the store-room. When acetylene repeatedly ignited inside the tip, popped, and blew droplets of molten metal down my shirt collar or into my boot tops, I had to be very careful not to jerk away and fall to the floor. There is nothing soft to land on in a steel mill. Fun times I never wish to go back to!

As I said, my little anvil/paperweight was made in my spare time between electrical calls at work. We called those little projects "Government Jobs". I roughed it out with a somewhat better acetylene torch, and ground it close to finished shape with the biggest bench grinder I ever used. Finished it with files and emery cloth. All you have to do is cut, grind, and file away everything that doesn't look like an anvil.

I can't imagine doing this cheap enough to be worthwhile, but it served to entertain me. The vast majority of little salesman sample anvils were cast, and investment casting would probably be the way to go today. I did some electrical work at a small family owned foundry that is in a neighboring town about 15 years ago. Interesting to see, but the casting floor was no place I'd want to spend a lot of time... hot, dirty, and dangerous. They cast a lot of smaller items, but also had a 100 ton electric furnace, and produced up to 90-plus ton cast steel hubs for huge wind generators. I entertained the thought of contracting them to cast anvils and black powder cannon barrels as a sideline, but life and my job got in the way.


A true sign of mental illness is any gun owner who would vote for an Anti-Gunner like Joe Biden.