[TheForge] ABANA

[Dann]

I  made my first  rail road track anvil yesterday.    I  have heard that 
old RR track is usually 1080 steel.  I  shaped a horn with  my acetylene 
torch, and took the blemishes out with my  DeWalt side grinder.  It looks 
pretty good to me, but I could buff it out a little better on the belt 
sander.    What I liked from the start  is that one edge is a sharp 90 
degree  and the other has a radius  curve.  Time and labor,  involved was 
substantially less  welding and grinding out acetylene torch cuts/ marks by 
the prior owner of my favorite  195 # anvil.   My "big" anvil has  been 
restored / survived being used as a work table for modern cut and paste 
"blacksmithing"

For mass, I am thinking I might nickle weld the rail anvil  to old cast 
iron engine block head that I unearthed  last fall removing an old 
well-pit.    Hoping to set it up at the right height for my 13 year old 
daughter to try her hand.

I had admired the looks of those 4 inch by 4 inch steel  modern anvils 
available  for "on hands training" at the ABANA  conference in La 
Crosse.   I didn't find out who was selling them or the price, but I think 
I saw a reference to something like that a year or so ago on this 
"theforge" list.

I also restored a post vice that was frozen up,  but the jaws were in 
pristine "new"  condition.  I mounted it to a 4x4" steel tube  on a  bench 
with  a 205 # anvil on the other end.  The bench is about 55 inches long 
and 15 inches wide with heavy duty 3 inch steel caster wheels. So far, it 
seem pretty stable, but I anticipate that I might have to build support " 
feet " .

Dann Johnson

At 05:29 AM 7/7/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>At 02:24 07/07/02 -0400, you wrote:
>>Well, Dave, if
>
>You've missed the point too.  Bob Bordeaux got it.
>
>Dave
>
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