The Home Machinist!

I have a 4' section of track that I would like make an anvil out of. I need cut it to about 16" and have the top milled flat. I live in union county area of NJ. If anyone can do this locally please let me know.

Hello,

I've reworked one of these that got abused. Something to think about, the top surface of the rail is work hardened from use, not the inside.

What you ask is not a hard job, I'm sure you'll find someone local.

R

The ones I have seen made from railroad ties have a wide flat piece welded to the top.

Jack.

I think you'll have better luck getting it ground flat, rather than milled. I have a section that I cut from an old track, and the work-hardening is clearly visible on the cut surface, about 1/8" thick at the top. When I first got it, I tried to clean it up with a belt-sander, and while I did eventually get it clean, it took a LOT of sanding. I pretty much gave up on trying to get it flat.

BTW -- why not check FleaBay and Craigslist for anvils. Sometimes you can get them pretty cheaply.

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Pete in NJ

Just heat the piece up and hammer the top flat. While you're at it, hammer the horn out. Takes a while to heat that much but it doesnt cool off to fast either

Having recently expended a number of end mills trying to do this type of job, I can confirm that milling is tue wrong approach for anything but a final finish pass with a flycutter. Mark the target shape on the rail profile, then get a grinder and a stack of heavy duty metal grinding wheels and go to work. I ended up using this approach after some really spectacular end mill failures due to hardened spots encountered at random throughout the rail metal.

AG

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Rule number one: Everything takes longer and costs more.

I did a section of rail on a shaper and it worked good. So if you can find a shaper then you may have better luck than with a mill.

lg
no neat sig line

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I am unique, just like everyone else.