Show me how please,,, the classic little Railroad rail anvil.

[Ringo]

The little RR rail anvils, everybody has seen one, a lot of people have one. But please tell me, how do you actually make one??
I not talking about squareing it up, nor flattening the top, I mean,
How would you cut the anvil 'horn' ??
The 'horn' of anvil is an ever changing radius, or, a cone.
How would you 'setup' a chunk of RR track, to cut a cone, on the mill??
-or-
How would you 'setup' the RR track on a lathe to turn the same cone??
Curious minds want to know............

and, no CNC,, old school setups only !!

[wierdscience]

Where there is a will and a large pack of hacksaw blades and zip wheels there is a way. One of the best ones I've seen-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB1KBBWWeYg

Making the horn is the easy part, the cut outs could be done by drawing the pattern out and chain drilling as much as possible.

[754]

Two angle cuts on the tapered front and hours of grinding.,

in the end you have an ASO..... anvil shaped object..... because you maybe decided not to get an actual anvil. Or you just like making stuff..
Small ones though are often cast iron, not steel., so the rail one might be better in some cases.

[Ringo]

thanks guys, but,
the OP stated 'setup' in a mill
-or-
'setup' in a lathe

all that hand grinding krap don't count as the preferred response

[754]

Ok drill a centre hole in the tip, hold it with the 4 jaw in the lathe, support tip wth tailstock, angle your compound,start cutting. .
mount it on a rotary table on a mill, at angle desired, or angle the rotary table, support tip with foot stock . Start cutting..

[wierdscience]

thanks guys, but,
the OP stated 'setup' in a mill
-or-
'setup' in a lathe

all that hand grinding krap don't count as the preferred response

Okay, CNC with a fourth axis!

Some people cheat and turn the horn from a separate piece of stock and weld it on. The classic horn shape I don't think can be done on a manual mill or lathe without a massive amount of setup and fixturing.

[J Tiers]

I think it was in HSM or MW/PIM maybe 15 years ago. Milling machine used, IIRC

[754]

Well if you don't want to hear about trim and grind , and you don't have a large lathe or mill , it will take a lot longer, so we won't mention those things.

[Ringo]

Geez, as old as these things are, I thought there was a old-school answer to this.
But, alas, I see, only CNC or weld on appliques are answered thus far.
I'm not buying into it.
What is the correct answer to the OP ???

[3illmesmart]

The original was an educational project to teach hand tool use. Hacksaw and file.

[JRouche]

Geez, as old as these things are, I thought there was a old-school answer to this.
But, alas, I see, only CNC or weld on appliques are answered thus far.
I'm not buying into it.
What is the correct answer to the OP ???

Hang on a second! Did you not watch the video Weird posted?

Well if not maybe check it out. ZIts been out there forever and its good.

Star, get some JR

[Ironbearmarine]

The little RR rail anvils, everybody has seen one, a lot of people have one. But please tell me, how do you actually make one??
I not talking about squareing it up, nor flattening the top, I mean,
How would you cut the anvil 'horn' ??
The 'horn' of anvil is an ever changing radius, or, a cone.
How would you 'setup' a chunk of RR track, to cut a cone, on the mill??
-or-
How would you 'setup' the RR track on a lathe to turn the same cone??
Curious minds want to know............

and, no CNC,, old school setups only !!

so here i sit eyeballing an 18 inch section of U.S. standard railroad rail and next to it, my Trenton 120 pound anvil. Here are some thoughts: mount the rail upright, on your mill at an angle to the center line. That way you will mill a right angle, for the horn. Then after milling that, pivot the set up to mill a left angle. Next, lay the rail on its side but at an angle so that one side of your horn is square to the cutting plane. Use a radius cutting end mill to round the shoulders, on all four corners. This give you a more or less cone shaped horn. Of course you will have had to cut away some of that “ web” on the underside of the rail body first. And i think you may need carbide cutters unless you anneal that rail first. I think that’s how i would try it.

[RB211]

Not everything has to be milled or turned. I always thought they were oxy acetylene torch cut to rough shape and a ton of grinding, blending, flap wheeled finished kind of project?

[JoeLee]

According to the video he made that in 10 minutes and 10 seconds !!! I'm going to make one after my next cup of coffee !!

I would like to know what that cold blue stuff was that he used. I never saw any cold blue work that fast with one application. Couldn't see the label on the bottle but it looked like Birchwood Casey.
Did he dilute it with something ?? Or was he just pouring it in a bowl??

JL................

[Doozer]

Not everything has to be milled or turned. I always thought they were oxy acetylene torch cut to rough shape and a ton of grinding, blending, flap wheeled finished kind of project?

Yes, yes, and yes.
….And this coming from a CNC guy.
Stop trying to over-complicate things.
Use the tools that get you the results the quickest.
Dicking around with setting track up in a machine
be it a lathe or mill, is going to take longer than
using a torch and a grinder.
I know all you machinist are OCD, impaired by
the pursuit of perfection. Questions of how to
propagate the psychosis are not something
everyone wants to get involved with.

-Doozer