outback: Cleaning up a piece of railroad track, for a better pinning anvil
Hey....................I've got one just a tad longer than that!!!
Attachment 208109
Mine is an exact 6" long.
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outback: Cleaning up a piece of railroad track, for a better pinning anvil
Hey....................I've got one just a tad longer than that!!!
Attachment 208109
Mine is an exact 6" long.
Just a 4 1/2"
Damn is this stuff hard.
A file only seems to remove the rust.
Have to put the grinder to it, then a DA sander to 400 grit, then i might be able to buff it out.
Haha, like restoring a blade.
But with power tools
Manchu archery thumbring. Timber prototype before my moose antler arrives.
While my smaller bit of very hard steel that was my Dad's 'field anvil' is quite smaller than yours. I will tell you that you've got your work cut out for you.
I took mine to a machine shop and they leveled both sides on their milling machine and that cut out the deep gouges. I then took it home and went to work with a file. After hours of using the file, I was finally able to go to a sander with 220 Wet-n-dry and then progress to 2K.
I 'Think' that a portable belt sander could be substituted for the milling machine since your 'track' is curved.
I highly stress that your final finish should be 'Highly' Polished! As any imperfections in the anvil/track will be imparted into the pin or what ever you are working on.
I'd post a picture but I installed Windows 10 and can't figure out how to do that! :banghead:
I used a 3" belt sander with a blue 80grit belt to get the surface smooth and then a vibrating sander from there. Watch the belt though, it can make a nasty gouge if it gets a bit loose in your hand.
The rails do make nice anvils though. I gave one to my son.
Have fun!
~Richard
The track will work great. They sand and polish quite nice.
Nice! I saw a jade thumbring in an antique store once. It was exactly the shape you are working. Seeing the thumbring later sent me on a jade inquiry and clarified the difference between jadeite and nephrite.Quote:
Manchu archery thumbring. Timber prototype before my moose antler arrives.