Materials.
- Rail connector
- Steel square
- Steel sheet, rod
- Railway spike
- Churbak
- Oil, paint.

Tools used by the author.
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- Cutting and sharpening and cleaning discs
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- Drilling machine
- Belt sanding machine
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- Gas horn
- Vise
- Skobel
- Chisel, clamps, core, chisel, pliers.

Manufacturing process.
The craftsman will use an old rail connector as the material for the slab.

He removes the rust with a grinder and saws the connector in half.

To mark the central hole, he uses a steel square, from which various nozzles will be made.

The craftsman makes multiple cuts and then saws off the steel underneath different angles. Then it is leveled with a sharpening disc. But the master considered this method too complicated.

He processes the second half slightly differently: he drills several small holes on drilling machine, makes two side cuts, and then chips off the material with a chisel. All that remains is to grind off the drill marks. This method turned out to be much easier and faster than the previous one.

The square fits perfectly.

Next, he welds both workpieces together. The seam has to be boiled and cleaned several times.

Then the excess material at the ends is cut off, and all surfaces are ground.

All that remains is to clean the central hole with a file, precisely adjusting it to the dimensions of the steel square.

Four segments of the same width are marked on a separate steel plate, and the center for the hole is marked in the middle of each. These are future anvil mounts.

Then the workpieces are drilled first with a thin and then with a thick drill. Low speed and lubrication are important here.

Then the blanks are sawn, and their edges are ground to grinding machine.

Now the legs are welded to the steel plate of the anvil, one on each side.

Four more plates are cut from the steel strip.

The author covers the square with them, fixes them with clamps, and welds them together without affecting the square itself.

All that remains is to finally weld the seams, clean them, and sand all structural elements. The main part of the anvil is ready.

Afterwards, the master cuts out a block of suitable diameter. Aligns the top and bottom surfaces so that they are parallel and the log does not wobble.

He paints the top cut, tries the anvil on the block, and marks the places for the notch.

A hole is drilled in the center of the log, then the remaining wood is removed with a chisel.

Since the seams protrude slightly and interfere with the tight fit of the anvil, the upper edges have to be beveled a little.

The steel platform is installed in a block of wood and secured with wood bolts. For each bolt, a hole is pre-drilled in the wood so that it does not tear.

The bark is cleared off with an ax, and the edges of the log are somewhat smoothed with a scraper. How to make this tool, I wrote earlier in this.

The lower cut is also covered with paint.

The author begins to manufacture auxiliary forging attachments for the anvil. He cuts off an old railroad spike and heats it in a forge.

Then he forges this part from it and quenches it in oil.

All that remains is to sharpen the cutter and polish all sides. Such a tool is sharpened at a fairly obtuse angle, about 40-45 degrees.

When it comes to a forge, the imagination immediately draws a picture: two broad-shouldered good fellows with a handbrake and a sledgehammer, in the background there is a hot forge, and in the foreground, in the center of the workshop, there is an anvil. She is a symbol of blacksmithing.

Purpose of the anvil

All manual and forging operations are performed on the anvil:

• forging;
• hardening;
• giving the workpiece the required shape, etc.

There is no way to do without an anvil. But store prices are steep and you have to think: how to make an anvil with your own hands. There are many recommendations on the Internet, we will offer ours too.

The design of a homemade anvil

It should be taken into account that the anvil is subjected to large shock loads and impacts. high temperature. Therefore, it must have increased stability and mechanical strength. Its weight can reach several tens of kilograms. The professional anvil is made of 35L alloy steel.

To make a homemade anvil, scraps of crane rails are often used.

On the “face” (this is the flat surface of the anvil on which the main operations of flat forging are performed), an alloy steel plate is installed by welding - a platband.

For ease of use, the anvil should have the following structural elements:

You may not need all these design elements. So, choose the ones you need, and, using the plumbing tools available to you, create an anvil.

Watch the video of a primitive homemade anvil made from a piece of rail.

Base for a homemade anvil

A massive base is used to compensate for the impact energy. One of the following designs is used:

Anvil Location

From an ergonomic point of view, it is most convenient to place the anvil in the central part of the forge and not far from the forge. This will allow the workpieces to be delivered from the forge to the anvil along the shortest possible path. There should be containers with coolants nearby.

The anvil is made of rails. Why her? Because it's cheap and cheerful. Such an anvil will not be a full-fledged replacement for a large blacksmith's, but it will cope with a small amount of work by a non-professional.

I am sure that you will be able to imagine it well and, if necessary, make it. Everything is banal and simple, but many often miss one simple thing, which, it seems to me, is simply necessary for an anvil - a square stop for equipment. This is what I paid attention to in my video!

Materials needed to make an anvil:

• rail section length - 250mm;
• profile pipe 30x30 - 100mm;
• stump - its length should be such that it is convenient to work with the anvil while standing;
• smooth reinforcement for fixing in a stump, with a diameter of 8mm - 1200mm.

Tools needed to make an anvil:

• Bulgarian;
• welding.

Briefly about how it happened:

In fact, making an anvil is a simple matter and does not require a ruler, but in order for it not to be a mess and pleasing to the eye, it is still worth starting with markings.
First we mark our future horn. I chose the side of the rail that was closer to the hole in order to work less with the grinder.

Having marked and cut out the horn, I replaced the cutting wheel with a grinding wheel and set about straightening the face of the anvil.

And this is where people often stop. All! It is ready, you can straighten the nails on it. But doing anything else will simply be inconvenient. So we go ahead and weld our profiled square tube to the back of the anvil.

Why square and not round? For the convenience of securing equipment in it. After all, we will be knocking on an anvil and our devices must hold securely. The square shape of the profile will allow us to achieve this. For the same reason (working with a hammer), we must secure the anvil just as well. After all, even this small piece of rail weighs enough to damage our legs when, due to the lack of fastening, it flops right on our leg...

Here I also chose a not new method - I sawed the reinforcement 300mm long, bent it like an L and welded it on 4 sides. Later, when installed in a stump, we will drive our “letters” into the tree.

All that remains is to slightly tint the base of the anvil so that it takes on its final appearance. Place it on a stump and hammer our hooks into it. It is not necessary to drive the reinforcement all the way in right away. It needs to be driven in until it seems to you that the anvil is quite stable. The remaining amount of tension can be used later when the anvil begins to loosen.

Equipment.

In the video I showed a couple of the simplest and most useful options. You will probably come up with more options, or you can wait for mine. I'll be working on them soon and will be happy to share them with you!

• platform for making holes. For example, under rivets.
• ruler. So that your forgings are the same and fit together. For example, for forging pliers, without which a blacksmith’s work is simply impossible

You can see all the most interesting things about working on an anvil in the video. I tried to make it short, informative and enjoyable to watch.

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To work in a forge, you must have an anvil. They are different sizes, depending on the purpose. For a professional workshop, blacksmiths purchase a large anvil, which is permanently installed near the forge. For a home craftsman, this size is not needed; you can make it much smaller. A purchased anvil is expensive, and it is difficult to deliver it to its destination. If you order online, delivery will be expensive, since the weight of the goods is significant (minimum 35 kg). The best option will make an anvil with his own hands.

Purpose of the anvil

Applicable this type working tools in many areas of production. There are anvils for blacksmithing, metalworking, jewelry, even for medical purposes. Dental technicians use them, but naturally in a much smaller size. In the forge, all manual operations are performed on it: forging and hardening of parts after the forge, giving the workpiece the desired shape.

Craftsmen need a metalworking anvil for straightening work and for bending metal surfaces. Jewelry workshops use small steel anvils on which rings, earrings, bracelets are bent and straightened, holes are punched when decorating products, etc. In dentistry, craftsmen also use it when making crowns. In general, in every household and private home it is necessary to have an anvil, at least a small one, so that you can simply straighten a nail or bend a corner.

Construction of a blacksmith's anvil

A two-horned anvil is considered an ideal and universal option. The so-called “face” or main Smooth surface, on which the blacksmith performs all flat forging procedures. To ensure that this part is perfectly flat and smooth, a ground plate made of 35L steel, that is, alloyed, is installed on it.

A cone-shaped horn is welded on one side. It is used for rolling and bending parts. Sometimes they are installed on both sides, depending on the type of work. On the other side, a square shank is often welded. With its help, products are bent at an angle of 90 degrees. For convenience when working with workpieces, craftsmen can add additional functionality to their anvils. For example, weld or cut square hole for a backing tool or shperak. There's more you can do round hole for fixing, for example, a metal rod when bending.

Shperak is inserted if necessary to have a small work surface(mini anvil). It consists of an all-metal stamping with tips on both sides and a special inflow. It is convenient to do artistic and decorative forging of products on the shperak.

Preparatory stage

To make an anvil with your own hands, you need to have a piece of crane rail, approximately 25 cm, a grinder, welding machine, pieces of reinforcement of the same length, piece profile pipe(about 10 cm). Also, if a master needs a conical horn, then there are two options for getting out of the situation. In the first case, a grinder is taken, a cone is cut from a single piece of rail and a cone is machined. This is a very labor-intensive process, so it is better to use the second option and weld a ready-made cone, machined separately on lathe. Next, start marking out future parts. When everything is thought out and measured out, you can begin the main work of making an anvil with your own hands.

The main stage of work

Cutting down with a grinder upper layer rail and creates the most even surface possible. It is advisable to install an alloy steel plate on it and polish it thoroughly. Use a triangle to check the evenness of the anvil corners. This important point. Next, the horn is welded on one side and the square shank on the other side.

To check the smoothness and quality of grinding of the working part of the anvil, you need to test it. To do this, you need to hit its surface with a hammer or mallet. If everything is done correctly, the hammer should bounce off it like a ball. At the same time, a characteristic ringing is heard that lasts for a long time. If the anvil passed the test successfully, then you can proceed to next stage work, namely, to correctly and securely fasten the anvil from the rail to the base.

Anvil support

There are several options for making a strong base.

1. If the support is stationary, then take a large massive stump of hard wood and dig it into the ground. In order for it to last longer, you need to take it and beat it. In order for the anvil to hold firmly on the stump and not fall on the blacksmith’s foot at the first blow, you need to weld pieces of reinforcement to the bottom of the rail, bent at right angles, in the shape of an G. The resulting paws They place it on a stump and drive it into it, but not tightly.

2. Next option made from metal barrel, dug into the ground. A stump or metal welded frame is filled with sand, filling the entire volume of the barrel. This street version for the base of the anvil. Blacksmiths set the height of a stump or metal barrel taking into account their height. At the moment of impact on the workpiece, the master’s hand should be at the level of the horizontal plane.

3. If the anvil is portable, then it needs a welded one metal base so that it can withstand impacts of varying power. You can refine it and upholster it wooden box with pockets for different pliers and hammers.

Additional functions

When making an anvil with your own hands, a blacksmith, a mechanic, and House master can think through and complement the manufactured item with pleasant details. For example, make a platform for sewing holes for rivets. Drawing a ruler with divisions will not be a useless element. Then there will be no need to measure the forgings every time. They will all be the same length. This is the beauty of a homemade anvil, that it can meet all the requirements of a master.

A self-made anvil will be useful not only to professional blacksmiths, but also to ordinary blacksmithing enthusiasts who want to show their imagination and design skills suburban area or dachas.

An anvil is a supporting forging tool, which is used to perform cold and hot processing of metals associated with plastic deformation.
You don't have to buy a small anvil; you can make one yourself, basically from an old piece of railroad rail.

Will need

According to GOST, the face of the anvil must be made of steel grade 45L or 35L, and it must be hardened so that the hardness is within HRC 45-50. Therefore, to manufacture this anvil element, you will need a strip of alloy steel with a thickness of at least 20 mm.
We will also need some tools and materials for work:

• grinder with different discs;
• grinder;
• blacksmith's forge;
• welding machine;
• drilling machine;
• Baking oven;
• blacksmith pliers and pliers;
• hammer or sledgehammer;
• marker and square;
• hardening oil and a tin container.

Anvil making process

We mark the anvil with the horn and tail directly on a piece of old rail of suitable length and cross-section.

Using a grinder and a cutting disc, we cut out the outer contours of our tool and beat off the excess parts with a heavy hammer.

We get, as a first approximation, the horn, tail and base of the future anvil.
We continue to cut out the transitional part between the top and base of our instrument, while simultaneously more accurately shaping the horn and tail.

We remove rust from all accessible surfaces of the workpiece using a grinding wheel.

We shape the front transition part of the grinder into a semicircle to absorb large and constant dynamic impacts.

We sharpen the horn into a round cone, first with a grinder, and then with a grinder. We also grind the base of the anvil on it.

We mark a strip of metal with a thickness of at least 20 mm and preferably made of alloy steel 45L or 35L to the size of the top of the anvil from a piece of rail.

We cut out the future face of the anvil from the marked blank using a jigsaw and a grinder. We drill a round hole in the plate from one edge.
We grind all sides of the cut strip on a grinder and measure its dimensions with seat.

Fill in tin can required amount sunflower oil.

We heat the unnecessary piece, cut from the plate, red-hot in a forge and use it to heat the oil in the container. Only after this, using blacksmith pliers, we place it in forge and heat the plate prepared for the anvil face until red hot.

As soon as it acquires a raspberry color, quickly and completely place it in a container with oil and keep it there until the oil stops boiling.

We compare the hardness of an unhardened and hardened plate using filing. An unhardened plate can be easily processed, but a file glides on a hardened one without removing a single gram of metal.
Tempering: place the plate in the oven and keep it there at a temperature of 200 degrees Celsius for 1 hour.

We again process the plate from all sides on the grinder and weld it to the top of the rail blank, holding it on both sides with clamps, first pointwise, and then with a continuous seam.

We beat off the slag from the seams with a hammer, clean it with a grinder, weld all the cavities and cavities on the face, and finally finish all the surfaces on the grinder.

The quality must be so high that the weld between the face and the base of the anvil is completely invisible.
We carefully select the angle between the end of the face and the horn, first with a cutting wheel and then with a grinding wheel: it should be exactly 90 degrees. Next, we subject all parts of the anvil to the same treatment.

We remove the grinding wheel from the grinder spindle and install a polishing wheel (felt or felt) instead and continue circular processing of the anvil until mirror shine, excluding the transition area and the base.

We place the anvil on the face, mark on the sole of the base the centers of four holes in the corners, cores, and make them on a drilling machine to attach the anvil to a chair, for which it is better to choose a wooden block made of hard wood that is suitable in cross-section and height: oak, ash, maple , birch, etc.

Homemade testing

We check the quality of our homemade anvil. We place it on a block with the base down and begin tapping the face over its entire surface with a hammer. A loud blow should be heard everywhere, and the hammer should bounce almost the same amount as the swing and then continue rebounding until it fades completely.