Heat Treating My Railroad Track Anvil!

This was very nerve-wrecking for me, but after 3 hours in the forge, we have a hardened tool steel face on our anvil! Unfortunately, I had to learn the hard way that I should have poured the lead in the anvil after it was heat treated, but that is neither here nor there. And yes, I understand that lead vapors are very dangerous, and I was wearing my respirator to protect my lungs, so get off my back and enjoy the video!
Where I got my tool steel:
www.hudsontool...

[@Shriike2001]

Dude i think we are from the same city. I recognize that block. Nice vid by the way. I especially like when your tie through up all its insides. :)

[@calvinjutila8270]

Plumbers used to use 'lead wool' to pack cast iron hub and socket pipe fittings when they did not have melted lead available.

[@paulgonzalez6319]

Was looking for someone else who knew what to do with the homemade lead wool😂👍

[@patriciooholeguy]

Your neighbours must love you!!

[@ieatcaribou7852]

Hey you live and learn, great job and attitude through the videos.

[@mgoode2031]

Thumbed it up. I’ve seen a good bit of your videos and appreciate that you show the “learning opportunities” like the molten lead shooting out of the base, and the fact that you have a never-say-die attitude, ala use of the pipe clamp to remove the white hot carbon steel from the forge. Keep it up!

[@charruauno386]

Luke very nice work, in my area we can't get the rail roar and shipping from other places it is very high. Thank you for showing the video, and have a nice day.

[@jamessouza7065]

Hey that lead wool could come in very handy to protect eletrical devices from EMP and also shield from radiation in countless applications..

[@desertdanblacksmith1394]

Very Cool! Good job....first video Ive seen of a succesful anvil hardening....seen a lot of videos of the "horror shows"....lol

[@ggsmith099]

Your anvil reminds me of my wife it has a large heavy bottom! Did you put the lead back in the bottom?

[@regDanCap]

The lead stream was cool, glad you were safe! Keep on doing cool stuff!

[@zyxwvut4740]

I thought I was seeing things at first. I guess it was rather of cool in a serious health hazard kind of way.

[@mattmcdonald6034]

Just came across this video today (Dec, 19, 2018) and I'm curios how the heat treated anvil with A2 face held up 1yr into service. Looked like a fun project!!!

[@whitebeard420]

@@LukeMixter where do you get the track? I can not find any, nobody I know can find any... do NOT use that sauce pan to cook with, it will forever retain lead and you will get alzheimers or if you have kids they will have a plethora of issues. Extremely bad to use anything you've had molten lead in. I would have still oil quenched it, this air hardening "method" or what ever it is just dosent seem good enough.

[@jamesbarisitz4794]

Good job. Very ambitious project well executed 👍

[@lawrenwimberly7311]

the residual heat in the anvil tempered it

[@kyledouglasmassingill4108]

Great ad for Bob Herrington, also nice boots

[@stevejones6242]

you are doing a great job on this Anvil. If ya don't mind I will copy it to build my own Anvil.

[@MountainFisher]

Steve Jones: RR track is made from high carbon steel and runs between .070 to 0.80% carbon. He didn't have to add the A2 tool steel to the RR Track, he just needed to do heat treat the same as he did the A2 and spray water on it as it cooled down. RR track is hard enough for its purpose and it needs to be able to be bendable. I'm a knifemaker and was a journeyman TIG welder with a lot of metallurgy experience gained from 40 years in the trade. Here is all about RR track. ispatguru.com/rails-and-rail-steel/

[@MountainFisher]

1500 is the critical temperature for the 1080 steel railroad track steel, the A2's critical temperature is 1900 degrees, but at 1500 it will get hard enough, but I since it cooled so slowly from all the mass you don't need to temper it. It is tempering itself. It may actually get softer if it sits at 800 to 400 degrees for a few hours. I make knives and A2 is a good one for them.

[@ericriddle467]

That lead hair is pretty neat never seen that before

[@caveofskarzs1544]

Why did you have it filled with lead? O_o I understand wanting to have a heavy anvil, but from what I have learned, it's about solid mass, not density. I may be wrong, of course, but I'm just curious why you made the decision to put lead into it.

[@jackdawg4579]

the residual heat from the rest of the anvil probably tempered the face for you anyway. If not if you're careful when you put the lead back in, the heat from that should do the job for you. Ballsy move air quenching with the compressed air, I would have whimped out and oil quenched it because of the amount of mass in the unit, I would not have thought it would air cool quick enough. Well done!

[@ivannekic1722]

Yeah, thats the truth.. i always thought that hardening of metal must be rapid cooling, but air quenching also work. I made 78 kg anvil, and i will weld tool steel 1.2379 (Č. 4850) to anvil face, then burn whole anvil in fire pit for releasing welding stress, i hope that i don't need quench that type of steel.

[@vincentrosa9631]

Can't find the episode where you forge weld the face plate

[@diycentral]

Cool series. The air hardening thing was interesting since I am use to only seeing various liquid quenches. What confuses me though is why you went with compressed air. I first figured it was your only means of forced air other than the forge blower but then I saw the leaf blower during the wrap up, which is what I would have used for a continuous stream of air. Did you go with the compressor because it produces cooler air?

[@jefferyleemiller1377]

After the last three years, what do you think of the a2 steal? Would you have done anything differently?

[@jefferyleemiller1377]

@@LukeMixter excellant. Just picked up two 12 inch chunks of RR track. Was thinking of doing the same

[@alsaul2437]

About time you showed up. Did you get your truck fixed?

[@hagsmich]

How about showing us a ping test. Ball bearing drop to show rebound!

[@CaptainRScott]

What's bad+ what's also bad referring to?

[@Codeman785]

Can you tell me how well the A2 face has held up after tempering it? Does it rebound well? Does it dent at all? Do you regret your choice and wish you would've done S7? A few updates would be greatly appreciated, I'm trying to choose a steel to weld on top of my anvil right now.

[@jamesdarrow9801]

That's a lot of work to have an anvil with a big hole in the middle.

[@METATRONS_CUBE]

Did you put the led back in the anvils base ?

[@hagsmich]

Where did you get the A2 steel, I would like to get some for myself.

[@quochuync]

Do you need to temper it after hardening?

[@ryanb1874]

thanks for showing us a rebound test w it dude.

[@The_Matrix_I_Am]

about 1500F... I love how you just eye ball the temperature.

[@bashkillszombies]

It's about this point you realise you've spent more than the price of a brand new anvil in materials, electricity, energy, and time on this thing, bin it, and get one. :P

[@archamedesgadafi7181]

If that’s your preference your prob not gonna need one anyway.

[@davidcovington901]

@@archamedesgadafi7181 that's brilliant! Will use that line myself, if you don't mind.

[@FT4Freedom]

Your efforts are cool. But at this point I opt to just buy a 50lb block of prehardened steel.

[@craigkoeberlein998]

FT4Freedom how much would that cost?

[@FT4Freedom]

@@craigkoeberlein998 I ended up getting a 35 lb block of P20 steel and mounting it in a 100 lb stump. Cost me $125. The rebound is 50% using a steel ball bearing. The hardness is 35 RC. Good enough for hot steel.

[@tonybletas930]

A truck-load of effort and material for very sub-standard results.

[@sparky6086]

It's about learning. Something you lowbrows don't understand.

[@tasubi2747]

Why you doesn't treated with oil !??!! When you wait for the metal to cool slowly it's not good, it must be soaked in oil or in water ... : ////

[@iridios6127]

you dont`t need to do it . welding can`t ruin the tempering in this case. around you to many idiots --- get rig of them , avoid they advices.

[@JustinTopp]

Alex Mann actually welding very easily ruins the heat treat of tool steel. Even if the venter is hard the edges will have been ruined by the welding