Rail anvil - video

[WmRMeyers]

I had to wait until the very end of the video for him to show us why encasing the rail in plywood was a good idea. If he had started off with the visual of mounting the rail upside-down in the wood in order to use the flat, he might have captured more attention. As it was, we had to sit through seemingly endless rail polishing and plywood gluing until he presented the clincher.

It's too bad there isn't some way of running these videos in reverse.

I have an associate of science degree in audiovisual production, now quite obsolete, and there is a reason I don't do video of what I'm doing in the shop. Critics are everywhere! At least I have an excuse. I was an expert, once upon a time. In making a film when "film" was exactly what it was made on. Back then, computers were either toys or seriously expensive business machines, not household appliances. But yeah, a few minutes at the front of the video would go a long ways to explaining why you needed to get that fancy. I watched it to the end because some schlub dumped a piece of partially cut rail anvil in front of my house one day. Some day, I'll have enough input on what to do to it to make it worth my effort to finish it. I've probably watched a couple of hundred videos on making a railroad track anvil. One guy, who made a good impression on me, mentioned how the thin web of the track made it flex and ring when hammered on, and wasted a lot of energy. I'm lazy, I want all the energy I put into hammering on something to do what I want it to do. He suggested contouring metal stock to bolt on both sides of the ASO to make it stiff enough to not ring. Makes perfect sense to me. But I'm not done gathering info. Maybe my great great great grandchild will finally finish it for me?

Bill