Railroad Iron Anvil...A Start At Least

I too made one as a kid. I had an uncle who taught me to burn, and I helped him scrap stuff all the time during the summer between school years. I remember burning the general shape, and lots of grinding. Never put any holes in it though. I would now, but then I was 10 and didn't have access to a mill or drill press very handy. I don't have any idea where my first one is. I have a small piece that I could turn into an anvil. Maybe a winter project. Not that I need either an anvil, or another project, but who know?
 
This thread inspired me to start on mine. I don't mean to hijack the thread but I have some pics and questions. I started on my Sheldon O and intend to finish on the Grissly veriticle unless I can come up with some better cutters for the Sheldon. I used an old carbide cutter that I wouldn't be afraid to loose but it survived the punishment intact.

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I turned the camera flash off and got a better pic of the heat and chips generated. I took about .015 a pass. The hot chips we're amazing. They came off read hot and piled up in the floor in a blue pile. The spindle speed was about 3200. Am I taking too big or too fast a cut?

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Generally speaking, grinding causes sparks. Machining should not cause sparks. I'm guessing that your cutter is about 4" in diameter. A quick calculation tells me that your RPM should be just under 200 for a medium carbon steel and a carbide cutter of that diameter. Tool steel should be more like 155 RPM with a carbide cutter.

These are just guidelines. As Whyemier says, if it's working for you, go for it. It just frightens me to see sparks coming off a milling machine.

Nice solid mill.
 
I guess my reply was lost Mike. They look like sparks but actually are pretty large hot chips. I turned the flash off the camera so you could see them. I had to vacum a pile up on both sides of the machine when I was finished. I will try to make a smoother finish this weekend and slow it down and see what happens. Here is another view. You can see the chips spinning off and laying around the cut.
thanks for your input guys
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3200 RPM on a horizontal? I wouldn't think the outboard support bushing would be too happy about that. Even with carbide, that's too fast for long tool life. No sparks unless you are using CBM or similar on E52100.
 
Guys, I stand corrected. I've never used a hand held contact tachometer before and I read the wrong scale. It was 800 rpm spindle speed. :-( Sorry for the error.


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