David Kailey

Your welcome. lol. Forge on my friend!!!!

Thanks for the response Gote. I always appreciate it. It sounds like you have things dialed in and you and I have similar lines of thought as to how we arrange out tooling, I keep just my top 5-7 hardy tools and my wire brush on my stand, my hammers, tongs, punches ect. are on the wall near my anvil my forge, vise, anvil, power hammed, are all within 2 steps but i have lanes between them so I can work longer stock. It just makes me feel good to be efficient, it leads to me knowing I am good at what I do and that confidence lets me continue to push myself outside my comfort zone and that means I am continuing to grow as a smith...... who could ask for more then that!!!

CFI is hosting their summer hammer-in. June 24 and 25, 7:30 am to 5:30 pm open forges, demos, raffles, and group projects for more info contact David Kailey 509-413- 9727 David@morganjadeiornworks.com

CFI is hosting their summer hammer-in. It will be held on June 24/25 there will be open forging, demos, and group projects. IF interested or looking for more info Contact David Kailey 509-413-9727 david@morganjadeironworks.com

Frosty Is a bit more on track. I may have picked the wrong item, soap box, tool....ect. I have been told that my work is better because........tools, equipment, bla bla. Or I can't because I don't have...... One of the things I notice is no matter what means the smith has the "doers" smithy , stands differ from the "I can'ters". I was taught that if your not there for your tools, your tools won't be there for you. Looking professional..... my view on that is different I have seen smithy's, with 250K and couldn't look more unprofessional, and the opposite is true. Expensive or low value equipment does not define a blacksmith, but yes his smithy dose. I can look at a smiths smithy and have a good idea if they are a doer or an I can'ter, It causes, me to think man.... I'd be an I can'ter also if I tried to do even simple forgings I this smithy. I so badly want people to embrace and love smithing as much as I do. I hate seeing people struggling, give up, make more of the work then it really is. But so many times it is because they literally set themselves up for failure, because their smithy is so woefully inefficient they will never feel like they are getting a good return on the effort they put forth, the return is not enough to continue. And they settle for it, they are willing to keep trudging alone as if with only one leg wnae they have 2. I am a professional blacksmith, not a master smith, but I get that return on my time and energy, I can give the customer a piece of myself, one like no other and for a price that is comparable to one made by a heartless machine. Yah I get customers that pay more and I get rewarded for what I do. But I have to be a doer, I have to provide a product, met perceived expectation for a price point that works. Had a customer wanted 5 corbels, willing to pay $20 each, efficiency and forming and emotional connection between the customer and what I can provide enabled me to get $25 each and create a hand forge item that is all their own it took me no more then $16 in material and 1.5 hours. Because my hammer, my anvil, my stand, my smithy is nice and clean. Complex yes..... a bit of rambling absolutely, possibly lost in my words...... well maybe. But give yourself every opportunity to succeed, give yourself the chance to feel the return on that investment of time and energy, give yourself the ability to compete on an open market until you are able to find those customers that are willing to show their appreciation and pay you an honest wage for your work. We have traveled a long way, just like my smithy from 5 years ago to now. Every step I improved, I gained and I kept it nice and clean. Thank you all for your thoughts and engaging in this conversation. Keep it going. Yah I ask for the height they want the anvil top to be at and how tall their anvils is,

When I started Smithing I had a hole in the ground with a pipe and my wife's hair dryer, my anvil was a hung of RR track with bent nails holding it down. The reason I have the luxury of choices is because of where i live and the fact that I worked my butt off selling forged item at $3-7 each until I made enough to but my anvil........I now have 50k in equipment all paid for in cash from the work I did smithing. you can get all bent out of shape and show all the videos you want but did you notice that mans smithy......? maybe not much to look at but it is clean, everything has a place, its efficient and its the best he has for what luxuries he has available to him. I hate it when a guy has 10k, 20k,50k, 100k in equipment and has a crappy looking stand held together with duct tape, bailing wire, and 5 min epoxy. my point is use what you have and make your smithy the best it can be, keep upgrading it, keep making it better, more efficient, safer,,,,,,,ect. Dont settle, dont just be ok with you wobbly stand, your stump that is split apart and you keep wrapping bailing twine and tape around it. I made over $2500.00 with that ground forge and rr anvil. I have seen so many smiths complain about how long it takes, how they don't have as good of stuff as i have, my work is higher quality/better/easier..... because of the equipment i have. That's not the case at all, i was the african smith forging on my knees but i kept reinvesting my money into better stuff. People just need to commit. I sacrificed a ton to become a blacksmith, sold my boat, guns, dirt bike, other toys, I simplified my life down, lowered my cost of living my wife and daught supported these things..... last year I suffered a theft of over 35k in work, tools, materials...... insurance jerked me around and finally denied my claim...... but I took what i had made it the best it could be and went back to work. Remove the stumbling blocks, remove the time wasting in-efficient stuff, cut out the things that kill your production and or hinder you psychologically. And get to work, commit and met that commitment half way. nice job! it clean, well built your anvil is good and secure thats a beast of a stand, pretty killer.

Offer him $0.25lb that is 3x current scrap prices. Remember, you see value in this steel but it is useless to him and scrap price is only $160 a ton or $.08 a pound anything above that is bonus to him.

Yah I think the shank of the hardy needs to be a bit taller so the shoulders sit above the top of the anvil. I made a cut off just like that and I got stuck like that also, I forge another one and it had taller shoulders its snug but just a tap and it pops out.

Hands down my wire cup angle grinder..... it will buck and catch yah. Or it will pepper you with wires, even from across the room.......that is why I switched to a variable speed angle grinder for my wire wheel.....much safer.

Really my post is just trying to get smith to not settle, but to instead improve what they can, make their smithy better, more efficient, user friendly. Several smiths I know struggle to get their projects done and its not because they don't have the right stuff...... its just so inefficient in design or set up that it take them more time and effort to the point of frustrating them to inactivity. But you are right when I sell them I clean up those hole for just the reason. I never put my hammers on my anvil stand. lol. I don't like having to grab them by the head to use them. I just added them to the design so that I could sell the stands commercially. So far I have sold 17 complete stands and 6 top plates. Crazy but people are willing to pay for the shipping. No offence I hope. I like your stand. Its got good tool racks a swinging tool tray, with a solid mount. lol so long as she doesn't wobble your good in my book. Frosty, good looking stand

Why do so many guys anvil stands look like welded scrap metal, they have no skills, they adopted a red headed step child, or just flat don't about the most used tool in the smithy. No matter what your stand is made of make it nice. I have seen all sorts of ugly terrible way guys fasten their anvils. Seen guys working on a stand that wobbles all over the place. It's were we spend most of our time. It should be the best managed, looked after, efficient, and usable piece of equipment in our smithy. Here are some tips and pics of my stand. So wood, metal, stone, or Kryptonite get a good fastening system in place. Chains with nails, screws, rubber bands, duct tape....come on. There is a better cleaner way. Some nice forged to fit straps, stakes, brackets. I use a set of hold downs forged to fit my anvil. It's clean efficient and compact. Drill and tap your plate, lag bolt, tapcon....ect. Tool racks. It should not look like there is a junk yard around your anvil. I designed and cut my top plate from 1/2" or thicker plate steel. I have holes for hammers, tongs, ect and slots for hardy tools and more. I did this because I have seem many stands with loops and flat bar welded on to flat plate..... it looks sloppy and over time they get bent or broke off because people naturally drop tools into them and the weight crashing down just wares it out over time. 5 years my top plate is still sturdy and solid with no broken or bent tool racks. Now I am not a fan of the stump or wood. I prefer steel. It allows me to get in closet to my anvil so I am not bent over as much, there is storage underneath and having only 3 legs it never wobbles. I work big steel and use my anvil with a bending hardy a lot so Ilike my anvil bolted to the floor. I also like to have space to set tongs, hand tools wire brush on. So I use a swiveling removable tool tray. I just found a pipe and piece of steel that fit inside one another and welded the pipe to my stand, opposite side I stand on. I welded 2 points of contact one at the horn and one at the heel. I can move it to the part I am working at. I like to use expanded metal for these tool trays or shelves because the scale falls thru. I have rubber on my tray because it keeps the tools from making noise because of the vibrations from hammering. Let me know your thoughts, let me see your stands, ask questions, let make these thing better and more functional.

I think all beginner smiths should build one of these asap. They provide accurate, consistent, easy, productive, and simple effects on your forge work. I have seen these things sell for anywhere from $150 - $300 but with only 1-3 sets of dies. For $20-$30 you can make your own and have all 4140 or 5160 tool steel dies. Find yourself a junk yard or a spring repair place. Get a used spring pack from a 2 ton or bigger truck, you want find springs that are 2-3 Inches by 3/8" or thicker. Then build the holder to fit that material. Here are the pictures of the guillotine tool I build and use. I have sold over a dozen and they are reasonable to make and you can have a set of dies for less then $0.60 a set. Here is what's left of the spring pack I got for $14. I cut 2.75" for the bottom die and 5" for the top die. Here is the my guillotine tool and extra dies. This is the storage rack I made for my tool and dies. I always anneal and straighten the leaves of the spring pack and then I always cut several 2 3/4" and 5" pieces so I have stock available to create new dies as needed. I have a total of 2 hours invested to build my tool. I have 6 sets of dies now. I built a set for buchering tendons that is set at 3/8" so it can't go any deeper then 3/8...every one of them comes out perfect. Few tricks when making your own. Make sure you weld the bottom cross braces on about a 1/4" above the mounting plate..... this allows scale to be removed with easy and its also not able to build up and get your bottom die stuck. Always cut you upper die at least 1.5 " above the top cross brace. This will allow you to grind down the mushrooming from hammer blows several times before the die is to short and has to be replaced. Building this tool will really help you tackle more complex forgings with better consistency efficiency and better quality. Anything you see being done under a power hammer or with a hand held tool can be made into a die for a guillotine tool. Hope this helps.

I have seen these in use. There were several different jaws and he used it for upsetting.

I went from 6 500w halogens to 6 1600lum LED dropped my electric bill by $20 or more a month and my shop...... solong as the forge is off actually is cooler......... Lol. I had to use the heater this winter. I also really like the white light from the leds.....its just cleaner looking and brighter.

I have a fair bit of OCD..... but really what my issue is I grew up in a shop that had deer trails. My dad had so much stuff you'd spend 3 days moving and looking for stuff to do a 4 hour project. I actually get claustrophobic, and very stressed when my shop is in complete disarray. I just had 85sf of counter tops in there and finally got them out yesterday........i can breath!!!!!. So I was finally able to clean my shop again... Lol. My only real unkept area is my work bench and the loft. I know it's odd. But having a mess of a shop makes me not wanna show up and work, it weighs heavy on my mind, and causes me anxiety, also very frustrating to be tripping over stuff and hunting down what I need all the time. But to each his own. My dad has no problem spending 4 days working on a project that should take only 6 hours. But I am a business and I need to turn and burn projects in an orderly manner, and be able to function in an orderly manner, making myself as efficient as possible.

So my shop is "L" shaped its a 30 x 30 with a office and bathroom in the front left side that is 10x18 This picture is the back left corner behind the office/bathroom, there is a loft above these room but only 6.4' tall. To looking from left to right I have my 6" anvil, 110lb Big Blu hammer another 6" vice, sink. bench grinder with 2 wire wheels, Studant/2nd anvil, propane forge, small steel/jig/tool steel shelf. Go to next picture Next to the shelf I have a small steel table with a hardy tool rack, a hook rack, Hammer rack, punch/drift/hand fuller, guillotine fuller....rack, my coke forge, drill press, Belt rack, belt grinder Grinder rack This is along the right shop in the back my grinder rack is just out of view. I build 9 stands that look kinda like a "k" Assembled they make my work bench with 2 shelves, and my steel rack, so far i have had 3,500lbs on it with no issues. I made a roller deck for my bandsaw and i have an adjustable single roller for materials over 12' long. I am welding up the legs for the bench/steel rack. This is all the legs stood up and starting to get the wood shelves attached. So here are some of my shops space and organization features. This is my hammer rack, I don't like dropping my hammers into a hole I want to be able to grab them by the handle, This allows me to do that. Below my hammer rack is this rack. It holds all sorts of hand tools, punches, drifts, fullers, files,.... whatever else i need close to my anvil. This little stand is moveable, holds all my hammer dies, hammer tools and jigs along with some of my vise tooling. You will notice the "stand" behind my vise.... these are moveable work stands/trays that slide into a receiver. I have several receivers all around my shop, and several trays, racks, lights, ect that can mount any place I have a receiver installed. Here is a picture of the receivers I have around my shop, they basically work just like the one on your truck This is my gas save I use on my oxy/propane torch. it also can be used all over the shop because it is mounted to a receiver also. Here are my welding, plasma carts. I have another work tray above my welder, I is able to swing out of the way, I also have a 4x8 fab table it is on casters cause i need to be able to roll it around my shop. I'll post the rest of my shop in a few.

do what you can with what you got, put the money in the bank, buy your next piece of equipment with the cash you have in hand or wait till you got it.... never never never get a loan to buy your equipment........ you may not get the work to cover the cost and that will ruin and growth you have had

on big jobs.....5k or more If i am wary at all I will ask the customer for a couple of references of people he has hired in the past to perform work for him. it will let you knoww right away usually if they are worth passing on or not

get insured, get a good liability, give them a safety sheet when they sign up, provide a short safety orientation the day of the class. then kiss your butt goodbye and pray everyone ends the class with no injuries. I also ask for an emergency contact and also if they have any thing a paramedic should know if they cant speak for themselves.

Flex o vit. they make the best double stacked flap disk i have ever used. i usually pay 4.75-5.50 a piece. cheapest ain't the most cost effective this disc last 2.5-3 times longer then the sait disks i use to use they were only 2.99..... but a smart person figures out that its not the better value. Be Careful when hunting down a cheap anything......... cause it just may not put any meat in the freezer.

yep Spokane wa, CDA metals right next to the rest of souless china made steel shapes. lol

I quench mild steel in water it gives it a little bit more spring back...... and i have several that I have used with not bad effects

When the neighbor replaces a broken coil spring on his car and you wonder over and ask.....hey you want me to get rid of that for yah?