Burt4x4
1 Ton First Gen
Damn Greg! Crazy Cool what you are doing... sick workshop! Wish I was nearby to borrow yer manspace for a day or two lol! 
Nice work my Brother!! 
Nice work my Brother!! CK5
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'72 K5 - Greg's @MightAsWellK5 Build
- Thread starter Greg72
- Start date
This is the build description. I will improve this later. (GB)
Damn Greg! Crazy Cool what you are doing... sick workshop! Wish I was nearby to borrow yer manspace for a day or two lol!
It's great to see you back here on a more regular basis Burt!!!
#blazerbash2022
I've got a long way to go, but I'm not giving up!!!
It's not a vertical alignment issue.
That makes sense. I could see the bearings being worn on the portaband itself as being the issue. Still, it's a minor issue. The table makes the portaband so much more useful.
Yes, I think if we were to replace those little aluminum "C" shaped assemblies that surround the blade with roller bearings, that it might return the straight cutting again, but I haven't tried it...
Have it it Greg, Milwaukee makes replacement parts!
Yes, I think if we were to replace those little aluminum "C" shaped assemblies that surround the blade with roller bearings, that it might return the straight cutting again, but I haven't tried it...
Have it it Greg, Milwaukee makes replacement parts!
HA! I'll just make straight cuts for now.
I think they make 1/4" blades (vs. 1/2") to make it a little easier to cut curved shapes and probably put less side-loading on those bearings. Not sure if they make a metal-cutting one... it's actually not that easy to get part numbers and options for the replacement blades. I found a DeWalt chart that calls out some options, but haven't found a Milwaukee reference.
-G
Hey, I was checking out your rock slider build on the previous page(which is amazing by the way). I have to make those same notched cuts in 2in pipe to brace up my welding table. Any advice on holesaw bits, how many cuts a bit will make, etc? I've really enjoyed checking in with your build to see what you're going to do next
Nothing fancy... yellow hole saws (DeWalt?)
I find that high pressure and lowRPM with lots of cutting fluid is the trick to making them last. I cut through all 10 of those solid parts with a leftover hole saw and it did them all without issue. No broken teeth, no drama.
I think a lot of guys just rip open the throttle on their drill and run it at 3000+ RPM .... I run at maybe 200RPM
Might work for you as well.
-G
I find when cutting holes through like 1/4" plus plate at work on the drill press that I have to clear chips out of the teeth a lot since the have no where to go. Obviously on your notches they can just fall out.
Yes sir, low rpm and cutting fluid it will be, thanks
2020.12.01 - UPDATE! - WHY MY PROGRESS IS SO SLOW...
It must feel like this tread never gets updated to the typical subscriber.... it feels that way on this side of the screen as well, but there is a good reason.
LIFE.
Crazy work hours for the workweek and lots of projects on the #TURNKEYHOUSE on Saturdays makes it tough to show steady progress. It happens a little each week but it's been a long time since the #MightAsWellK5 had a true "hero day" and knocked out something major.
To start, here's a series that shows the "other side" of life.... which is equally important and gives a tremendous amount of satisfaction as well. Many of you have said that this stuff is actually just as interesting to you as the truck-related content so we'll start here and will add another post with the latest truck updates too.
FLOORING DEMO & INSTALATION:
Our house was built in 2000, and the style at that time was tile....lots of beige tile, and beige walls, and builder-grade moldings and boring trimwork. Basically, build it as BIG and as inexpensively as possible and move on to the next unit. Don't get me wrong, the house seems to be well-built but it's not a "custom" home by any stretch of the imagination... and "stock" is boring, so here we go:
The kitchen was a project that completed a while back.... new floors, cabinets, island, etc. the tile was removed only in that room to accommodate the work, but it left an IOU for the rest of the downstairs for a LOT more tile removal.
One of the smartest things we did in 2020 was hiring a company to remove the tile for us. This was money well-spent. Much faster and cleaner than a DIY would have been.
Into the Living Room with the demo... all tolled, about 800 sq ft was removed.
New floors were grafted in with the existing kitchen floor, then run out into the breakfast nook. We did this part ourselves because "might as well"
The look of the whole house really started to change once the flooring traveled across the expanse of the living room!
The flooring continued down the main hallway past the stairs, then into the formal dining room where it dovetailed perfectly back into the pre-existing kitchen floor. That was no small feat, since the alignment had to be critical all the way around the house to insure it would align within 1/32" to match up properly.
With that victory in our back pocket it was time to look at adding some pizzazz to a boring dining room wall. We'd done wainscot in our last house, but with the 9' ceilings here it seemed like fun to take them all the way up and really accentuate the height of the room.
The plan was complete... roughly 20" x 20" squares left enough room for the original crown molding to go back in, and for a taller baseboard as well.
It took almost 2 full days of cutting and measuring and sanding and primering just to get all of the materials ready to this point.
But, the payoff was that the wall went up REALLY quickly... within about 3 hours we were able to get all the way across 16' from floor to ceiling and the layout came out perfect!!
Next Saturday, all that's left is some D/A work to blend the seams, and some putty to seal up the joints... then another quick coat of primer and a final coat of some kind of "grey-beige" paint (TBD) to make it stand out from the adjacent walls.
So there you go.... "Might As Well" isn't just a garage term. As it turns out, you can apply it to almost any facet of your life... find an excuse to do something just a little bit better than necessary and the results can be rewarding.
UP NEXT: Truck progress!!!
-G
It must feel like this tread never gets updated to the typical subscriber.... it feels that way on this side of the screen as well, but there is a good reason.
LIFE.
Crazy work hours for the workweek and lots of projects on the #TURNKEYHOUSE on Saturdays makes it tough to show steady progress. It happens a little each week but it's been a long time since the #MightAsWellK5 had a true "hero day" and knocked out something major.
To start, here's a series that shows the "other side" of life.... which is equally important and gives a tremendous amount of satisfaction as well. Many of you have said that this stuff is actually just as interesting to you as the truck-related content so we'll start here and will add another post with the latest truck updates too.
FLOORING DEMO & INSTALATION:
Our house was built in 2000, and the style at that time was tile....lots of beige tile, and beige walls, and builder-grade moldings and boring trimwork. Basically, build it as BIG and as inexpensively as possible and move on to the next unit. Don't get me wrong, the house seems to be well-built but it's not a "custom" home by any stretch of the imagination... and "stock" is boring, so here we go:
The kitchen was a project that completed a while back.... new floors, cabinets, island, etc. the tile was removed only in that room to accommodate the work, but it left an IOU for the rest of the downstairs for a LOT more tile removal.
One of the smartest things we did in 2020 was hiring a company to remove the tile for us. This was money well-spent. Much faster and cleaner than a DIY would have been.
Into the Living Room with the demo... all tolled, about 800 sq ft was removed.
New floors were grafted in with the existing kitchen floor, then run out into the breakfast nook. We did this part ourselves because "might as well"
The look of the whole house really started to change once the flooring traveled across the expanse of the living room!
The flooring continued down the main hallway past the stairs, then into the formal dining room where it dovetailed perfectly back into the pre-existing kitchen floor. That was no small feat, since the alignment had to be critical all the way around the house to insure it would align within 1/32" to match up properly.
With that victory in our back pocket it was time to look at adding some pizzazz to a boring dining room wall. We'd done wainscot in our last house, but with the 9' ceilings here it seemed like fun to take them all the way up and really accentuate the height of the room.
The plan was complete... roughly 20" x 20" squares left enough room for the original crown molding to go back in, and for a taller baseboard as well.
It took almost 2 full days of cutting and measuring and sanding and primering just to get all of the materials ready to this point.
But, the payoff was that the wall went up REALLY quickly... within about 3 hours we were able to get all the way across 16' from floor to ceiling and the layout came out perfect!!
Next Saturday, all that's left is some D/A work to blend the seams, and some putty to seal up the joints... then another quick coat of primer and a final coat of some kind of "grey-beige" paint (TBD) to make it stand out from the adjacent walls.
So there you go.... "Might As Well" isn't just a garage term. As it turns out, you can apply it to almost any facet of your life... find an excuse to do something just a little bit better than necessary and the results can be rewarding.
UP NEXT: Truck progress!!!
-G
Very nice work Greg!2020.12.01 - UPDATE! - WHY MY PROGRESS IS SO SLOW...
It must feel like this tread never gets updated to the typical subscriber.... it feels that way on this side of the screen as well, but there is a good reason.
LIFE.
Crazy work hours for the workweek and lots of projects on the #TURNKEYHOUSE on Saturdays makes it tough to show steady progress. It happens a little each week but it's been a long time since the #MightAsWellK5 had a true "hero day" and knocked out something major.
To start, here's a series that shows the "other side" of life.... which is equally important and gives a tremendous amount of satisfaction as well. Many of you have said that this stuff is actually just as interesting to you as the truck-related content so we'll start here and will add another post with the latest truck updates too.
FLOORING DEMO & INSTALATION:
Our house was built in 2000, and the style at that time was tile....lots of beige tile, and beige walls, and builder-grade moldings and boring trimwork. Basically, build it as BIG and as inexpensively as possible and move on to the next unit. Don't get me wrong, the house seems to be well-built but it's not a "custom" home by any stretch of the imagination... and "stock" is boring, so here we go:
The kitchen was a project that completed a while back.... new floors, cabinets, island, etc. the tile was removed only in that room to accommodate the work, but it left an IOU for the rest of the downstairs for a LOT more tile removal.
One of the smartest things we did in 2020 was hiring a company to remove the tile for us. This was money well-spent. Much faster and quicker than a DIY would have been.
Into the Living Room with the demo... all tolled, about 800 sq ft was removed.
New floors were grafted in with the existing kitchen floor, then run out into the breakfast nook. We did this part ourselves because "might as well"
The look of the whole house really started to change once the flooring traveled across the expanse of the living room!
The flooring continued down the main hallway past the stairs, then into the formal dining room where it dovetailed perfectly back into the pre-existing kitchen floor. That was no small feat, since the alignment had to be critical all the way around the house to insure it would align within 1/32" to match up properly.
With that victory in our back pocket it was time to look at adding some pizzazz to a boring dining room wall. We'd done wainscot in our last house, but with the 9' ceilings here it seemed like fun to take them all the way up and really accentuate the height of the room.
The plan was complete... roughly 20" x 20" squares left enough room for the original crown molding to go back in, and for a taller baseboard as well.
It took almost 2 full days of cutting and measuring and sanding and primering just to get all of the materials ready to this point.
But, the payoff was that the wall went up REALLY quickly... within about 3 hours we were able to get all the way across 16' from floor to ceiling and the layout came out perfect!!
Next Saturday, all that's left is some D/A work to blend the seams, and some putty to seal up the joints... then another quick coat of primer and a final coat of some kind of "grey-beige" paint (TBD) to make it stand out from the adjacent walls.
So there you go.... "Might As Well" isn't just a garage term. As it turns out, you can apply it to almost any facet of your life... find an excuse to do something just a little bit better than necessary and the results can be rewarding.
UP NEXT: Truck progress!!!
-G
2020.12.01 - UPDATE! - NOW...THE TRUCK STUFF...!!!!!
At the same time as all of that house work, any spare moments were spent in the garage trying to knock out projects there as well...
Decided to bite the bullet and seek out a set of "true" 1972 hubcaps... they are not easy to find, not cheap, and this set isn't perfect, but they are in decent shape and should be restorable.
As always, space is at a premium and tripping over wheel dollies and having them always falling over got old, so this clever rack was added to the mobile base of the HF press to hold them out of the way! The opposite side of the base holds the bench-mounted planishing hammer when not in use.. so the whole thing can be rolled out for use, or rolled into a corner to save workspace in the middle of the shop.
It was time to finally get the Sparco seat mounts integrated to the factory sport seats. The factory hardware is clunky and these should be a nice upgrade.
To keep everything aligned, it made sense to pull the Atlas out of the middle and run the tubes straight across. With the overhead I-beam winch, this was a snap to do...
A simple sleeve was used to align the bars and once they were tied to the frame, the sleeves were removed.
Here's a shot of how the Sparco mounts will tie to the lateral tubing of the cage.
It took a long time to get the seat angle correct. Since they are a fixed-back design the rake is really critical for comfort.
At about this time, the APEX 20" grinder in my shop puked out it's 2nd starting capacitor. I had noticed that the motor was occasionally "missing" like it was losing power and concluded that the switch was not working well... this in turn was burning out the caps. So a new (expensive) NOS switch was ordered from eBay.
It was a perfect match and the switch was much tighter and more positive with it's engagement.
Since it was the same exact models switch, the wiring transferred right over.
With the repair complete, it was possible to get back to creating lousy "tuition pile" versions of seat tracks!!!
This one was too high and didn't set the seat back far enough to be comfortable.
After several nights and weekend days, the perfect brackets were created!!! This matches the factory angles, but puts the seat MUCH further back than stock. It's a lot less cramped feeling.
The other nice effect is that the seat tracks are all completely hidden under the seat so even when you you really get up close, there are no ugly seat mechanisms staring back at you. Just a clean factory seat hovering ever-so-slightly above the rollcage tubing.
So there you go.... a December update for the Might As Well build... and with a long holiday vacation coming up there may even be more to share!!!
-G
At the same time as all of that house work, any spare moments were spent in the garage trying to knock out projects there as well...
Decided to bite the bullet and seek out a set of "true" 1972 hubcaps... they are not easy to find, not cheap, and this set isn't perfect, but they are in decent shape and should be restorable.
As always, space is at a premium and tripping over wheel dollies and having them always falling over got old, so this clever rack was added to the mobile base of the HF press to hold them out of the way! The opposite side of the base holds the bench-mounted planishing hammer when not in use.. so the whole thing can be rolled out for use, or rolled into a corner to save workspace in the middle of the shop.
It was time to finally get the Sparco seat mounts integrated to the factory sport seats. The factory hardware is clunky and these should be a nice upgrade.
To keep everything aligned, it made sense to pull the Atlas out of the middle and run the tubes straight across. With the overhead I-beam winch, this was a snap to do...
A simple sleeve was used to align the bars and once they were tied to the frame, the sleeves were removed.
Here's a shot of how the Sparco mounts will tie to the lateral tubing of the cage.
It took a long time to get the seat angle correct. Since they are a fixed-back design the rake is really critical for comfort.
At about this time, the APEX 20" grinder in my shop puked out it's 2nd starting capacitor. I had noticed that the motor was occasionally "missing" like it was losing power and concluded that the switch was not working well... this in turn was burning out the caps. So a new (expensive) NOS switch was ordered from eBay.
It was a perfect match and the switch was much tighter and more positive with it's engagement.
Since it was the same exact models switch, the wiring transferred right over.
With the repair complete, it was possible to get back to creating lousy "tuition pile" versions of seat tracks!!!
This one was too high and didn't set the seat back far enough to be comfortable.
After several nights and weekend days, the perfect brackets were created!!! This matches the factory angles, but puts the seat MUCH further back than stock. It's a lot less cramped feeling.
The other nice effect is that the seat tracks are all completely hidden under the seat so even when you you really get up close, there are no ugly seat mechanisms staring back at you. Just a clean factory seat hovering ever-so-slightly above the rollcage tubing.
So there you go.... a December update for the Might As Well build... and with a long holiday vacation coming up there may even be more to share!!!
-G
I see you ova there!
Good work on the Blazer and the house!
Nice job on both! I have never been a fan of the southwestern style of tile everywhere.
I've done tile removal. It wasnt bad w/ a chisel tip on the air hammer. The grinding is what's terrible. You have to have a nice dust mitigation system to make that happen...
....and for those keeping track:
-G
-G
bigred88
1/2 ton status
Anyone here that has a house and a wife and kids understands slow progress on a project. It isn't priority #1, and it shouldn't be. I'm lucky if I get 2-3 hours a week in the garage. It is what it is, I wish my project was moving faster but I've just had to accept the slow pace.
Everything looks great- the house and the Blazer!
Everything looks great- the house and the Blazer!
2-3hrs a week! I get that a month if I'm lucky.
Yep
