In this video I built an aluminium stand to attach a portable bandsaw too, which can be used in conjunction with a vice as a cut off saw or raised into an upright vertical position to be used as a typical bandsaw, and when necessary removed to be use freehand.

I got my hands on this bit of kit for £40 and it’s as rough as they come. It sounds quite coarse but will save me having to cut large stock by hand. The aluminium all together cost be about £25 whilst I had all the fixings and scrap sheet of ply.

Initially I wanted to be able to cut various angle from the top but realised to do this, the chopping tilt had to be above the blade rotation. I made it the other way which means the only adjustment I can make is to at 90 degree cut. As it is now, any rotation to the left or right would mean the edge of the blade would make contact with the material to be cut instead of the teeth. I don’t plan to make any compound mitre cuts, so will focus on true square cut. And in any case I could always rotate the vice.

For now I used a cross vice which I clamped down to hold a piece of mild steel box tubing when testing the cut. It seems quite accurate but I am hoping to build a vice. I will also make a larger detachable bed for the upright position, a means of clamping the saw while upright and maybe a spring to slow the drop while using it as a cut off saw.

0:06 I began by finding the centre of the aluminium plate. Working out how deep I wanted to cut into it.
0:20 I marked and punched the point I would stop cutting, and drilled a 2.5m hole. I did this so that the teeth, which generally are set little further to the sides of the blade, would have space to not rub onto the plate and allow metal filings to drop downwards.
0:30 Cutting into the plate.
0:52 I measure how far to mark a line on the plate which I will drill and use to mark where I will tap the original guide stop.
1:30 After removing the guide stop which has been marked with a permanent pen, I punch, drill and tap the part.
1:39 I use a drill press vice to hole the steel piece.
1:42 Tapping.
2:04 I drill and counter sink the aluminium plate.
2:15 Fixing the plate to the guide stop.
2:32 Demonstrating a cut. A larger plate, with a smaller area around the blade is safer and allows to cuts close to the edge of a piece of material however I should have used steel instead.
2:42 Folding the saw away. See part one for this mechanism. http://youtu.be/aKdkAs482Po