I have a need to cut out a couple of dozen "L" shaped pieces out of 1/2" aluminum plate. My horizontal saw isn't big enough and a hacksaw was not in the cards. After some thought I decided to see what I could do with my horizontal Port-a-Band saw to make it into a vertical saw. Here's a few pictures of my conversion.
I made a simple frame from rectangular and square tubing to mount the saw bracket.
To attach the bracket I made a couple of aluminum V-blocks to clamp the bracket cross shaft to the tubing frame.
I didn't have enough square tubing on hand to make the frame higher so I clamped it to my work bench. I have a 15" tall HF mechanics stool that makes it very comfortable when using the saw.
I wired in a toggle switch. Makes it a lot easier to turn the saw on and off.
This is a view of the turnbuckle arrangement to level the table and get the blade vertical. As you can see the setup is temporary. Now that I have tested it out I plan on making a stand to get the table height so I can stand up when cutting.
This worked out great. I cut out four of the "L" shaped pieces in a matter of a few minutes.
Thanks for looking.
I made a simple frame from rectangular and square tubing to mount the saw bracket.
To attach the bracket I made a couple of aluminum V-blocks to clamp the bracket cross shaft to the tubing frame.
I didn't have enough square tubing on hand to make the frame higher so I clamped it to my work bench. I have a 15" tall HF mechanics stool that makes it very comfortable when using the saw.
I wired in a toggle switch. Makes it a lot easier to turn the saw on and off.
This is a view of the turnbuckle arrangement to level the table and get the blade vertical. As you can see the setup is temporary. Now that I have tested it out I plan on making a stand to get the table height so I can stand up when cutting.
This worked out great. I cut out four of the "L" shaped pieces in a matter of a few minutes.
Thanks for looking.
