The motive for this project was my need to cut aluminum sheet metal relatively precisely. I either needed a vertical bandsaw, or a shear. I didn't feel like spending any money to buy either of them at this moment, thus I decided to convert my horizantal bandsaw for less than $10.

Materials:

- Roughly 8" of 2" C-channel
- 12"x12" 11 gauge sheet metal
- (2) 1/4" x 1" bolts and corresponding nuts

Cut two pieces of ~ 3" C-channel:


This is mounting location on the saw. It has two 1/4" holes already drilled and tapped.


Position the pieces of C-channel that you cut on the mounting location so that they're each roughly 1/4" away from the blade. Mark where the mounting holes sit and drill a 1/4" hole on each piece C-channel. Test fit it.


Now decided how you want to mount the table. I decided to mount mine so that it was 6" on each side of the blade, ~4" on the back and ~8" on the front. The distance between the front of the blade and the body of the saw is 4".


If you decide to take the route I did, mark a line roughly 4.5" long on the middle of one side of it, as shown below.


After you make the cut, test fit the piece.


Mark where the blade is in relation to the piece and mark it.


Now drill a couple of 1/8" holes between your marks, to make some room, in case the blade had any side to side movement.


A closeup of the holes. They're not the prettiest thing in the wolrd, but they work.


Mark where the C-channels sit on the back side of table. Go ahead and weld them. It's a good precaution however to tack them and double check. It's easier to cut two tacks than a whole seam. Also, make sure which C-channel is on the right side or left side of the blade, so you don't get the pieces backwards.


Now go ahead and bolt the table up. It's all done!


The saw is underpowered to make vertical cuts on thicker steel or stainless material, but it works great on aluminum and relatively thin sheet metal (sub 11 gauge). A picture of it in action:


Happy measuring, cutting and welding!