Portaband Stand and Swag Bumper

What is the most useful tool in your shop?

One of the best things I ever did was to build a stand for my portable bandsaw.

It’s just that handy.

The shop where I have my welding area is a machine shop. I don’t own it but I have access to use certain equipment. The problem is that sometimes the saw is being used.

And the turret is broken so it only cuts 90 degree angles.

So when I need to cut a quick angle, or snip a short piece of 3/8″ threaded rod, the portaband stand is great.

If you haven’t seen the video on building the stand, you can click here to watch it.

Unfortunately, SwagOffRoad.com does not offer stands for the Porter Cable brand, so I had to make my own.

If I had a DeWalt or Milwaukee portaband, I definitely would have just bought a stand from SWAG off road. They are sweet.

But hey, mine works just fine. And it’s original.

I built the stand thinking I would just throw it up on the welding table when I needed it but I found myself using it way too much to do that all the time.

So, I decided to build a cart for it that would allow me to wheel it around and leave it parked and plugged in for small pieces, and for long pieces, I can quickly wheel it next to the welding table and rest the long piece on the table while I cut.

A few weeks ago, I was just finishing up the table top for the cart but had to stop to work on a hot stainless job.

So this weekly video is about framing up the rest of the cart and welding on the casters so that the cart rests on metal pads, but can easily be tilted and moved around the shop on the casters.

I have this 3 axis fab clamp from Stronghand tools and it sure did make the framing easy. This is the first chance I have had to use it and I was very pleased with the way it sped things up.

In the past, I have always framed up carts, tables, stands, racks, etc. the old fashioned way.

But time is money. And money pays the bills, know what I mean?

( And as always, feel free to visit us at our sister site, WeldingTipsAndTricks.com. )

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