Roller stand for metal saw

I have a 6" power hacksaw in my garage, when trying to line up accurate cuts having to support then end of a piece of metal makes this a tricky task, so I have finally made myself a roller stand. I wanted one I could adjust while it had stuff on it, and that could be finely 'tuned'. This is what I made. The materials are:

• 6mm steel plate for the base (no, it's not square!)
• piece of galvanised gas pipe
• M20 threaded rod
• M20 nut
• 8mm-ish rod to weld to nut for handles
• scrap, rusty, 30mm box section.
• 50x20mm steel bar cut into two 50x20x30 blocks
• 2 x M6 set screws
• one conveyer belt roller

The roller has a hexagonal shaft which i lightly filed and it fits into a 12/13mm hole in the blocks (one is 12, one is 13, I forgot I owned a 13mm drill bit for the first). The shaft is spring loaded in one direction, so you push it out a bit, pop the extended end into the hole one side, lower the roller and the shaft then springs back to central, thereby engging in both holes. I tapped M6 holes so that the bolts press against a flat of the hexagon, keeping it still. I then attacked it with the grinder and strip disc, 2 x coats of zinc primer and 2 x coats of Rover 'Signal Red' which I bought for a quid in halfords from their cheap bin.

The welding could have been better but I was too lazy to take the 0.6mm wire out of the welder and swap it, so I couldn't run it at a high enough power for decent penetration on the large materials, not crucial though.

Hi,

that's nice. I like the vertical adjuster.

Mine's a bit rough, a big T that drops into a tube with an bolt to clamp it at the right height, The bottom of the tube is welded onto an old car wheel.

I could use my base with something like your top and have a much better device.

Regards
Peter

I made a rest from the base of an old office chair with a threaded adjuster instead of the gas strut in the modern ones, it doesn't have a roller but metal slides across the 'T' top and it's high enough for the chop saw stood on a workmate. I'm making a bench grinder stand welded on a wheel when I find one the right size to free up a bit of bench space and make it usable outside when the weather is nice.

looks smart i gotta stop using me trolleyjack on mine and make one

Does the job. I'd be tempted to weld two bits of flat bar on the ouside faces of the solid blocks that extend say 50mm above the top of the roller. That will stop stock slipping off either side of the roller and causing you a nasty as the other end flicks up at you/tries to throw the saw across the room.
It has a nasty habit of slipping off when you are not looking.
I'll take a photograph of one of mine tomorrow.

Thanks for the replies, I used to use a jack as well, but material doesn't slide over it properly, or it fell over...

Paul, nice idea but the saw I have is a old english cast iron power hacksaw which weighs about 400kg, the jaws on the vice lock preventing any side movement of long material. I can see how that would help on a smaller saw though or a different machine.

Here's the one I made from an office chair base, the side stops hold stuff on and the wheels are seized so it doesn't move about much, and also a wheeled seat with some slats welded on for tools to rest on ( I put a magnetic tray on as well ) made from the bottom of a supermarket trolley which someone had robbed the wire basket off.