Most of the raw material for my reels is round or rectangular section bar stock purchased in 1 foot lengths. To size it for mill or lathe work, I need a saw. While I own a Delta bandsaw, I prefer to reserve it for woodwork.

So I bought a handheld bandsaw from Harbor Freight and mounted it to a hinged frame of plywood.

It would be better to have a metal frame, but my work is light duty and highly intermittant. Here you also see a drill press vise.

The saw is in my garage. Here it is ready to cut off an aluminum bar. The saw only runs when my hands are on it; no trigger lock, auto shut-off, or weights are required.

You can see in this photo that the saw fastens to the hinged plywood plate with two frame screws and one U-bolt.

This is a detail of the U-bolt. A jigsawed piece of word fills the irregular gap.

When trimming a short piece of stock, I put an adjustable spacer on the unloaded side of the vise.

The vise will hold a round bar if it is long enough, but usually I clamp the round bar to a grooved rectangular bar.

I can also hold short bars with my 4 jaw chuck. The chuck threads onto this fixture, which is in turn held in the vise.