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| Sawhorses
are the ideal workshop companions, always there when you
need them and tucked out of sight when you don't. Use them
to create extra bench space when you stack and sort wood,
to support larger carcasses off the floor or to act as
temporary machinery stands. When you're alone in the shop
and need to lift a big bulky item on to your bench, the
sawhorse is there to help. Simply lift the item one end
at a time on to progressively taller sawhorses until you
are able to slide it on to your bench. |
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| The
ideal workshop companion. |
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This
two-legged sawhorse is a classic—it's strong and sturdy
and the sawhorses nest one inside the other for compact storage.
Traditionally, a sawhorse of this design is made from solid
wood with mortise and tenon joints. For the truly classic
look, a single stretcher is through-mortised into the legs
of the sawhorse with a contrasting wooden wedge in the tenon.
It's a beautiful design, but I needed a robust sawhorse that
was quick and easy to build.
Making a batch of sawhorses is an ideal production-work project.
Often it takes more time to set up an operation than to make
a single cut, so I suggest building more than one set at a
time. Credit for the design goes to fellow woodworker Konrad
Sauer, who suggested we use plywood cut-offs to build sawhorses
together. He had just finished a large built-in project that
produced a pile of long, narrow Baltic birch cut-offs. Using
his scraps allowed him to clear out his shop and saved the
time needed to mill solid lumber to dimension. We laminated
the plywood together to produce the needed dimensions for
the sawhorse parts. The lamination process was leveraged to
create a strong joint where the leg joins the foot of the
sawhorse.
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