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Thoroughbred Sawhorses |
By Tim Snyder
Sawhorses have been around a long time, and for good reason: they're rugged, reliable beasts of burden. They can support everything from framing lumber to bench-top power tools, and various uptown versions have even been spotted beneath expensive slabs of glass and granite, taking the place of conventional coffee table legs.
What type of horse is best for you? It depends on the work you're doing, and where you're doing it. They work best in pairs, so a set of horses always means two. Painters, paperhangers and drywall finishers favor lightweight metal sawhorses. These have the mobility you need for interior work. The legs fold up into an inverted tray top, enabling the horse to travel easily from room to room. Place a couple of 2-by-10-inch boards across a pair, and you have a great platform for painting, papering or installing crown molding. On the minus side, this type of sawhorse isn't good for woodworking or carpentry work. You can't clamp to it easily, and you wouldn't want to cut into the aluminum top. These limitations also hold true for other metal-top horses on the market |
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There are other ready-made sawhorses on the market, but they tend to be expensive. Fortunately, there's a good variety of affordable, effective sawhorse hardware available, all designed to use 2-by-4s. If you can cut eight legs to the same length, you can make your own set of horses. Here are some tips for buying and using 2-by-4 sawhorse hardware.
- You get what you pay for. More expensive sawhorse brackets are usually stronger and more durable than cheaper sets, and they often have extra features, like a locking open position that improves stability.
- Make two sets of legs instead of one. If your first set of sawhorse legs puts the top of the horse around midthigh level, it won't take much longer to cut a short set of legs as well. These can come in handy if you need to set up a lower work surface.
- Put screws in the nail holes. Some brackets come with holes in them where nails can be driven into the 2-by-4. Drive screws instead, and you'll get a stronger connection.
- Link your horses with rails. A pair of 2-by-4 rails, notched to fit over the 2-by-4 tops of your horses, will create a solid base for a plywood-topped table or workbench. You can cut the notches easily with a jigsaw, or with a dado-head blade in your table saw.
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 Why make sawhorses from scratch, when sawhorse hardware is cheap and easy to use? Because shop-made horses can do what store-bought hardware-based horses can't. Our simple design gives you a low-level platform that's great for working on heavy or thick lumber. Handling these unwieldy materials at waist level is difficult. Use mini-horses like these to mark up and cut lumber for decks and trellises. Low horses are also great for cutting plywood and other sheet goods. Likewise, they're ideal for storing lumber: they support loads of weight, keeping boards off the ground or floor until you're ready to use them. |
As the drawing shows, a pair of low horses couldn't be easier to make, and it takes only a half hour at most. Chances are, you already have the wood you need just lying around.
You'll need about 4 feet of 2-by-4 and 4 feet of 2-by-6 lumber. Cut four 12-inch-long 2-by-4 base pieces, and then clamp them together so you can cut all the notches for the crosspieces at the same time. You can use a dado cutter in your table saw, or cut a series of closely spaced kerfs with your circular saw, and pare out the waste with a wood chisel. Your crosspieces can be just about any length. (We show the 2-by-6s cut about 2 feet long.) Use a jigsaw to cut out feet in each base. This helps level the horses on uneven surfaces. Join each base to its crosspiece with a single counterbored lag bolt and washer as shown, and you're done.
Tim Snyder, writer, photographer and carpenter, was a senior editor at Fine Homebuilding magazine and executive editor of American Woodworker magazine. With TV personality Norm Abram, Snyder coauthored two books in the best-selling New Yankee Workshop series. He's also written books on deck design and furniture making.
Tools
For a sawhorse made with purchased hardware
- Sawhorse brackets
- Table saw
- dado-head blade or Jigsaw
- Screws
For a shop-made sawhorse
- Table saw with dado-head blade or Circular saw
- Wood chisels
- Clamp
- Lag bolts
- Washers
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