A Set Of Sawhorses

   I came across this plan a while back that was showing how to build a portable sawhorse for use in your shop.    As I shared before, I am trying to use up some of the old rough lumber that I have laying in my wood scrap pile and this plan looked like one of those projects I should be able (Should is a key word here) to make that happen.

   Once I started this I got to thinking "what good is one lone sawhorse" so I changed my plan to build two of them.  










  Again I joined all the boards together only using glue.     No nails or screws in any of the joints.

    I cut out handles in the bottom supports.   I spent some time with the sander in my hand trying to smooth out this pine as much as possible.   It surprised me a little that as I was working with this old pine that a few of the boards started to warp slightly.  (Not good.)

  On the inside top I installed two hinges.   This sawhorse is made so that when one is not using it you can collapse the legs back together so that the sawhorses can be stored away and not take up a lot of space.

   On the bottom support I installed six more hinges.  I thought this project would be a breeze (I always think each project will be a breeze until I'm about 1/3 of the way along).   With the first one I built I realized that with the use of eight hinges one has to make sure that all the hinges are aligned correctly and it does help if your frames are truly square.  (Warped wood does not work the best!!) 

  The picture to the left is a bottom view of the sawhorse.   It shows all the hinges in place

   I finished by adding a solid board across the top.  The plan suggests that the top be screwed down to one side or leg of the sawhorse.  I skipped using screws and  put the top on with some wooden dowels.   The plus side on my plan would be if I were to saw across the top I will not have to worry about hitting any screws if I saw too deep.   The minus side is if I someday want to replace the top bar I can not just simply remove the screws and install a new top. 

   As you can see, I am currently using some black plastic sawhorses (which are now on sale at Menards for a lot less than the cost of 8 hinges and a couple pine boards), but you can see how much taller over the black plastic one the new wooden ones will be.

Not sure if I will be using these for myself or if I will pass them on to one of the kids.   Who knows.   (These could be your birthday present some day).