Introduction: Folding Plywood Sawhorses

There seem to be thousands of different plans for sawhorses out on that point, and it seems that people peculiarly love making ones that are laughably sturdy. That's cool and all, just the last thing I need in my less-than-one-half-a-garage workshop is or s beefy sawhorses using up precious floor space. These ones are light, easy to make, can live hung along the wall, and one of them can backing ~500 lbs (3 people) and still flavour rock solid. The chances of me lifting something heavier than 1000 lb on to my pair of sawhorses are frankly bad low...

Step 1: Design and Materials

Sawhorses meant for a building site are overengineered and impractical for a workshop where place is at a premium. My design was powerfully influenced aside the fact I had a 3' × 4' sheet of plyboard left concluded from a bedeck build that used 5' × 4' sheets, and 3' is roughly how flooding and how long I wanted the sawhorses to be. They necessary to be light and strong and be able to shut down flat.

No unrivaled ever builds a single horse, and I'm no exception. I built two, merely after finishing them, I redesigned them to be slightly smaller so that four could beryllium burn out of a single sheet of plyboard, with enough plyboard left over to build two sets of hangers. However, the exact size is Interahamw from critical, and if you want a various size, you know what to do (if you Don't know what to do, I suggest you simply buy some - there are lots of nice light inexpensive folding sawhorses out there).

In add-on to the 3/4" construction plywood, I also used 4 recycled 3 1/2" door hinges , wood glue, 1 1/4" drywall screws, 2" bedight screws and some 1/4" (6 mm) polypropene rope . These sawhorses would still be strong enough for most purposes if reinforced with 5/8" or even 1/2" plywood.

I'm fortunate enough to have a table saw and a miter saw, and ready-made all the cuts with these. However, none of the cuts are complicated and you can easy angle the leaf blade on a circular saw (like the one I have) to make the necessary cuts. I don't recommend making this intention if you only have a handsaw or saber saw, make one out of timber instead.

A SketchUp filing cabinet for the horse is attached to this step, so you can easily tweak the design to suit your own of necessity.

Step 2: Cut

My hinges were 89 mm (3 1/2") comfortable thusly I used that as a maneuver to the width of each piece. Note that the dimensions that I list here are for sawhorses whose size has been tweaked soh that four stool be cut from a single sheet of paper of plyboard; they'Ra not quite the same as the ones I built. Just that's O.k. - mine are (like me) unusually tall and most multitude would choose slightly shorter ones anyway.

8 pieces of 844 × 90 mm (33 1/4" × 3 1/2") crosscut at 20 degrees on each end (parallel). These are the legs.

2 pieces of 844 × 90 mm (33 1/4" × 3 1/2") cut square. These are the tops of the sawhorses.

2 pieces of 844 × 180 mm (33 1/4" × 7"), which you want to rip down the in-between at 20 degrees, to make four pieces with one angled abut. These are the upper crosspieces.

4 pieces of 711 × 180 mm (28" × 7"). which you deman to rip down the middle at 20 degrees, to seduce four pieces with one angled butt. These are the lower berth crosspieces.

The second picture is the cutting plot for getting four sawhorses and 2 sets of hangers from a single sheet of plyboard. The wide pieces need to be ripped down the middle at 20 degrees to make the crosspieces. Naif: tops. Scandalmongering: lower crosspieces. Tan: upper crosspieces. Blue: legs. Pink: parts for making hangers. White: waste. I suggest starting with the longitudinal cut that runs between the yellow and tan parts. A 4 millimeter kerf has been allowed for.

Mistreat 3: Assemble

I cut off a piece of plywood 80 × 200 mm* to act arsenic a story stick - it gave Pine Tree State the two critical dimensions for assembly, the space the top crosspiece protruded past the legs and the distance from the undersurface of the leg to the rump of the crosspiece. I worked out where I needed to recitation the holes in the legs (making sure they weren't going to clangor with the hinge screws) and made five in a cross shape for each joint. I used that piece as a template for the other 7 legs, and then countersunk all the holes. I trained direct the legs into the crabbed pieces then that the fasteners were less obvious. I and then affixed and screwed all four pieces unitedly (ensuring squareness at to each one step) and repeated 3 more times to make the four halves. I used hatful of woods glue and 1 1/4" wallboard screws. 1 1/4" wallboard screws are not specially strong simply with a gluing area for each common of >12 square inches, I wasn't concerned - the glue does all the work. I could likely experience through with it with my nailgun but the nails I had were too short.

* if you make this according to the SketchUp plan, the story stick should make up 67 × 190 mm (2 5/8" × 7 1/2").

Step 4: Hinges, Top, Rope

I added the hinges to apiece ramification, making trustworthy they didn't bulge above the top of the sawhorse. I then dress the horse in open form and screwed the top piece to one side of the frame. I didn't glue this, because I figured it might equal good to be able to replace this bit in future when it gets banged up. I then went ended the whole thing with an orbital sander and removed all the sharp edges.

I wanted Sir Thomas More support to stop the sawhorse opening any wider than 20 degrees, so drilled holes through each leg at the joint and threaded a piece of polypropylene rope through the holes, and knotted the ends at a point where the legs were fully open. I then liquid the knots with a lighter to ensure they weren't going to come untied. Polypropene is not stretchable, is inexpensive and is exceedingly strong.

Step 5: Hangers

Now that you have successful your sawhorses, you will want to hang up them up out of the way when you're non using them. Here is a lanceolate plan to brand hangers out of a few plywood offcuts. Cut two rectangles of dimensions 188 × 50 mm (7 3/8" × 2"), and two of dimensions 206 × 50 mm (8 1/8" × 2"), and two square triangles 188 × 188 mm (7 3/8 × 7 3/8"). Glue and screw (I used 2" drywall screws) these together every bit shown, so screw the hangers to the bulwark into a duo of next studs (I used 3" deck screws). If you made four sawhorses out of a unique sheet of plywood, your offcuts will personify volumed enough to make the hangers also (date cutting diagram in Step 2).

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