Harvey's Woodworking Shop

Woodworking Shop: My Projects: Sawhorses

I finally got around to replacing those rickety metal-bracket sawhorses with this simple, stable design. The horses have a nice wide top, good for clamping and sitting too. The top also accepts a sacrificial 2x4 strip for panel-cutting. Click the pic for an enlarged view.
Prepare the two beveled top pieces. The top is made of two 2x4s, with the outer side of each beveled to 15 degrees.
Chop the 2x4s to the desired length of the sawhorse. I made one sawhorse 36" long; the other 28". You could of course make them both the same size.
Support bar. Lay the top pieces upside down and place a 2x4 spacer between them. Measure for the support bar.
Cut the support bar to length, at 15 degree angles. Repeat for second support bar.
Photo shows position of support bar.
Clamp the two support bars in place.
Drill countersink holes for screws, and attach both support bars to the top.
Legs. Cut the legs to length, again using 15-degree miter cuts. This would typically be 30 to 34". I wanted taller sawhorses so I made the legs 38". Attach the legs to the top and support bar, using countersunk wood screws.
Repeat for remaining pair of legs.
Screw a 1x4 cross-bar to the legs.
Completed sawhorses.
They stack too. I made one horse narrower than the other, but that was just because of the 2x4 lengths I had handy. They will still stack even if they are built to the same dimensions.