instructables

Folding Plywood Sawhorses

by makendo

There seem to be thousands of di erent plans forsawhorses out there, and it seems that people especiallylove making ones that are ludicrously sturdy. That's cooland all, but the last thing I need in my less-than-half-a-garage workshop is some beefy sawhorses using upprecious oor space. These ones are light, easy to make,

can be hung on the wall, and one of them can support~500 lbs (3 people) and still feel rock solid. The chancesof me lifting something heavier than 1000 lb on to mypair of sawhorses are frankly pretty low...

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Step 1: Design and Materials

Sawhorses meant for a building site are overengineeredand impractical for a workshop where space is at apremium. My design was strongly in uenced by the factI had a 3' × 4' sheet of plywood left over from a deckbuild that used 5' × 4' sheets, and 3' is roughly how highand how long I wanted the sawhorses to be. Theyneeded to be light and strong and be able to fold at.

No one ever builds a single sawhorse, and I'm noexception. I built two, but after nishing them, Iredesigned them to be slightly smaller so that four couldbe cut out of a single sheet of plywood, with enoughplywood left over to build two sets of hangers. However,the exact size is far from critical, and if you want adi erent size, you know what to do (if you don't knowwhat to do, I suggest you simply buy some - there arelots of nice light inexpensive folding sawhorses outthere).

In addition to the 3/4" construction plywood3/4" construction plywood, I alsoused 4 recycled 3 1/2" 3 1/2" door hingesdoor hinges , wood gluewood glue, 1 1/4"1 1/4"drywall screwsdrywall screws, 2" deck screws2" deck screws and some 1/4" (6 mm)1/4" (6 mm)polypropylene ropepolypropylene rope . These sawhorses would still bestrong enough for most purposes if built with 5/8" oreven 1/2" plywood.

I'm fortunate enough to have a table sawtable saw and a mitermitersawsaw, and made all the cuts with these. However, none ofthe cuts are complicated and you can easily angle theblade on a circular sawcircular saw (like the one I have ) to make thenecessary cuts. I don't recommend making this design ifyou only have a handsaw or jigsaw, make one out oflumber instead.

A SketchUp le for the sawhorse is attached to this step,so you can easily tweak the design to suit your ownneeds.

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Step 2: Cut

https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/F5X/586F/IJSUZ1W5/F5X586FIJSUZ1W5.skp

Download

Folding Plywood Sawhorses: Page 3

Step 3: Assemble

My hinges were 89 mm (3 1/2") wide so I used that as aguide to the width of each piece. Note that thedimensions that I list here are for sawhorses whose sizehas been tweaked so that four can be cut from a singlesheet of plywood; they're not quite the same as the onesI built. But that's OK - mine are (like me) unusually talland most people would prefer slightly shorter onesanyway.

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

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

2 pieces of 844 × 180 mm (33 1/4" × 7"), which you needto rip down the middle at 20 degrees, to make four

pieces with one angled edge. These are the upperuppercrosspiecescrosspieces.

4 pieces of 711 × 180 mm (28" × 7"). which you need torip down the middle at 20 degrees, to make four pieceswith one angled edge. These are the lower crosspieceslower crosspieces.

The second picture is the cutting diagram for gettingfour sawhorses and two sets of hangers from a singlesheet of plywood. The wide pieces need to be rippeddown the middle at 20 degrees to make the crosspieces.Green: tops. Yellow: lower crosspieces. Tan: uppercrosspieces. Blue: legs. Pink: parts for making hangers.White: waste. I suggest starting with the longitudinal cutthat runs between the yellow and tan parts. A 4 mm kerfhas been allowed for.

I cut a piece of plywood 80 × 200 mm* to act as a storystick - it gave me the two critical dimensions forassembly, the distance the top crosspiece protrudedpast the legs and the distance from the bottom of theleg to the bottom of the crosspiece. I worked out where Ineeded to drill the holes in the legs (making sure theyweren't going to clash with the hinge screws) and made

ve in a cross shape for each joint. I used that piece as atemplate for the other 7 legs, and then countersunk allthe holes. I drilled through the legs into the cross piecesso that the fasteners were less obvious. I then glued andscrewed all four pieces together (ensuring squareness at

each step) and repeated 3 more times to make the fourhalves. I used plenty of wood glue and 1 1/4" drywallscrews. 1 1/4" drywall screws are not especially strongbut with a gluing area for each joint of >12 squareinches, I wasn't concerned - the glue does all the work. Icould probably have done it with my nailgun but thenails I had were too short.

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

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Step 4: Hinges, Top, Rope

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I added the hinges to each leg, making sure they didn'tprotrude above the top of the sawhorse. I then set thesawhorse in open form and screwed the top piece toone side of the frame. I didn't glue this, because I guredit might be good to be able to replace this bit in futurewhen it gets banged up. I then went over the wholething with an orbital sander and removed all the sharpedges.

I wanted more support to stop the sawhorse openingany wider than 20 degrees, so drilled holes through eachleg at the joint and threaded a piece of polypropylenerope through the holes, and knotted the ends at a pointwhere the legs were fully open. I then melted the knotswith a lighter to ensure they weren't going to comeuntied. Polypropylene is not stretchy, is inexpensive andis exceedingly strong.

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Step 5: Hangers

Now that you have made your sawhorses, you will wantto hang them up out of the way when you're not usingthem. Here is a simple plan to make hangers out of a fewplywood o cuts. 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 right-angled triangles 188 × 188mm (7 3/8 × 7 3/8"). Glue and screw (I used 2" drywall

screws) these together as shown, then screw thehangers to the wall into a pair of adjacent studs (I used3" deck screws). If you made four sawhorses out of asingle sheet of plywood, your o cuts will be big enoughto make the hangers as well (see cutting diagram in Step2).

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Thanks for this Instructable!! I totally reused the polypropylene rope idea for my own project ----https://www.instructables.com/Folding-Climbing-Module-for-Kids/

Nice, great project! The ropes have held up really well with lots of use.

makendo, great job on the sawhorses and hangers. Your photos and instructions are easy tofollow. I agree on your reason to have light weight and folding saw horses as they do take upspace if they don't fold up. I have two sets, one out of 2x4 and the other out of plastic and theyboth fold and store easily but I can use the 2x4 as a table or scaffold if I need too and the otherjust to cut lumber. Do you have any issues on the plywood bending or warping? Good luck in thecontest.

Many thanks. I suspect that if you left the horses under load for an extended period you may wellsee some deformation, but I haven't left mine out for any length of time and they're both stillstraight.

Thanks for the reply and good luck in the contest.

Do you find that they are liable to collapse if you are sawing fairly parallel to the ground?

No. The stance of the horses is quite wide (20 deg c.f. somewhat more acute angles for mostother horses, generating a footprint almost as wide as it is tall). If you were unable to applyenough downward pressure to stop the horse trying to close, you can put your foot on the lowercrosspiece (that's why they're cut parallel to the ground).

Thanks!

Just having a little fun here, don't you mean more obtuse of an angle?? ;)

Love these, I might just have to try them. I have made a few different kinds over the years andthese look so simple and effective. I might look into a latching mechanism to help keep them fromclosing such as a small board instead of the rope.

Thanks. And no, I did mean more acute. Check out Matthias Wandel's (18 degrees) for example.

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I did toy with the idea of using a latch, but I would have had to buy some hardware and make thesawhorse heavier. I like your suggestion - I was going to go with two pieces of wood and threehinges.

Nice sawhorse. I especially like the stop-motion animated gif. Very nice!

Thnaks. You can blame the brilliant Frank Howarth for that - his stop-motion woodworking videosare amazing & inspiring

awesome dude, really appreciate it, have been thinking about how to do it. Many thanks

you're welcome. post a picture if you decide to build one like it!

Great design!

I have a pair of 2x4 saw horses that are 25 yrs old & have been trying to convince myself tothrow away for years because they take up too much floor space. I finally cut one up for a projecta couple months ago.

I've been looking at other designs and liked parts of many but none were what I wanted.

My plan was to design my own and yesterday I decided to make some out of plywood and enterinto this contest, but I found yours today and it's very similar to my thoughts, so I'll build somewith your design. If I entered my design, it would have been a near identical design to yours.

I especially love the way the tops nestle together for storage. Great attention to detail andsimplicity.

Many thanks, Ron. We have a very similar story, it seems, though my old sawhorses were madeof an old particle board shelf and while they folded, they were really wobbly (see picture).

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