Build These Super Strong Sawhorses

welcome to next level carpentry I'm master carpenter Matt Jackson and today I'm going to talk about sawhorses saw horses are often the first thing on the job and the last thing to leave so they need to be durable enough to stand up to use and abuse all throughout the project I'll show you how to build a pair of apprentice saw horses like these that are strong enough to easily handle giant loans without failure so if you want great-looking saw horses that don't break on the job or break the bank follow me and I'll show you how to build a pair of high-performance apprentice saw horses of your own let's go to work I call these apprentice style horses because there are basic entry-level design the main features of these apprentice saw horses is that they're incredibly strong and relatively lightweight they're made from standard two by fours and plywood scrap they're sturdy configuration provides stability and unencumbered workflow they're inexpensive durable and expendable making them is a great skill builder with material selection marking measuring layout cutting and assembly tasks involved plus they have ideal surfaces for company logo and branding apprentice saw horses with i-beam construction like this are a fairly common design but I'll show you some simple but effective master carpenter features to use so that yours will hold up under giant loads to number one is accurate cuts for tight fitting parts that eliminate wobble number two legs cut at a 12 degree angle for a no gap fit and practical footprint this is better than square cuts where the legs meet the i-beam and sit on the ground third nip feet that minimize splintering fourth screw type placement and driving with stress engineering in mind increased strength number five I use plywood gussets instead of 2x4 blocks that are clunky and can't split number six is a subtle but effective mortise in the bottom rails for a better fit of the leg to the i-beam and better purchase for the legs and finally number seven here's a ton of material selection to prevent failure from weak points from knots or defects in the wood especially a key stress in attachment points stay with me after the build process and watch the amazing stress test later in the video and see how much weight these simple sawhorses can truly hold when I pile a giant load of lumber on me to find out here's a quick look at the materials you'll need to build a full-sized pair of these guys of your own first you're gonna want 6 good quality straight 8-foot two by fours and a scrap of plywood for the gussets this is a scrap of interior grade 3/4 inch plywood but most any sheet goods will work OSB CDX plywood AC plywood anything like that for fasteners you'll want 20 of these number 8 by 3 inch torques drive construction screws for the i-beam assembly 24 grk Torx lags 3 inches long for attaching the legs and 16 number 8 by instance recorder's torch drive construction screws to attach the gussets to the legs and no I don't need rain man to comment and tell me if there's actually that many screws meets one of these piles and finally a piece of scrap sheathing material about 2 feet by 4 feet for layout and measuring for the angles on the legs and their length and here's a rundown of the tools I'm using to build these saw horses but the list can vary wildly depending on what's available of course you'll need a tape measure a carpenter's pencil with a sharp classic point for making cut marks a paper made sharp writer twist led pencil for accurate knots layout marking a hammer a decent wood chisel the speed square the chef's handsaw preferably a pull saw like this Irwin t30 and t25 torx drive fits a snappy countersinking pilot hole bit like this or equivalent a 3/16 inch twist to driblets and you're gonna want a good cordless driver drill for all these fasteners you mean a cordless screwdriver like this one that's cordless from way back no you silly man cordless driver drills like these well of course gotta have the newfangled style go figure you want to have a circular saw or a miter saw for making all the cuts on the IB blade in deserts pens you'll end up with a little better end result if you have access to a table saw for the initial rip and the plywood gussets and finally a pair of saw horses to work on but that's kind of like asking an egg for a chicken right FYI I'm trying a new format for next level carpentry videos here so the viewers can choose between a short and condense video like this or a longer format one depending on your level of interest and how much time you have and the short and long version of the videos split at this point well I think you'll agree that's enough yeah during about these sawhorses we best get to work because these things aren't going to build themselves so with the design in mind and all the materials supplies and tools needed for the process the first step is to make the eye beams for the top of these saw horses so I'm going to change the shop from video shoot mode to saw horse building mode and pick the three two by fours that'll end up making up the i-beams I'll cut these three eight-foot two by fours in half and take note that dimension lumber is always slightly over length in this case it's ninety six and a quarter to allow for a saw kerf and to four-foot pieces so I'll cut it in the middle at four foot one-eighth of an inch to the center of the saw cut that way I have a nice fresh cut with the miter box on both ends of all the pieces after cutting those eight-foot two by fours in the middle I'll remark them cut them to exactly 48 inches you can see that I'm splitting hairs with this but the second cut leaves a nice miter box finish on the end and trims off the rough cut made at the sawmill and I'll repeat that process with the other two two by fours for the i-beams and I can use the first piece I cut as a pattern for trimming the other pieces so that I have six pieces that are exactly four feet long with a nice fresh smooth cut on both ends of each piece with all six pieces cut exactly the same length I select the cleanest to meaning the two with the fewest knots for the vertical web of the main i-beams because that takes the most amount of weight in the finish sawhorses on those two pieces I mark the center vertically and on the remaining four I mark the center's horizontally so that these pieces will all line up when I assemble them to make the i-beam by taking a guess and marking the center and then flipping the piece over and remarking the same distance I can tell if I've hit the center of the piece or not without measuring because the center is directly between those two lines the remaining four pieces will be the horizontal flanges for the i-beam and these pieces will get marked at their center from side to side and again if I end up with two lines when I'm marking this the center is directly in between and that can happen because this framing lumber has a nominal dimension of three and a half inches but that can easily vary from piece to piece with all the centers marked now I'll select the two pieces that'll make the bottom flanges of the two i-beams I'm going to pick these two and here's the trickiest master carpenter part of this sawhorse build not seeing the bottom flange of the i-beams four leg support this deceptively small detail had significant strength and stability to these saw horses so trust me and follow closely through these steps okay first draw a profile of the i-beam with the top at 32 inches off one edge of the scrap sheathing here I'm marking the height at the top of the beam and the various beam parts and here is the beam width sliding a tape and marking like this takes some practice but it's quick accurate and very useful this I shape represents the end profile of the i-beam itself next using a 2 by 4 straight edge and a speed square draw a line at 12 degrees from the top web flange intersection point down off the edge of the sheet I'll take a finish nail at the intersection between the i-beams web and the top flange to help guide the marking process and now the finished nail can guide the straight edge in this case a two by four as I draw a 12 degree mark here I'm pivoting the 2 by 4 on that finished nail and sliding the speed square till I meet the 12 degree mark on the bottom edge of this scrap sheet of plywood and then draw a crisp line between the finished nail and the bottom sheet of the plywood next I'll stand the 2 by 4 on edge lining up this side to the pencil mark and then trace the other side of the 2 by 4 so that I end up with a full sized plan view of the angle of the leg in relation to the i-beam with the i-beam set at 32 inches off the ground when I cut a leg to fit these pencil marks the top of the sawhorse ends up at 32 inches high obviously if you want saw horses that are a little taller a little lower it's simple to reposition the i-beam profile and make the marks accordingly with the leg location lines drawn I've sketched in the top angle cut for the leg and then take one of the two bottom flange pieces and stand it up on the profile drawing and now using the short brighter pencil for accuracy I trace a mark here where the leg comes past the bottom edge of the flange and here where the bottom face of the leg intersects the top of the flange and making these marks with a sharp write or pencil to keep them crisp sharp and clean now I'll lay this piece down and mark four inches and seven and a half inches from each end of the piece the tails on the marks indicate where the notch is going to be and now I can square these marks across the top faces of both of the bottom flanges on both ends this is where it's important to have pieces of identical lengths so these layout marks don't throw things off with that completed I can now transfer the top and bottom notch marks so they fall within the knotch location lines and then connect the location marks to complete the knots layout with all eight of the notches laid out we're almost done so don't give up now if you're apprehensive about doing this step there's no shame in practicing it just copy the layout on a piece of scrap 2x4 and practice until you're comfortable with the process even doctors do this all the time otherwise they wouldn't say they're in practice right you can do this step with the board clamped to a bench or a sawhorse oh wait it can't but I'm going to use a vise I'm using the pull saw to make a straight line between the mark on the bottom of the flange and the mark on the top I do the outside edges first and then put a succession of cuts in there and these cuts help guide the chisel process to make a flat surface at 12 degrees for the legs to attach to I can use a crisp edge of a hammer to knock some of these teeth out to start the process but since the notch is so shallow it's going to take a sharp chisel to clean it up with accurate marks and the saw kerf says a guide it's quick and simple to get a flat surface that's tilted 12 degrees from the perpendicular face of the edge of this bottom flange as I said if you're uncomfortable with this process practice it a few times on a scrap piece before moving on to the final pieces for your sawhorses these 2x4 are hem fur the grain is dry and splintery so it makes it a little tricky cut these notches but it is strong wood and it'll make for durable long lasting soldiers well as soon as he gets done making those 12 degree notches in the bottom flange go back to the table saw and assemble the i-beams and then move on cutting the legs for these sawhorses he is pretty fast at that you know a lot about do it huh you stand up with eight crisp clean little notches angled of 12 degrees from the edges like so four screw placement I'll mark the bottom of the bottom flange and the top of the top flange with a center mark from end to end and spaced the screws out so the three inches from each end with one in the center and the others midway in between and I like to pre pilot hole these with a 1/8 inch snappy bit because it just makes the screw place a little cleaner next line up center marks of a top flange web and bottom flange with the not site up and screw them together with five 3-inch Torx screws bearing the heads a quarter inch or so in the top of the top flange so they're less likely to get hit by a saw blade if you're not paying attention like you should while cutting the screws in the bottom flange can be just driven flush for greater holding power it's important to line up the centers accurately because they'll determine the position of the legs and keep the sawhorses stable on flat ground and I'll make it knows that these are grk torque scribe construction streets not common deck screws that tend to be weak and brittle these screws are the bomb with the notched Eyebeam assemblies completed it's time to measure and cut the legs my Sketchup model tells me that legs cut at 12 degrees for sawhorses 32 inches high are 31 and 3/16 inches in length measured from the long point to the short point on one face of the leg but here's an old school analog way to determine the length make a mark and then make a 12 degree cut 32 inches from the end of one 8 foot to life water then line up this piece with the lines drawn for figuring the mortise notches making sure the top point lines up in the flange web corner with everything lined up mark the bottom end of the 2x4 for length and cut it off at 12 degrees 2 and Sketchup was right on 31 and 3/16 from the long point on one end to the short point on the other this is now our pattern for the other legs attach a scrap of something to the end and use this to mark and cut the other 7 legs to length finally nip sharp angles off one end of each leg to minimize splintering choosing orientation to keep knots out of screw locations or from the main stress points of the legs which is just below the gussets setting the saw at 33 degrees we'll put a nice 45 degree bevel off the horizontal and focus of the 2016 2 of the 2x4 feet as well as the faces so I carefully line them up with a straight edge and then use a block plane to make a matching bevel on the edge this could be done with a compound miter box or a number of other creative ways pluck the block plane is quick and easy and gets the job done that ought to do it because they're using grk Torx lags to attach the legs of the i-beams only three fasteners are required for each leg the top one will be centered at an inch and 3/4 and the lower two will be 3/4 inch in from each edge of the leg the top one is one inch down and the lower two are 3 and 3/4 inches down from the top of the leg these grk Torx lags are self thrilling to some extent with the feature of the notch in the tip and these extra ribs near the top of the fastener but I still like to pre-drill for this application to minimize splitting and splintering and get a clean solid installation for the fastener I only want to drill through the 2x4 leg and we'll let the fasteners themselves pilot hole through flange and the bottom I'll use these locations to mark and drill the remaining 7 legs difficult grain in this hem fur he caused a regular twist real bit to wander well sometimes I have to steer the hole to get it on the mark I could avoid the trouble by using a brad point bit that would stick where I put it now that all the pieces are made it's Showtime just lay one of the i-beams on its face on a flat surface and position a leg with the long point of the top cut firmly underneath the top flange of the beam and up tight to the i-beam double-check the physician with the square and then attach it with the three 3-inch t30 torx legs repeat the process with the second leg on the first side and then flip the horse over and attach the other legs on the other side and be sure to consult the local cowboy if your horse doesn't behave and won't cooperate to roll over on the other side for attaching those last two legs now you know why they call it a hammer drill right and congratulations close the legs of pets you can finally stand that horse up on its own four feet but the first floor is completed I want to see just how fast you can put that second horse together so I think we'll set a stopwatch and go ready hit it all right how bad he's cruising second time's a charm right looking good that's pretty impressive done how'd I do awesome done already congratulations well with both of the saw horses assembled to this level it's time to cut and fit and attach those gussets make a forage wide rip of 3/4 inch plywood for the gussets I'm using a table saw because it's here you can use a circular saw for the same thing just do a nice clean job note the use of this next level carpentry push stick for a narrow piece of plywood there's a link to the video that shows how to make these guys if you're interested cut a 12 degree angle on the end of that foreign trip simplest way to do this is just to lay one of the horses upside down on a work surface take the piece with a 12 degree angle line up one side and mark the other side for a 12 degree cut then make that second cut and now we have a pattern for the rest of the gussets and I like to have the gussets ever so slightly narrower than the actual width from the face of the leg to the face of the leg because these corners are rounded just makes for a cleaner fit and finish this use the pattern to mark and cut three more gussets paying attention to the saw kerf so if the gusset end up the same length and not short by a blade width I like to knock exposed corners and edges down before screwing these to the sawhorse all four corners and these three edges on one face are exposed when these are attached so I knock them down with this sanding block and this is one of my best blocks for demanding sanding there's a link to the video how to make these guys up there if you're interested but you can see how great they work in an application like this that's all it takes for a little extra touch I install these with four number eight by instant 3/4 GRK torques drive fasteners and I'll just Center them up in the leg at 3/4 of an inch in and then let's just go 3/4 of an inch up and down or down and up for those other four no pilot these using the 964 since snappy bit to get a nice countersink and a free pilot hole the thing I like about snappy bits is that the bit is replaceable it's sharpen a bowl and it does a nice clean job quickly I'll repeat the process with the other three gussets the gussets all made and prepped it's simply a matter of setting it in place and attaching them with these engine 3/4 torques drive screws I like to set the heads nice and flush and with that snappy pilot hole you don't get volcano around the tip of each screw I'm using this driver drill rather than an impact just because it's friendly and quiet in the shop if you've done your homework everything lines up nice and clean and parallel sometimes the variations in the lumber can make that 12 degree angle off a little bit and depending on how perfect you want your finish sawhorses to be you can adjust accordingly but I'm quite pleased with the fit and attachment of these gussets on these sawhorses I agree with the structural engineer who said that for additional strength a second gusset could be placed on the inside of the leg on each end of the sawhorse to prevent this leg from twisting when extreme weight is applied but as you'll see these are plenty beefy as it is so I'm not going through the trouble of adding that second reinforcing gusset well if you're watching The Reader's Digest version of this video welcome back the rest of us have gone through in depth how to get this sawhorse to this place but this is pretty much all there is to it for building these apprentice sawhorses with the gussets on you can see how well they stack and you can also see this nice flat area for company logo and branding which I've taken advantage of here on this pair of sawhorses now are you curious to see how much a pair of these apprentice ponies can actually hold I was - so I consulted a certified structural engineer who said engineering calculations are made using lumber grading minimums between lumber grading stress ratings and safety factors built into the load engineering software it wouldn't be uncommon for load to failure weight calculations to be off by as much as 60% so with that in mind I chose to go with an old standby put a pile of lumber on there and see what happens well it turns out my friends that connects lumber and distribution in Rapid City were curious about the strength of these forces too so I arranged to work with their guys and contractor loading and delivery to give the pair of ponies I made during this video stress test guided by extensive knowledge for my degree at MIT for this test I placed the horses on firm ground spaced about eight K apart and started by setting a full unit of two by four twelve lawyers on to see if they can take it I'll point out patricia 294 to Verizon machine that way 4000 pounds that's two tons by my calculations and lime n2n a three thousand five hundred twenty eight feet long that's two-thirds of a mile can these simple sawhorses handle a giant load like this let's find out so this is the test the next level carpenter sawhorses hold on there's 4,000 pounds from new actor higher than 4,000 pounds let's take this up a notch [Applause] looking good you're on there's no wobble in that [Applause] all right we're gonna take this up a notch we're taking one Beasley bunk of 294 64 two-by-fours and we're gonna better bow two bunks somebody do the math together share the 602 by fours and over 10,000 pounds and let's see if the sawhorse is contagious right there's let that cat that here it's done all of these work for these guys so there's two units of lumber almost 600 16-foot two-by-fours and according to my chart that's ten thousand six hundred and sixty four pounds of lumber on those two apprentice tall horses those babies are solid the forks are under there but they're not holding that's what you're getting out of these apprentice saw horses Sawyer's are still hanging together looking good so we're gonna trip it down just see what happens when we have three months of 16 sep 2015 17 to the 6y6 is on two forklifts each one's tipping they are heading that bunker lumber without any trouble we're gonna add the third bunk with the third [Applause] about six inches per day folks I am up you have to do the voicing with statistics that you can add another five thousand three hundred and thirty-two pounds the ten thousand 664 and you get an idea what a limit Marisol was just an old before cliff is clearly not holding the top 100 minutes of two by fours over 15,000 almost 16,000 pounds and those sources aren't even thinking of our bedroom you're looking at thank you folks no cheek going on here it's the same on both ends nice work I want to meet the carpenter that cuts all those two by fours in the day you can see there's a swole in this part of the song so now we get to say well they don't know how strong they are soon everybody will have taught Dima buckle and the whole thing of the alcohol runners in there all right of the needle well that was pretty cool right who'da thunk that a few two-by-fours could hold so many two-by-fours so it's obvious that you can't beat these apprentice saw horses for strength but there's times when other factors besides sheer strength are more important and although they're stackable they could be a bit clunky and they lack the functionality of a tool tray which is something I find very useful when working on the job another downside of this design is the way the i-beam can leave us beyond the footprint of the legs if they're improperly loaded or unloaded they can flip like this and you don't want that to happen out on the job site so to get around that design flaw with this initial apprentice sawhorse design I've modified this pair of ponies with a splayed leg design so the footprint matches the length of the i-beam thereby eliminating the cantilever and its inherent tip enos albeit at the cost of some strength the build process for this blade leg design is essentially the same as the standard apprentice sawhorses but it's a bit more involved with the compound angle cuts for the legs and then the gussets are also cut at a bevel to fit snugly under the i-beam so I think you can see how the splayed leg design modification for these apprentice saw horses make them considerably more stable albeit at the cost of some strength as far as the tray goes it's my opinion that as a carpenter's duties and responsibilities expand a more advanced sawhorse design is in order and that is why you'll want to check out the upcoming next level carpentry build video where I talk about why and show you how I make a pair of these stackable journeyman saw horses these have a splayed leg design they're made with advanced joinery they're very lightweight they won't match these horses for strength but like I said when shear strength isn't the only factor these are a much more functional design for advanced carpentry duties these are made of one by force plywood and have a very handy tool tray built right in yet they're still stackable and a full-size pair is pretty lightweight easy to haul around they're less cumbersome and clunky and they're a great example of a Carpenters advancing skillset subscribers to next level carpentry will be the first to know when the video is complete and uploaded so I hope you'll subscribe if you haven't already please give this video a thumbs up if you liked it and share it with some friends on instigate if you know others who you think will like it this video has been an extremely long time in the making so I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for watching let's round them up and head them to the corral come on boys off to the corral [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Next Level Carpentry

Views: 1,034,037

Rating: 4.9130735 out of 5

Keywords: sawhorse, saw horse, horses, sawhorses, sawrhorses, ponies, 2x4, super strong, professional, quick, cheap, simple, easy, next level carpentry, matt jackson, fine homebuilding, diresta, wandell, heisz, essential craftsman, trim carpentry tv, grk, torx, lags, lumber, knechts, knecht's, rapid city, forklift, unbelievable, 5 tons, load, support, i-beam, carpentry, apprentice, journeyman, master carpenter

Id: cEUgNjT1nGU

Length: 33min 8sec (1988 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 06 2018