HEAVY DUTY DIY Folding Sawhorses

even though I have a couple of work benches that I've made for myself sometimes depending on the project maybe it's big or weird shaped or something sometimes I end up working on the ground and apparently that bothers you guys a lot I get comments all the time that I need to get a pair of sawhorses so I actually have some saw horses but I've never been a huge fan traditional wood saw horses are really big and heavy and cumbersome and kind of get in the way all the time plastic folding saw horses are inexpensive and easy to store but in my experience they're not very durable they definitely don't pass the kick test raise your hand if you've ever accidentally kicked the corner of a sawhorse and knocked everything to the ground yeah more than one recently my husband and I have started building our new house and attached workshop super exciting but there are definitely times that we need sawhorses in order to set big beams or long lengths of lumber or something I decided there's got to be a better way so I finally designed some super sturdy but foldable and portable saw horses that will pass the kick test I promise this is a pretty simple project that requires only a circular saw and power drill it's something even a beginner could tackle in a single afternoon whenever I'm using my circular saw I'd like to grab a piece of foam insulation the foam supports the material I'm cutting allowing my blade to go all the way through and not worrying about damaging the surface underneath I started by marking the lengths I needed to cut out of my two by six and two by four boards I then adjusted the depth of my saw blade a little past the thickness of the material I was kidding you want about two saw teeth sticking through the bottom for all my components that needed to be cut square or at 90 degrees I held a speed square against the plate of my circular saw to make sure I was getting nice square cuts some people with a really steady hand don't need a square and they can just freehand these cuts I find it much easier to control the saw when I have a straight edge or something to run the saw against to make the legs of the sawhorse splay out slightly they needed to be cut at an angle I adjusted the blade angle of my circular saw to 15 degrees next using the speed square again I cut my first sawhorse leg I angled both ends of the leg in the same direction creating a really long parallelogram I then used that first leg to mark the exact length of the other three legs now that the legs were cut in order to accommodate the hinges I needed to remove a small triangular section from each point of the top of each leg I set my blade to 45 degrees and then used a scrap piece of 2x4 as a support while I made a cut about half an inch from the top edge one mistake I see a lot of DIY wires make is not pre drilling their wood before they drive screws I highly recommend picking up a kit that has different drill bit sizes as well as different size and shape drivers the hinges that I used are kind of unique but not hard to find I used non mortise heavy-duty door hinges non mortise means you can attach them flush between two pieces of material without having to cut a groove or mortise into one of them unlike most hinges the sides nest into each other creating an overall thickness that's only about an eighth of an inch i pre-drilled and attached a hinge to each leg flush to the top edge I wanted to beef up the strength of my saw horses so I made an optional upgrade and about 1 in 1/4 inch long screws to attach the hinges the screws that come with the hinges are only about 3/4 of an inch long which is fine but the longer screw length will give me more stability next it was time to attach the legs to the piece that goes under the top plate which I'm going to call the runner I measured the holes and my hinges and then transferred those markings so I could pre-drill into the runner I recruited my husband to lend an extra set of hands which definitely made attaching the legs easier but you could do it yourself as well if I was working by myself I probably would have slid the sawhorse close to a wall and then leaned the legs up against the wall for support you can see in this shot I'm using two different tools one is a cordless drill and one is called an impact driver it's kind of like a drill but as the name suggests it has a little bit more guts and is better for driving screws and things like that I highly recommend investing in an impact driver if you're going to build a lot of DIY projects but if you don't have one don't worry a simple power drill you work just fine once all four legs were attached we stood the sawhorse assembly upright we made sure all four legs were sitting flush at that 15 degree angle and then we move to the cross supports I marked the center of the inside edge of each like about halfway up I measured from the ground up to make sure that my markings were on the same horizontal plane on all four legs I then opened up the sawhorse legs and laid it flat I added glue and placed the first cross support between two lakes don't worry if you're not catching all the exact measurements I'm sharing the building plans for free on my website find a link in the description box below I pre-drilled and secured it in place using 3-inch screws next I attach the second cross support to the other two legs like in what you see make sure you tag that thumbs up button in order for the sawhorse to fold properly and needed the cross supports to be staggered three and a half inches so they wouldn't bump into each other I secured the second support using glue and more three inch screws and then I turned my attention to the top plate I applied glue to the top edge of the runner and then lower the top plate in place I measured to make sure that I had an equal inch and a half overhang on either end I then pre-drilled through the center of the top plate and into the runner I drove for 3-inch screws holding the pieces together with these screws I made sure to countersink them below the surface of the wood a little bit to prevent any problems with material sitting on top at this point the sawhorse or is more or less assembled but it still needed a folding arm to lock everything in place I decided to use two by twos I measured and made a mark one inch from the end of either arm and then clamps the folding arms in place perpendicular on top of the upper-crust support using a quarter inch drill bit I drilled through the folding arm in each of the lakes and then switch to a three-eighths inch drill bit and drill straight down through the folding arm and into the top cross support I marked the width of the legs onto the two by two and then cut them down to length in order for the locking arm to swing freely I enlarged to the first hole two 5/16 inch which is just barely bigger than that quarter-inch I had previously used next I added a 3/8 inch dowel to the cross support that would work as a pin holding the locking arm in place having some wood glue to the hole into the dowel and then a quick little tip that I like to do is adding a few drops of a quick setting CA glue the CA glue holds your pieces in place almost like a clamp while the wood glue has time to cure while everything dried it was time to add the locking arms to attach the lucky arm to the leg I used a 5 inch long quarter-inch lag screw I made sure to place a washer on either side of the hole through the 2x2 I used my drill and a socket attachment to drive the legs into the leg I double check to make sure that the locking arm wasn't so tight that it couldn't pivot to help me out my husband crept a handsaw and trimmed the dowels about an inch and a half from the top of the cross support if this is the first time you've watched a pneumatic tatak video I want to say welcome I'm glad you're here take a second to make sure you hit that subscribe button and bell down below that way you'll never miss one of my DIY projects a totally optional but helpful step is to use a sander or even some sandpaper to round over the top edge of the dowel the slightly rounded edges will make it easier to insert into the hole of the locking arm the very last step was to add a gate latch which will hold the sawhorse together when it's not in use i pre-drilled into the outer edge of the sawhorse and then began to twist the latch into place I got a quick little tip when you're adding eye screws insert a small screwdriver or drill bit at an angle through the hole and twist it around it will save your fingers and get a tighter fit I quickly put together a second sawhorse off-camera and now I'm ready for action [Music] [Applause] these sawhorses are super stable and will be able to hold a lot of weight they only take a few seconds to set up and they're easy to move around in the store what I need to I'm telling you that locking arm and pin make all the difference another nice thing about building some horses yourself is you can adjust the size and dimensions to meet your needs if you're a really tall guy or gal you could add a few inches to the legs in your golden [Music] and how do they handle the kick test I'm happy to say the sow horses are stronger than Miko's we've already started using them on the construction site we've loaded them up with beams and floor joists and they're not going anywhere [Applause] [Music] cleaning up after any project is definitely the worst part of the process so I'm glad that these things fold up and can be moved out of the way in just seconds [Music] [Applause] [Music] if you like convenient workspace solutions make sure you check out my folding portable workbench video and while you're at it check out this video as well I want to know what you plan on using yourself horses for so make sure you leave a comment down below as always thanks for watching guys

Channel: Pneumatic Addict

Views: 874,298

Rating: 4.8888378 out of 5

Keywords: diy, woodworking, home improvement, storage, garage, organization, tools, easy DIY, how-to, ryobi, garage shelves, workbench, power tools, home ideas, home decor

Id: _6t4pel-hKw

Length: 10min 43sec (643 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 27 2020