A good set of sawhorses is indispensible. Somehow, though, we made it through summer working on sawhorses that are old, rickety, and too short. Now that we’ve built these cheap, rock solid, and simple sawhorses, we’re wondering why we insisted on suffering for so long.
This post is short because this project is short (and easy). With the below design, you can build a pair of simple sawhorses in just about an hour.
Materials needed to build a pair of I-beam sawhorses:
Drill
44 – 3” wood screws
5 – 2x4s @ 8’
Saw (circular or miter, or hand if you like the exercise)
Square
Pen or pencil
Cut list for the 2x4s:
4 @ 32” (for tops and bottoms of I-beams)
10 @ 30” (for legs and centers of I-beams)
Steps to make your swanky, simple sawhorses:
1. Make the necessary cuts.
2. Construct the I-beams. With three screws on top and three screws on bottom, center the 30″ board between the top and bottom 32″ boards. Why are the tops and bottoms longer? So you can clamp onto the sawhorses when needed. That’s pretty damn useful.
3. Attach the legs. They’ll fit snugly up against the top rail of the I-beam, and the bottom rail will provide the proper angle. Use four screws for each leg: two directly into the middle board of the I-beam and two angled into the bottom rail.
4. Get to work.
