Knock-Down Sawhorses

A set of sawhorses always comes in handy –– until you put them away. They’re hard to stack, and they take up valuable space. So I built a pair of sawhorses that “knock down” for storage. Besides saving space, these sawhorses can be assembled (or taken apart) in just a few seconds.

If you look at the drawing at right, it’s easy to see how this works. Each sawhorse consists of a long stretcher that fits down into a notch in two A-shaped supports. (I used 1x4 pine.) To prevent the sawhorse from racking, there are four small cleats near each end of the stretcher (two on each side). These cleats are spaced far enough apart to form a channel that fits down over the supports and “locks” the stretcher in place. Once the cleats are glued and screwed in place, it’s just a matter of making the two supports. Each support consists of two angled legs that are held together with four braces. Both ends of the legs and braces are mitered at a 15° angle. Also, to form the notch that accepts the stretcher, you’ll need to trim the top inside corner of each leg at an angle, as shown in the detail above.

An easy way to lay out this angle is to set a square on the angled end of the leg and mark a line that’s equal in length to the width of the stretcher. After trimming off the waste, just glue and screw the supports together.

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