Sawhorse as a workbench

I'm a busy guy (aren't we all?), and don't have a "real" workshop yet. But, there's a window of about an hour, between 4:30pm and 5:30pm, where I manage to squeeze in some ''shop time'': the sun's behind the trees, so it's shady enough for the kids to play outside (here in Australia) -- but the mozzies haven't yet come out. So I supervise the kids from the back porch.

So, here's my ''workshop'': (Note: with all of these photos, you can click to enlarge.)

Basically, my shop area consists of a wooden chair, a stump with a board nailed to it, and a modified sawhorse. And sometimes, two lidded plastic rubbish bins (not shown).

Oh, and sometimes -- if I'm dealing with really long boards, a board jack (the vertical thing, to the right of the sawhorse [see below]). Everything except the board jack lives outdoors, on the back porch -- under the eaves, where they're (mostly) sheltered from the rain. All of them have a coat or two of BLO (boiled linseed oil), which offers some marginal protection from the damp.

The wooden chair is usually used as a holder of tools and misc. parts (as are the tops of the rubbish bins): it's more ergonomic than bending over to pick up tools from the ground, and thing are less likely to get accidentally left outdoors overnight (to be rained and/or dewed upon, and therefore rust) if they're not on the ground.

I'll also place the chair next to the stump when I use it. The stump is used for four things: holding my saw vice when I sharpen saws; crosscutting things; hacking at things with a hatchet; and cutting or filing dowel-like thing (e.g. metal rods).

Crosscutting wood is achieved by using the two-by-four board as a cleat -- basically, like a built-in bench hook. Sometimes I clamp the wood in place.
As you can (barely!) see in the photo, I've cut the end of the cleat at a 45 degree angle: this allows me to cut the end of my boards from -45 to +45 degrees, as needed.

When I cut longer boards, I prop up the far end with a support I made that's the same height as the stump. It's made out of scrap two-by-fours: imagine an oddly-sturdy picture frame -- with stabilizing feet.

Here's the V-shaped notch I made in the end of the cleat, which I use for holding rod-shaped things...

...and here it is in use. Well, actually, this is just posed: I didn't have any dowels or rods within reach, so I'm just illustrating with a blue pen. I'd usually put my left knee on the stump, and cut off the overhanging right end of the dowel (I'm right-handed).

The sawhorse was rescued out of a construction dumpster: some clever worker (probably an apprentice) had managed to cut it in half with a circular saw (doh!). I took it home and mended it with an overly-thick slab of wood, top and bottom. (You can't see it in the next photo, but it's visible a few photos later.)

One of my mods was to insert some extra-long screws as planing stops. I use the two at the end (far right; in this photo they're partially extended -- you may have to click the photo to enlarge) only for longer boards: usually I use the ones at the left of the photo, as they're "inside" the legs, which is more stable for handplaning. The middle two holes (at a diagonal) are where two screws hold the top board to the rest of the saw horse: I filled the holes with beeswax, to keep the sawdust out of the holes

Here's a shot of the screws -- acting as planing stops -- in action.

Sometimes I have to stabilize the tail end of the board with a pair of clamps. If the board isn't thick enough to fully clear the clamp pads, I'll add a shim of wood to raise it up.
Oh! Look: you can see my ''fix'' to the sawhorse. New top layer [some sort of pretty heavy hardwood]; original middle layer [with the sawed-through gap, partially obscured by the horizontal clamp]; and the additional lower layer. Having three layers of wood at the top makes the sawhorse strangely top-heavy when carrying it -- but it's still stable when on the ground. It also adds mass -- which for a ''workbench'', is a Good Thing (e.g. The Schwarz's book on workbenches).

For narrower boards that would pass between the planing stops, I bridge the gap with a small piece of scrap wood. Note that I've also raised one of the other screws, for lateral support.
Depending on my mood, I'll sometimes raise two of the ''rear'' screws and use them as bench hooks for crosscutting smaller pieces -- instead of using the stump. But usually I just use the stump.

Since the sawhorse isn't particularly heavy -- although it's heavier than most sawhorses -- it used to pitch forward at the end of my planing stroke. I addressed this by attaching a hook to the underside of the tail end, and hanging a few ''sandbags'' from it.
The sandbags (or ''jugs o' ballast?'') are rinsed-out (and dry) juice containers, filled with (dry) sand. If I need more stability in the future, I'll mount another hook under the belly and hang another two sandbags. So far, though, it's sufficiently stable. Part of the stability comes from being on grass, rather than on a smooth floor: the feet of the sawhorse dig in to the turf a little, so it doesn't slide.

When I pack up shop for the night (i.e. when the mozzies come out, and the children go in), I unhook the sandbags before putting the sawhorse away: no sense in lifting more weight than necessary.

For working on the edges of boards (planing; cutting dovetails) I just clamp a cleat across the two legs (for vertical stability), then clamp the workpiece across the sawhorse's surface. Here's a side view (with a bit of the ''ballast jugs'' visible).

Here's an angle view of the same thing:
When planing, I put the workpiece at the end opposite to the ballast jugs. When cutting, I mount it at the ballast jug ends (more mass, so greater stability).

This setup isn't as fast (or elegant) as a face vice and a sliding board jack. But, it works. :)


Mounting boards for cutting the ends (e.g. dovetails; tenons) is done similarly (not shown), only I clamp the workpiece vertically to the sawhorse leg. Obviously, it's not **completely** vertical, as the sawhorse legs are splayed. But, that's o.k., as I cut to the line, not necessarily to ''horizontal''.


Somewhat ironically, I do have a workshop **building**: a detached two-car garage (no car; just ''stuff''). But it's filled with scavenged lumber, plus a whole lotta boxes and ''attic stuff'' (Christmas decorations; suitcases...). So at the moment, it's purely storage: no room to actually move around and **do** things.

When I have a free moment (i.e. a day where I'm not home watching the kids, yet can spare an hour or two away from work) I'll hit the local lumber yard and buy enough lumber to finish my half-completed lumber rack. (Note: Lumber yards and 2 y.o. children do not [safely] mix.) This will get my lumber up off the floor -- and allow me room to work.

I also have a bona-fide workbench, as well: my wife's great-grandfather's, who was a shipwright. (Woo! It even has a leg vice!) However, until I get some room cleared out, it's at my wife's uncle's house -- in his shop.

But meanwhile -- I'm makin' stuff (slowly!), using what I have.


--GG