Sawbench-Sawhorse?

[Mike Holbrook]

So I am having great fun with my collection of vintage hand saws. Now I want a better place to use them than my workbench vises.

I have been studying sawhorse designs and I am down to Jim Tolpin's or Herman's designs as the most versatile and useful. I am starting to wonder about sawhorses though. I am getting to be a little older and I am a little worried about sawing kneeling on a bench. I wonder if sawing standing is a good option?

Are there good designs for sawing by hand with sawhorses too, most of what I read and find specific designs for are sawbenches?

[Gordon Eyre]

I am 78 and use this saw bench I built all the time. It works great. The design is Chris Schwartz and is very stable. The height is perfect for me as designed but you could lengthen or shorten the legs depending on how tall you are. The problem with using sawhorses is that they are too tall to kneel on effectively and the narrow top does not work well.

http://www.pbase.com/greyflash/image...4/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/greyflash/image...6/original.jpg

[Paul Saffold]

I made a similar design by Schwarz. On mine the top extends 4 1/2 " past the legs. The bench is tippy if you have weight only on that part of the top. If I was making this design again I would have the legs at or near the end of the top. Or make one like Herman's. But I'm only 63 and can't speak for old folks.
Paul

[Chuck Nickerson]

Mike - if you saw standing, you're not using your body weight to hold the wood and steady the work surface. The then-required clamping can become a circus.

If your concern is your knees (as was mine), size your sawbench while wearing a good knee pad.

If your concern is your back, it's time for someone to design a Moxon-like device that support x-cutting and ripping.

[Mike Siemsen]

I posted an article on my blog about making sawhorse/sawbenches. This style of sawhorse has been around a long time.http://schoolofwood.com/node/64 As to the question of bending over and sawing or standing up, I prefer bending over the sawhorse as I believe I have more power that way. If you get up too high you are sawing with just your arms, people do it and it does work, just holdfast your material to your bench edge. You could also try sitting down on the boards and sawing.
Mike

[Jim Koepke]

Here is my saw table - bench - horse project:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...-Table-Project

The leg angles can be changed to any desired. They can be splayed up to about 15º or they can be perpendicular.

One thing no matter what angle is used, the feet should not extend past the top edge at the ends. They can be a tripping hazard.

If you are making two and you want them to stack there is a simple trick. Make a big one with the top wider than the smaller one. The smaller one can be made shorter to fit in the space between the legs of the larger bench. A lot of these have been made for use around my shop and property. Some are standard everyday saw horses. The edges on the ones I made for stacking are usually beveled, at least on the smaller one of a set.

8 Right at Home.jpg

Two standard horses can be seen through the cabinet stacked one on the other. It is easy to carry them in one hand when they stack like this.

The bench behind the bucking horse now has a bird's mouth cut at one end for ripping. Any one of mine is likely to get pulled up to the bench and used as a seat when needed. With few exceptions mine are pretty much all the same height. For ripping long boards, it is handy to use three horses.

Mine are made a little taller than needed. Then test cuts are made while standing on pieces of wood. By changing the shimming under my feet, the optimal height can be found for the types of wood most often used in my shop. Once the wood shims under the feet lifts me to the desired height, the thickness is used up against the legs to mark off a cut line. This is then sawn off and any clean up and chamfering the bottoms is done with a block plane.

One of mine has a hole for a holdfast. It wouldn't be hard to make a removable fence along one edge to hold the work piece. Often times one of my bench hooks also gets put into action on top of one of the saw benches.

A very versatile aid in the shop.

jtk

[Jamie Bacon]

That's a good looking saw bench Gordon. TOO good looking. Hope it's got some battle scars by now.

[Gordon Eyre]

That's a good looking saw bench Gordon. TOO good looking. Hope it's got some battle scars by now.

Thanks Jamie and yes it does have a couple of battle scars but still looks nice.

[Jim Matthews]

I copied Acharya Kumarswami's design (he's a regular on the turning forum).

It features a center channel for smaller rip cuts, and top clamping to hold things in place.
Paired with a basic sawbench (as shown above or on Popular Woodoworking), I can rip much longer boards.

This can be done with hold fasts, but I used a pair of older Record adjustable clamps.
I made mine with a center board that is press fit, and easily removed for smaller boards
that require a rip cut near the middle.

[Stanley Covington]

A good sawbench is so useful. Not only does it save the back (compared to working of Japanese-style shorty sawhorses) but they give you more power and control than compared to sawing boards at workbench height. Besides, when combined with another sawhorse, or ladder or other support the same height, they let you deal with long boards at a convenient height almost anywhere.

The splayed-leg style sawhorse is indeed traditional, reliable and cheap to make, and are perfect for circular saws, but for ripping boards with a handsaw, the legs simply get in the way. No way around it. Acharya's design is excellent, but perhaps a bit bulky? I have made several styles of sawhorses for myself and friends over the years, and have settled on a trestle style as the best balance of weight, stability, portability and sawblade clearance. A trestle secured with wedges breaks down nicely for transporting to a jobsite (try that with a traditional sawhorse!) and gives one lots of area to use holdowns, dogs and clamps. The key to stability is to make the "foot" at each vertical support (just a board parallel with the ground) just a bit wider than the top. Your saw blade might nick the tips of the feet now and again, but they won't get in the way enough to cause problems. I can send pictures if you are interested.

Stan

[Jack Curtis]

Stan, I'd love to see a photo or two.

[Mike Holbrook]

Great information! Many years ago a friend and I did a project together, resulting in four of the supports Mike Siemsen links us to. That first set I made was designed more at "horse" height though. They finally wore out in the last year. The problem I have with Chris's designs is they look a little tippy to me and I have read that some who have built them found this to be the case.

I found a design very similar to the one Acharya made and was about to settle on it until I bought a copy of Jim Tolpin's " The New Traditional Woodworker" and found the sawbench Jim designed. Jim's benches are designed as a set to be used as a set. One saws between the benches for rip cuts, as opposed to in a notch or gap in the top of one bench. Jim's benches legs are straight on one side and angled on the other. So the question is, if using two heads is better than one are two benches? Herman seems to take a little different approach building a more classic wider bench, width of users hips, and just sawing on either side. Toplin and Herman's designs seem the most stable to me. Stanley's version sounds like an interesting variation on Herman or Acharya's designs, maybe we will get to see pictures.

[Gordon Eyre]

The problem I have with Chris's designs is they look a little tippy to me and I have read that some who have built them found this to be the case.

I have no skin in the game as to what anyone picks for the design of their saw bench so please take my comments in the vein they are given. It is my opinion that anyone who has built the Chris Schwarz designed saw bench to the design specs would find that the bench is not tippy. I can say that after several months of use. Also if you are ripping into the notch it works great. If you like ripping to the side of the bench and use just a modicum of care as to how you cant the board your saw will not hit the legs. The legs have a fairly narrow splay and so by canting the board at a slight angle you will not hit the front leg with your saw. Also, the height of the bench is perfect (for me) to be at the proper angle to get the maximum power and ease in using the saw. Obviously if you are ripping long heavy boards two saw benches would work better than one. The other thing I like about the Chris Schwarz designed saw bench is the craftsmanship that is inherent in the build of such a bench. If you look closely at the two images I posted above you will see what I mean.

By the way, I am 6'1'' and 225 lbs and I just went out to my shop and stood on the end of my bench and it did not tip.

[Jim Koepke]

Sawing rip cuts between a pair of saw benches is my preferred method. That doesn't mean sawing to the side isn't a way that works better. Sometimes on a long piece I will sit atop the work while moving it forward with back side movements.

The splayed legs also work well for me in other situations where the saw bench is used for a platform to stand on while working in our greenhouse or on other projects.

Many of my helpers are made for more than just being used in the wood shop.

jtk

[Jim Neeley]

Many of my helpers are made for more than just being used in the wood shop.

jtk

"Honey, would you please come here and hold the end of the board... before you fix dinner, take out the trash and do the laundry?"