Sawhorse brackets

[T i m]

Hi All,

Any idea if any of the sheds do the 'knock down' brackets you can use to make a folding (well, take_down) sawhorse please?

If no sheds / local chain has them then I'll order some like these:

T i m

[Man at B&Q]

I've seen "Trestle Dogs" in B&Q.

MBQ

[Andy Dingley]

They used to once, I had a set (the orange steel folders), gave them away as not worth the trouble.

It's easy to make trestles, and easy to make stacking ones. Once you have a couple or more trestles then they take up no more space stacked than they do folded, so why go for folders with the risk of wobbliness?

My take on trestles:

• Thick tops (extra deep rail) with no metal in them nearer the surface than the depth of your circular saw. Then just cut through the things carelessly. This makes many tasks far easier, doesn't wear the trestles out as quickly as you expect and you can always fix them in a few years.

• Stacking is most easily done by making them shorter by the leg length (in sets of 3 or 4), not bu complicated nesting geometries. They just don't need to all be the same length.

• You can't have trestles that are too strong, or too stiff. Ply side panels is the easiest way to achieve stiffness.

• Folding isn't worth it.

• If you need them car portable, go for steel instead. Buy Aldi's.

[T i m]

Ah, cheers. Would you know if they can be easily broken down for transportation or are they a quick assembly one_way sort of thing would you know please? (I never seem to have much luck finding things in their online store). ;-(

T i m

[T i m]

I also have the black / yellow plastic jobbies and whilst certainly not rigid are currently in the garden happily supporting 2 x 8' x 6" x

6" x 1/4" steel gate posts I'm preparing. Not 'nice' to hand saw on though granted.

I agree, for workshop use and I have a lovely pair I remember making from flat pack years ago that have served me well so far.

Yup. Mine are showing a few battle scars (saw cuts, drill holes, paint and weld burns etc).

Understood.

Agreed. Nothing better to work on.

I'll look at Aldi's but in this case I think I'm still going to try the brackets because this isn't actually to make a sawhorse (although your points above still apply) but a shaving horse. Daughter is interested in doing some hand carving (see Frosts tool enquiry ^^) and a shaving horse seems to be one of those things that goes with the bodger / bush craft thing (she currently an apprentice Tree Surgeon hence the connection and easy access to raw materials etc).

I have found various d-i-y shave horse styles and plans and they range for very rustic (raw tree sections inc bark etc) to highly 'engineered' versions but none would break down well enough to fit in the boot of her Ka. ;-)

eg

... I though that even though these brackets may not be perfect I feel the forces involved are generally between shaver and object rather than object and ground etc?

In any case this might be just a Mk1 and if she doesn't follow it though then I've got myself some bits to make a couple more saw horses if / when I need them. ;-)

Cheers, T i m.

[Andy Dingley]

Looked at Wikipedia and Wikicommons (for pictures)? There was an article up there once (I wrote it), although some f*ckwit then tagged it for deletion so I don't know if it's still there. There are also the usual canon of green wood books (Abbot, Dunbar) and also the Taunton workbench book has something on shave horses.

She'll need about five shave horses, then throw four of them away for firewood and keep the one she likes. There's a bit of personal choice, a bit of personal comfort about just which log is comfiest to sit on, then a lot about the style of dog-head being appropriate for the particular work you're doing.

What shape of dog head?

How many treadle levers, one or two?

Is the clamp on a raised sub-base above the bench? (German style)

What leverage ratio in the lever? (This is a good argument for a raised sub-bench)

The easiest bench to build is a low bench with two side levers. These are simplest but don't (IMHO) work too well. In particular, you're working very low down with your drawknife and that's close to your thighs.

It's also not really a bench, just a log - so you can make it out of anything sittable, it doesn't have to be wide or flat.

Nope, they're racking forces in the top joints of those legs. Clamping force is high too (esp. with a sub-bench), but as that's a pretty rigid assembly, then it's not a problem.

Experts can use any old rubbish. Beginners aren't so good with a drawknife so they push and pull the thing all over the place and wrestle the bench around over the floor. It's quite common for someone to use a shave horse happily for years, then run a weekend course with it and have the thing rattling loose by the end of it!

It's traditional Windosr making to take a green log and shrink it over some dry legs to make a long-lived tight leg tenon. Still not easy to get right first time though, so if in doubt, brace the legs. If I were making a demonutable, I'd probably make a single rail the whole length of the bench and set it just above ground level. Maybe make the ends a "hay rake" style (Y shaped) rather than a H shape. Then every joint is boltable and it'll fit into a car.

Real fix though is to dump the Ka and accept her natural destiny of either a Volvo estate or a Landie.

[T i m]

No but I've seen loads elsewhere.

Oh. ;-(

Ok. I think someone on an Arb forum has recommended something.

Hehe.

Ok.

I was thinking of the more English rectangular frame style as she's only going to be doing spoons etc to start with.

One.

Adjustable raised bed (wedge), yes.

42? ;-)

Again, because she's potentially only doing spoons (and only some of that on the shaving bench) I'm not too keen to spend too much time / effort with her on this bit, especially as none of us have done anything like this before (I've done turning and plenty of woodwork in general (inc building a boat) but no carving). Personally, I'm not into 'decoration' and if I want a wooden spoon I can get 10 for a pound up the road. That's not the point though eh. ;-)

I read that the work should generally aim at your belly button?

've read comment that the three legged variety can be a bit unstable if working on a bigger branch (when you aren't sitting on the bench etc).

Ok.

Ok.

Same as shooting, playing instruments and most other fields then.

LOL

Again, isn't that often the case. ;-(

Or use the bolt up bracket on some 4x2 (for the Mk1 anyway). ;-)

Understood. If these brackets proved unstable (against racking) I was going to include a diagonal brace from the rear legs up under the main bed (or two steel tubes with the ends flattened off or some flat welded in and bolt / wing nut through).

Sssssshhhh!!!

I 'chose' the Ka because it was offered to us cheap, was economical to fix, run and insure. It's also got power steering and airbags (and goes well as it's small and 1300). I've told her as soon as she passes her test she can have wheat she likes as long as she buys and runs it. What she would *love* is a SWB Series Landy (and if a bit beaten up and covered in mud the better). In the meantime she seems happy on her hand painted green MZ 251 (the Landy of the bike world?).

She has carried 10 rubble sacks of full kindling she's chopped up in the back of the Ka so it can be a bit useful. ;-)

T i m

[The Medway Handyman]

Was that directed by that Taranteno bloke?