Re: Steel brackets for making a carpenters workhorse / sawhorse / stool

[Hambone Slim]

I have designed this bracket to make it quicker and easier to build a

> traditional carpenters workhorse.

Well, I don't think they're gonna sell to well over here on the sunny side of the pond.

Firstly, we want sawhorse brackets that fit 2x4s (pronounced two-byes in Murican), which measure 1 1/2" x 3 1/2", of course.

Also, with your design, weight on the top of the horse will stress the welds. The brackets we have available here at every hardware store are designed so weight on the top of the horse pinches the bracket tighter on the 2x4 spine of the horse.

In addition, we also have nifty folding metal and flat folding plastic horses.

Best I've seen on a job though, a fella made a horse/stool/toolbox combination that seemed pretty darned handy. Seems to me, a fella walks onto a jobsite with a box like that, and he looks like he knows what the possum fur he's doing; other hand, you walk in and start ripping two bys in half to put together some kind of wobley English sawhorse, well, be good for a laugh any way, ennit?

-- Timothy Juvenal

[B. A. Steel Brackets]

Hi Hambone Slim

In practice we have found that 2x2 are fine for the legs and provides great stability. Also we have used a thick weld that attaches the leg bracket to the main plate. These have been used heavily and are as sturdy as the day they were assembled.

[Hambone Slim]

I'm sure your brackets are made godd & strong, but still, most carpenters and painters in the US don't have ready access to 2" square lumber - our standard building lumber (fir, hemlock, or pine 2x4s) is 1 1/2" x 3 1/2". Even as a woodshop owner with 8/4 and thicker stock in inventory, I'd rather pick up something that will work with 2x4s rather than have to mill up 2" square legs. A 2x4x8 footer runs around 3 bucks these days.

Although your brackets look spiffy, I don't really see the advantage over what's already available on the market.

-- Timothy Juvenal

[CW]

That's fine if it works for you but, it will never sell in the US. American construction crews generally make sawhorses on site and scrap them when they are done. The stamped steel brackets available here take standard size wood and are cheap enough to through away when the job is done. Might sell in the UK but not here.