Trestle

[NT]

Hi

I've never really been a trestle sort of person, but am thinking about making some. And I figured I might as well make the best I can. So... What size timber is best? Is timber best? Are there any familiar features to incorporate? Any wish-list features you dont usually see but would be handy? Any design dos and donts?

Cheers, NT

[Cash]

NT,

There are many types of 'trestle', but I Presume you mean a "saw horse" type of 'trestle':

Here's a link to an American site that may be of some use.

As for timber sizes, I usually use 3"x2" for the top and 2"x2" for the legs with 2"x1" for any spacers that are needed.

As for designs and do's and don'ts - there so many different types, it would be dificult to give specific advice without knowing exactly what you want to use it for.

Cash

[Andy Dingley]

What for? Makes a big difference.

Best "portable handyman" trestles I've found are the Lidl ones. Steel, foldable, 7 quid.

For timber framing I use huge great heavy things. 6x4 timber and upwards. Sets of three or four are useful, not just two.

If you just make each one slightly longer than the others, they'll stack far more easily than most of the other complicated ways of doing it. Three legged ones are useful for stability, but hard to make strong and stable. Construction should be simple and screwed-on plywood sheet gussets braces better than any complicated joinery you might have time for. It's well worth making the top spine from deep timber and keeping all the steel fastenings at least a saw-blade depth beneath this. That way you can cheerfully saw right through your trestles! It doesn't cause as much wear as you'd expect and it saves a huge amount of time.

[NT]

Hi Andy

I'm kind of in idiot mode at the moment on this. Other than sawing wood I dont yet know what I could do with them.

Nice one... perhaps 2 the same length but differing leg positions to allow neat stacking.

That's got me thinking if there's some way a 4 legger can be shifted into 3 leg mode.

right... what sort of depth would you recommend? I really am very deprived of trestle experience. Cost of materials isnt really an issue.

thanks, NT

[John Whitworth]

No link, Cash!

JW

[Cash]

Thanks John,

Damned old age catching up with me. :-)

Link below (I hope).

[pcb1962]

Assuming you mean a saw horse sort of trestle, I got some of these:

add 5 lengths of 4x2, once you've cut the legs it takes 2 minutes to assemble and break down if you're short on storage space.

[Matty F]

I needed to make 20 trestles to hold up table tops. I decided that all the trestles around were horrible and wouldn't stack well so I designed trestles with offset legs. The thickness of a trestle when folded flat was 40mm (2 pieces of wood thick).

[Andy Dingley]

these:

Just add 5 lengths of 4x2, once you've cut the legs it takes 2 minutes

I was given a couple of sets of the old orange steel version of these. Quick and simple, yes, but they were also expensive and fell apart when lifted for carrying. A damn nuisance and I gave them away again in turn. Maybe the plastic ones are better, but I still wouldn't trust the rigidity of something that tried to do all of its stiffening in a couple of inches of overlap, rather than a foot of plywood.