How to buy a sawhorse?

I purchased heavy duty metal sawhorses because I wanted to cut soapstone slabs and needed something that could handle the weight.  If you are going to need to put your sofa up on the sawhorses you should make sure the ones you choose are strong enough. Mine fold and are plenty sturdy. Lightweight plastic ones would be easier for me to haul out of the basement and use, but I am unlikely to get a second pair. I’ve noticed that mine have holes in the top beam, and I am considering mounting my miter saw to a board that could in turn be mounted to the saw horse, another feature to consider if your plans may head that way. Good luck with your projects, have fun, and keep all your fingers!

I’ve found it is much more handy to have 3 or 4 sawhorses than 2. For instance, if you put up two sawhorses and lay a piece of plywood across them and make a cut, both pieces will become unstable near the end of your cut and they’ll pinch your circular saw blade which can either wreck your cut of create a dangerous kickback. I can clamp your work to prevent the cut pieces from totally falling inward but I’ve found that I still  pinch my saw blade. If I have two sawhorses on each side of my cut my wood is much better supported while cutting.

I have four steel Crawford folding sawhorses which I like quite a bit. Four sawhorses unfolded take up a lot of space so the folding feature is quite nice. On the downside they are pretty heavy and I have pinched my hand more than once opening and closing them.  If these sawhorses had a more wide top bar then perhaps I could use a few clamps to hold my workpiece steady and would only need two for light plywood.

You may not realize that Home Depot and others will happily cut wood to length for you for free (both boards and panels). So just buy some 2”x4”s and sawhorse hardware and save some money!

I’m really happy with a set of Trojan legs (TS-27 I think). The neat thing about these is that they simply clamp onto 2x lumber (usually 2×4 or 2×6) of any length. And, like @kirkland says, your local lumber yard or one of the big boxes will cut that material for little or no $ (especially if you’re buying two sets of legs there!). Pay attention to the height you choose — I like shorter horses for sanding and other ”put your body into it” work, and taller horses for ”look closely” work.

Check out this ultimate expandable sawhorse ’like’ system.  Plans are @$15.  http://www.basswoodmodular.com/Tri-Horse-Builder-Plans-p/thbp.htm