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Thread: Knock-down saw horses for cutting sheet goods (subtitle: why panel saws are obsolete)

  1. #61

    Knock-down sawhorses (AKA: "Cutting Grid" by Nick Engler)

    Nick's design is fantastic, and I can't understand why it hasn't been published much more, and variations stolen and posted in numerous magazines.

    The article didn't have very good photos / could have used more detailed steps. Wish someone would do a CAD / Sketchup and upload to the shared library and post pics here.

    Mark

    QUOTE=Frank Pellow;61439]This is a testimonial to two tools:

    (1) The saw horses that Nick Engler designed and that are described in Popular Woodworking's Jigs and Shop Tips issue (January 2004). Here is a link: http://www.popularwoodworking.com/st....asp?view=1719

    (2) The Festool plunge circular saw coupled with the guide rail system.

    I built the saw horses earlier this week and used them for the first time yesterday. They go together and come apart very easily and, when together, they are perfectly balanced to enable one to single-handedly get a heavy sheet of whatever into position. The angles seem to be bang-on in order to prevent the horses from tipping over in the process -something that I have struggled with in the past. Also the height seems just right for cutting, both when standing on one's feet and when crawling up onto the sheet being cut.

    There has been a lot of praise for the saw elsewhere in this forum. All I will say here is that the saw and rails fully live up to that praise.

    I am attaching 3 pictures and I hope to get them into the right order:

    (1) sawhorses in use
    (2) sawhorses partly knocked down
    (3) a resulting cut[/QUOTE]

  2. #62
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    I read the whole thing. Wow. Haha

  3. #63
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  4. #64
    Here is the actual PDF of the Engler sawhorse. Well the layout pg. PDF was too big to post up. If u want the entire pdf pm me..
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    If you like your freedom, THANK a vet !

  5. #65
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    Man this is an old thread.

    I just use three of these (LINK) with a couple 8ft 2x4s along the sides and a 4'x8' sheet of 2" rigid foam for all my track saw cutting. Whole setup probably cost about $80, but the sawhorses can of course be used for many other things and I saved a bit of time not having to build anything to get it up an running.
    If at first you don't succeed, redefine success!

  6. #66
    Quote Originally Posted by Ben Rivel View Post
    Man this is an old thread.

    I just use three of these (LINK) with a couple 8ft 2x4s along the sides and a 4'x8' sheet of 2" rigid foam for all my track saw cutting. Whole setup probably cost about $80, but the sawhorses can of course be used for many other things and I saved a bit of time not having to build anything to get it up an running.
    Those sure store in a lot less space than the sawhorses I have now. Thanks for the pointer.

    Mike
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  7. #67
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    Jun 2015
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Henderson View Post
    Those sure store in a lot less space than the sawhorses I have now. Thanks for the pointer.

    Mike
    Welcome. And yes they fold down very small! Thats one of the the features I like most about them! Like many of us Im a bit crammed for space and it's like to be able to just thrown sawhorses up on a shelf and be able to fit four of them in a small space.
    If at first you don't succeed, redefine success!

  8. #68
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    I bought a cheap 6' folding table at HD, threw away the top and made my own top out of 2x4s. My top is just a grid of 2x4s lap jointed and glued so there are no fasteners. Then I set up the table and shimmed my top so everything lines up right. That serves as my saw horses. I can cut panels without the waste piece falling.

  9. #69
    OK...I'll add mine in. Old, fold up saw horses. You wouldn't believe how cramped for space I am. SWAMBO insists on having 1/2 the two car garage for her car and stuff. 2x4 holders mount to the top of the horses. It all breaks down very well. I think I got the idea here...

  10. #70
    I like my shopdog sawhorses, I got the plans from woodshopdude. If I remember right, the plans were $5. They are made of 2x4s and fold up small. I have used them with 8 foot 2x4s in the top to paint three interior doors at a time. I also put a 8 foot 2x4 in one to use it as a station for my smaller 10 inch CMS when I don't want to keep walking back to the shop to use my 12 inch.

    My DeWalt track saw also works great. I normally use it with a piece of 1 inch rigid insulation on top of my outfeed table/assembly table (3'x7'). But sometimes I just do a cut or two with the plywood on top of the wood sides of the trailer the plywood came home in.

    For little shops like mine, which so not have the room to cut up full sheets on the table saw, a track saw is a great alternative. If you price them with a short and long rail, the DeWalt was the cheapest when I got mine. But some like two ~60 tracks for portability and then link them for long cuts. That makes the Makita cheaper. The Festool is not the cheapest any way you figure but it is certainly a nice tool.

  11. #71
    Join Date
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    I almost never use saw horses any more, and I can no longer lay a sheet of foam insulation on the floor and cut sheet stock, since my knee replacements and heart surgeries. At 76 I can no longer carry full sheets of 3/4" plywood for any distance either, so I have come up with a few work-arounds that help me get things done. I made a small wheeled dolly from the re-purposed wheels and stub axles from an old lawn mower, some 3/4 cabinet birch ply scraps, and a piece of 1/4" scrap to space the two sides 1" apart for easy loading, and I use a Gorilla Gripper (see photo) to help me lift and move my sheet stock. I can even leave the sheet standing on this wheel assembly for a short time as seen in the photo, if the wind isn't blowing.

    I think I still have 2 saw horses left that occasionally get used to hold up a low scaffold, but they never get used for cutting sheet stock any more. About 20 years ago I built a cutting table similar to the second photo in post #45. My table is made from 1 X 3 pine for the frame and 2 X 4 for the cross pieces laid flat and flush with the top of the 1 X 3 frame. One 2 X 4 is across the center and two more at each end where needed to attach the Harbor Freight Banquet Table legs. The rest is open. It is about 30" X 70" in size. I used biscuits and glue to assemble the frame, so the only metal in it is the short screws that attach the legs. There is no metal at all in the top 1" + of the table, so I don't need to worry about my saw blades hitting any.

    To get full sheets loaded, I attached two 4" square pieces of plywood to one side with a single screw through each, off-center, so that I could turn these to extend above the top of the table or turn them 180 degrees where they would be below the table surface. When I need to place a sheet of material on the table I turn these pieces so they extend above the table top and then tip the table over on it's side with these pieces lying on the floor. I then lean the sheet material against the table top with it's bottom edge sitting on these pieces of plywood. Then I reach down and grip both the table and the bottom edge of the sheet material and lift both until the table is sitting upright with the sheet laying on top of it. I then rotate the small pieces of plywood so they are below the top surface of the table and position the sheet for cutting. I set my circular saw to cut about 1/4" deeper than the thickness of the sheet and use a straight edge guide clamped to the sheet to guide the saw. If the cut is being made roughly down the center of the table I can complete the cut without either piece of the sheet falling at the end of the cut. I can then remove the off cut and re-position the remaining piece for the next cut. When not in use, I fold the legs into the recess in the table bottom and place it on edge against my stored sheet stock, where it consumes very little space, until it's needed again.

    I also use my cutting table as a kind of workbench for my miter saw when doing work away from my shop by adding a small piece plywood to the center for the miter saw to sit on. The table has also come in handy as an emergency picnic table when more guests arrived that was planned for. I just laid a full sheet of 3/4" cabinet birch ply for a top and covered it with sheet plastic.

    Charley
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