Recently, I needed to replace some old and badly damaged sawhorses in my shop. My goal was to construct a light-duty, folding sawhorse using only one 8’-long piece of 1x4 stock and a small piece of 1⁄4" plywood. This design I came up with was so inexpensive to build, I decided to make several.
The first order of business is to cut the top beam to size from the 1x4 stock. Go ahead and lay out and predrill the holes in the beam for attaching the legs and brackets later on. I then ripped the remainder of my 1x4 board down to use as legs and brackets. As you can see in the plan below, the legs on the opposing sides of the sawhorse’s top beam are actually different lengths with different profiles cut on the top end. As you cut them to size, be sure to label them to ensure they’re mounted to the correct side. I screwed a plywood stretcher to each side to add rigidity to the sawhorse. The braces can now be added to the legs. One end of each brace is notched to fit over the shank of a hex bolt in one leg on each end. This keeps the sawhorses locked open. Another hex bolt further up the leg locks them closed. The brackets can now be cut to size and mounted to the beam along with the legs. A couple carriage bolts and lock nuts allow the legs to pivot closed.
The sawhorses fold flat for storage. The braces hook onto a bolt on the leg to keep them locked in the closed position.
