I got tired of those flimsy plastic sawhorses bouncing around when trying to work on them, and no good way to clamp anything down to them. So I built this pair of Sawhorses. The joinery and overall style were inspired by Japanese woodworking and architecture.
These worked out to be a great alternative when working away from your bench. They have all the creature comforts of a traditional holdfast and bench dogs.
You can get a set of plans here: How to build a sawhorse PDF Plans and Templates.
Specialty tools I used (Affiliate links)
• 1/2” Spiral Flush trim pattern bit https://amzn.to/2NQdWuK
• 1/4” Radius Round Over Router Bit https://amzn.to/2NIEuhg
• 1/2 flush trim router bit (the short bit) https://amzn.to/2lPgv71
• Japanese Dozuki Saw https://amzn.to/34CjRvG
• WoodRiver Block Plane – https://amzn.to/2X7TJFh
•Top bottom bearing infinity router bit https://amzn.to/2lS78Ul
• Incra Miter Gauge 1000HD https://amzn.to/2kzprcj
The Book in the intro https://amzn.to/2noFkY5 It changed how I think about woodworking!
The Build Process
So today’s project is all about building a pair of sawhorses with some seriously cool Japanese-style joinery. I’m pretty excited about how these turned out, even though I made one decision early on that I ended up regretting big time.
Choosing Your Wood (Learn from My Mistakes)
I decided to build these bad boys out of hard maple because, you know, they need to take a beating out on the job site. Seemed like a great idea at the time. Fast forward to when I started hand-cutting some of the joinery, and let me tell you – hard maple is an absolute workout to chisel through. My arms were not happy with me.
Getting Started with Layout
For the layout, I went with chalk as my marking tool. The beauty of chalk is that if you need to move a board around to maximize your material usage, you can just rub the markings right off. Super convenient.
Once I had everything laid out, I rough cut all the parts to their approximate size and then started squaring up the lumber at the jointer and planer.
(By the way, if you’re interested in building a pair yourself, I’ll have a set of plans available on my website. If you do build them, tag me on Instagram – I’d absolutely love to see what you create!)
Creating the Base Template
With my material all squared up, I started making the template for the base. I ripped a piece of plywood to match the height of my base piece, which would become my routing template.
The plans I’m making will include paper templates you can print out, which makes this process way easier. I traced the shape with a Sharpie and cut it out on the band saw, making sure to leave the line so I could sand out any leftover band saw marks. The spindle sander works perfectly for cleaning this up.
To save material (because hard maple ain’t cheap), I nested the base pieces on my board and loosely cut them out on the band saw.
Ripping to Width Safely
Here’s a pro tip: I left the pieces a little large initially so I could cut a notch for my push stick. This gave me a square, safe place to push against while ripping them to width. I ripped them to their exact width to ensure they’d all be the same height, which increases the chances that all the joinery will fit tightly together.
Then I went back to the band saw and cut out the shape, being careful to leave the line again.
Router Template Work
To clean everything up and rout the pieces to their final shape, I attached my plywood template to the blank by pushing both pieces against my fence. This kept the back edges flush with each other.
For flushing them to the template, I used a pattern bit with bearings on both the top and bottom. This is key because you can always rout with the grain, which minimizes any tear-out.
Once I routed one side of the base, I flipped it over and adjusted the bit height so the bearing would contact the top of the plywood template, then routed out the other side.
Here’s a shortcut: instead of trying to get both base pieces perfectly aligned separately, I glued the finished piece to the rough blank. Once it dried, I headed back to the router table to flush everything up using the same process.
Cutting the Remaining Parts
I set the base pieces aside and started cutting the rest of the pieces to length.
For the upper and lower rail lengths, I just measured, marked, and cut to length. But for the legs, I set up a stop block on my miter gauge. This ensured each leg would be exactly the same height, so my sawhorses wouldn’t be lopsided.
While I was at the saw, I also cut the tops to length.
Cutting the Tenons
Moving on to the joinery (the fun part!), I established the shoulders of the tenons by doing a kerf cut at the table saw, using the fence as a guide.
Then I set the band saw up at the same depth as the kerf cut to remove the cheeks of the tenon.
Building a Mortising Jig
Now it was time to build a quick little jig for my router to cut the mortises in the legs where the lower rail tenons would pass through.
I started by ripping some scrap plywood to about 3″ wide, which gave me a solid base to rout on. Then I used the actual leg to mark its width on the tenon.
I cleaned up the band saw marks with my block plane, being careful not to go past my line. Cleaning up the end not only looks better, but it helps during assembly – you won’t have to drive the whole tenon through the mortise. It’ll only get tight where it counts.
Next, I put the tenon vertically in my vise and lined up the edge of my plywood strip to the line I’d drawn earlier. After making sure it was square, I built my jig around the tenon, pressing the parts tightly against the tenon wall while gluing them in place with CA glue.
I flipped the jig over and filled in any gaps that could cause problems if I stopped paying attention to where my bearing was tracking.
Using the Mortising Template
I added some layout lines and clamped my template down to them. On the backside, I added stop blocks so that each time I put the template on a leg, it would land in the exact same spot every time.
Using a pattern bit, I started routing out the mortise, following the template.
The bit I had on hand wasn’t deep enough to go all the way through, so once I established the outline of the mortise, I removed the template and used the wall of the mortise to ride the bearing against, going even deeper.
That still wasn’t quite deep enough, so I drilled a hole the rest of the way through, switched to a bit with the bearing on the tip, and finished the hole.
Squaring Up the Mortise (And a Quick Rant)
The mortise was cut out, but the corners had the same radius as the router bit, so I squared them up with a mallet and chisel.
Now, every single time I show myself squaring up a mortise, there’s always someone in the comments asking why I didn’t just make the tenon round. Well, the tenon is already square, so it would be way more challenging to make it match the radius of the mortise unless you have some fancy pants router or something.
And more importantly – and this is just my personal preference – round tenons look dumb. They just do. They look dumb.
I did a quick test fit to make sure I was on track. Looking pretty tight for a square tenon, right?
Joining the Leg to the Base
Moving on to joining the leg to the base, I did the same procedure for creating this jig as I did for the previous tenon. This one was just a bit longer and wider.
I did the same routing operation in the base, routing out as much as I could from one side, then drilling a hole through and finishing the routing from the other side.
A word of caution: I used much longer bits for this operation, and the larger and longer the bit, the bigger the chance it’ll catch. So take your time with these mortises and go slow.
And of course, I squared it up with a chisel.
Adding Wedge Slots
I’m going to secure these joints with wedges from the underside, so I cut some slots for the wedges at the band saw.
To widen them up a little, I just bumped the fence over a bit and made two passes per slot.
To help prevent the wedges from splitting the legs, I drilled an oversized hole at the base of each slot.
More Jigs and Mortises
I set the legs aside and built another jig using the same process as before. This jig was for routing a mortise in the lower rail where the horizontal wedges would pass through.
I routed the hole about 1/16″ past my layout line so that when I drive the wedges in, they won’t bottom out against it.
Then I squared up the corners of the mortise because I don’t want to make wedges with rounded edges.
Upper Rails and Decorative Details
I set the lower rails aside and moved on to the upper rails. The upper rails were going to have a decorative element on the end, so I cut out my template and transferred the shape to my workpiece.
Then I cut it out at the band saw and removed the saw marks at the spindle sander.
The Half-Lap Joint
I was down to the last little bit of joinery!
I found the center on both the lower rail and upper rail and lined them up as a matching pair. This is really important so your legs don’t end up crooked.
Then I used the shoulder of the tenon from the lower rail to mark the location for the half-lap joint on the upper rail.
I used the leg to scribe the exact width onto the rail so I’d get a nice tight fit.
Then I used a knife to mark the outline around all sides where the joint would be cut.
I set my chisel about the width of a saw blade away from my line and gave it a whack to create a trough for my saw blade to track in.
I used my pull saw to cut down to my layout lines.
And yes, if you want your joint to come out perfect, you have to make a super-serious maximum concentration face while you cut. If you don’t, it’s not going to turn out good. Trust me on this.
Then I chiseled out the waste, working towards my line. But before I went all the way through, I flipped the piece over and worked from both sides. This prevents a big chunk from blowing out past your line.
I did the same layout on the legs for the mating piece. This time I was even more careful to work from both sides when chiseling out the waste. Since the joint is going with the grain, it would be really easy to split off a large chunk past your layout line if you’re not careful.
One Last Decorative Touch
One last thing to do to the leg before assembly – I wanted to add a decorative cloud lift to the leg. I sketched out a shape I liked on some plywood, then traced it onto the leg and cut off the bulk of the waste on the band saw.
Then I attached my template to the workpiece and routed out the final shape using the same process as before, adjusting the bit and switching back and forth from the top and lower bearing. This ensures I’m always cutting with the grain to prevent tear-out.
Assembly Time!
Now I was finally ready to assemble the legs!
I added some glue and drove the leg into the base, flipped it over, and secured it with wedges. Anything sticking out would just get sanded flush after the glue dried.
To make the wedges, I ripped some scrap wood to the width of the mortise, then ripped off 1/8″ wide strips. I cut them to length and sanded a taper on one end.
With the combo of glue and wedges, I don’t think this is ever going to come apart or loosen up.
Then I made some larger wedges for the lower rail. Since these wedges are decorative as well as functional, they needed to be more precise, so I cut the taper on the band saw using a jig.
The jig is basically a larger piece that’s safer to cut on a diagonal, with a stop block glued to the face so I could make repeatable cuts.
I added some glue, taped the pieces together, and wedged it in place.
You don’t necessarily have to add glue to this joint – if it ever loosens up, you can just tap the wedge in a little more. But I don’t want to ever have to worry about it while I’m on a job site, so I glued everything together.
Adding the Top
While the bases were drying, I moved onto the top. I laid out my dog holes for my holdfast and other bench accessories and drilled them out at the drill press.
I have a combination of holdfasts and planning stops. The holdfasts I like best have a 7/8″ diameter, while the planning stops have a 3/4″ diameter. So I did a combination of 7/8″ and 3/4″ holes in a layout pattern that I thought would work for me and my workflow, so I can use both types.
Once I had the holes drilled, I glued the upper rail down the center of the top. After it dried, I transferred the holes from the top all the way through the upper rail so the holdfasts could pass through it.
I added some glue to the half-lap joints and glued the top down.
Final Finishing Touches
For the final finishing touches, I added some feet to prevent the sawhorses from rocking on uneven ground and rounded over the top edge to make it more comfortable to work at.
And there you have it! A solid pair of Japanese-style sawhorses that should last you years on the job site.
Thanks for reading! Plans are available on my website, and if you want to see what I’m working on for future projects, give me a follow on Instagram. And if you’re not subscribed already, do so and hit the bell to be notified when the next post comes out.
And most importantly: round tenons look dumb.
I’m the owner of Benham Design Concepts, a mixed media art studio where I design and build custom furniture and other works of art using wood, glass, stone, and various metals.
In this blog, I talk about the art I create, my journey, and the things I learn along the way.