May 16, 2017 - I've been watching the Woodwrights shop as long as I can remember and have always been a fan. I thought it would be fun to try and make the tool tote Roy carries with him during the start of the show.
- Roy Underhill Tool Tote I've been watching the Woodwrights shop as long as I can remember and have always been a fan. I thought it would be fun to try and make the tool tote Roy carries with him during the start of the show.
- Mar 22, 2020 Whether you’re using it for woodworking tools or garden tools, a tote is a simple and quick project. It’s so simple, in fact, that I decided to add a wee degree of difficulty with a curved handle secured in place by wedged through-tenons.
- Roy's tool tote This is one of Roy Underhills projects out of his apprentice book. Fans of the show will recognize it from the opening credits. Of course that means it was all done by hand tools only, including the resaw of the two sides.
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Post updated 6-19-09… Added photos + 15 new plans! See just the updates here >>
The humble sawhorse. It’s often the woodworker’s first project. You often inherit them from woodworkers who’ve passed. No matter where they come from they are the unsung heroes of many woodworking projects. I found a great thread over at woodnet (show me your saw horses) that got me hunting down all the sawhorses I could find. I’ve corralled a good mess of them here for you – 25 (now 37) different plans.
If you’ve built any of these I’d appreciate your thoughts. If you prefer the metal/plastic collapsible kind let me know what brand and why. You can leave comments on this post or email me at gfrench@thetoolcrib.flywheelsites.com.
The sections are as follows:
1) Celebrity Saw Horses
2) Wackiest Sawhorse
3) Best Sawhorse Idea I Couldn’t Find Plans For
4) Sometimes You Need a Mobile Carpenter Bench, Not a Sawhorse
5) Your Basic and Free Sawhorse Plans
6) Space Saving Sawhorses
7) Sawhorses for Sheet Goods
8) Sawhorses Etcetera
9) 31 More Free Plan Collections from ToolCrib.com
1) Celebrity Saw Horses:
If a woodworking celebrity designed it or uses it… it has to be good, right? Well, you’ll have to be the judge of that. I just thought it would be fun to break them out of the pack :)
Norm Abram’s Picnic Table and Saw Horses
Why did they put the sawhorse and picnic table together? Who’s gonna pay 6 bucks for sawhorse plans? That’s more than the cost of materials! Anyways, there are folks who have built this style of sawhorse and love it. This is the only non-free plan I link to.
Roy Underhill’s Sawhorse Design (PDF)
Underhill’s one of the original galoots. His sawhorse is solid and suitable for corded tool users too – it’s based on a sawhorse he found in his parents’ basement.
Chris Schwarz Sawbench
Chris Schwarz is the editor of Woodworking Magazine. He’s a big handtool aficionado too, a galoot if I understand correctly :) His Sawbench is well suited for hand tool users: Free Construction Drawings for the 2008 Sawbench.
Schwarz’s sawbench is similar to this Sawing Trestle plan from the 1900s.
2) Wackiest Sawhorse:
This is just a patent, so don’t take the idea and make millions from it. You’ll get sued. That said, it might be a good influence on your design if you’re crafty enough to figure out how to build one.
FIVE-LEGGED SAWHORSE
3 Legged Sawhorse
3) Best Sawhorse Idea I Couldn’t Find Plans For:
SawPony – shorter saw horses for when you want to put a foot or a leg up on the work you’re cutting to help hold it down. I guess you could just make shorter saw horse legs… Here’s where I read about them: show me your saw horses
4) Sometimes You Need a Mobile Carpenter Bench, Not a Sawhorse:
Are you using your sawhorses as mobile carpenter benches… setting up your chop saw on them, etc… It might be that you really need a mobile carpenter bench.
Mobile Carpenter’s Bench from Tim Carter
Or… maybe you just want to store more tools on your sawhorses. Check out these sweet sawhorses: Tool Tote Sawhorses.
5) Your Basic and Free Sawhorse Plans:
Sometimes vanilla is the best flavor. These sawhorses are straight ahead, no nonsense sawhorses that you will have for the next 25 years. So pick your plan carefully ;)
The Cheapest, Easiest, Ugliest, Most Functional Saw Horse Known to Mankind I’ll give it easiest, but I’m not so sure about ugliest…
Simple Sawhorse
Roy Underhill Tool Tote Plans Online
The Classic Sawhorse
The 14-Minute Sawhorse
the Ultimate Wood Sawhorse
wide topped sawhorses
a functional, strong and elegant sawhorse
The World’s Best $6 Sawhorse?
Wood Sawhorse Plans
Basic Woodworking Sawhorse Plans
Saw Horse Plans
Scrapwood Saw Horse Plans – Metric
Mr. Wizard’s Sawhorses (PDF)
Vintage, 1991 Sawhorse Plans from Popular Mechanics
Sawhorse Classic from Fine Woodworking
6) Space Saving Sawhorses:
Sometimes space is at a premium. These sawhorses will politely fold up or stack up and get out of the way when they’re not in use.
Roy Underhill Tool Tote Plans Printable
The “Richard”: The Ultimate Knock-Down Sawhorse
Knock-Down Sawhorses
Foldaway Vise Table & Sawhorse (PDF)
Stackable sawhorse plans
Roy Underhill Tool Tote Plans Download
Sawhorse – Knockdown Workstation Accessories
Stacking Sawhorse Plans
Simon Shea Stackable Sawhorse Plans
Light Folding, Medium Folding, Heavy Fixed Sawhorse Plans
7) Sawhorses for Sheet Goods:
Sometimes you need a little extra help with those sheet goods. These sawhorses will gladly and ably pull more than their own weight.
Sheet Rack
Knock-Down Sawhorse Cutting Grid
Sawhorse worktable
8) Sawhorses Etcetera:
I didn’t know which category to put these sawhorses in, but I knew I needed to include them. Here’s everything else that didn’t fit in the categories above.
chain saw sawing horse (pdf)
Replaceable Inserts Save Sawhorses
Add an adjustable outfeed roller to your sawhorse
TALE OF TWO SAWBUCKS
Low-Standing Sawhorses
Other Resources:
Workshop Sawhorses = 29 plans with pics and everything
Any Sawhorse Plans?
Free Saw Horse Plans
Saw Horse Plans
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The next project that caught me was a tool tote like the one Roy Underhill sports at the beginning of his show. Beyond that novelty, it interested me because of its hopper construction and the compound angles that were fundamental to it. I though this would help build my comfort beyond pieces joined at right angles that have defined most of my work to date. I was also driven by practical purpose as I am always carrying tools between the house and my shed workshop. To help learn about the construction method, I followed the details included in the “Tool Tote” chapter in Roy’s book, “The Woodwright’s Apprentice”.
Starting with five boards cut to rough dimension from straight grain pine, 3/4” stock. I sawed the angles for the ends and sides. As the chapter indicates, I used a bevel setting resulting from the 1 1/2 and 5 1/2 marks on my framing square.
The one side board was resawed in half so the totes sides would be approximately 3/8” thick. I resawed the board while it angled away from me in the vise flipping it periodically to saw from opposing sides. This helps one keep their saw on a better track along the length of the cut. A few licks with the plane followed to minimize the saw marks.
Next I sawed the shoulders of the rabbets on the end boards. Shoulders were sawn parallel to the angled ends of these boards. Rabbits were finished by splitting off the waste, paring across the joint with a chisel, and some ‘tune-up’ with my router plane.
To find the required angle for the bevel along the upper and lower edges and bottom, the sides and ends were temporary nailed together and the bevel was set with blade across the width of the tote and the handle resting tight to the side (Roy’s book provide a good description and some photos of this). I then planed the upper and lower edges to match this bevel setting.
The bottom was also fit while the pieces were temporary assembled. The bottom drops into the opening of the tote and it’s edge is beveled on all sides to match the splay angle of the sides and ends. I had to keep in mind during this step that the face of the board with the narrower width resulting from this bevel goes on the underside of the piece. As Roy suggests in the book, I planed one edge and side to the bevel setting. Then placing the nailed together carcass on the bottom piece while it was upside down (i.e., narrower width up) and these two bevel edges aligned to the inside of the carcass, I traced around the inside to transfer the dimensions of the other edge and side to the bottom face. I used my jack plane to then finish the bottom by planing to these lines.
I next prepared the piece for the handle laying out and sawing the taper on each end of the piece. The end of the handle forms a tenon that fits into a mortise in the tote’s ends. When laying out the slope of the taper, I had to be sure it was not too steep as that would result in tenon too weak (narrow) once the tote was assembled and loaded with tools. The handle hole was roughed in using three, 1 1/4” auger bit holes in the very center of the handle. The waste remaining in this opening was chopped with a chisel. A rasp and sandpaper was used to smooth this opening.
Before laying out and chopping the mortises in the end, the tenon ‘shoulder’ and dimensions were defined at both ends of the handle. Note that the ‘shoulder’ follows the same angle as the splay of the end (and the end angle of sides). Mortises were chopped using a chisel. Mortise walls were first chopped to be square with the boards face. However, because the ends splay relative to the tenons in the handle the top and bottom of the mortise walls had to be bevel with careful chisel paring cuts to match the needed angle. This step required some fettling during assembly.
Wooden Tool Tote Plans
Roy Underhill Tool Tote Plans Free
Once all pieces were cut, bevel angles defined, and mortise and tenons that secure the handle were complete, assembly of this piece is fairly strait forward. Just remember that the handle cannot be inserted after nailing of sides and ends is complete and that the bottom can simply be dropped into the carcass opening among its completion. To avoid splitting of the sides, headless brad cut nails and appropriate pilot holes were used to assemble the piece. Each rabbet joint was nailed from opposing sides (through sides into the ends and through ends into the sides) with four to five of the 4d nails. This nailing approach seemed to yield a very secure tote.