Finished my sawhorses over the weekend. 10 horses. 90 parts. Nearly 500 fasteners. I almost wonder if Renn specified 5 pair as an endurance test!
Anyway, here are some notes on how I finished the job. Maybe they'll help somebody down the road:
1. I used materials on-hand as much as possible. For the tops, I had 2x6's and 2x4's of various lengths laying around. So I ended up with 4 pairs made with 2x6 tops and 1 pair with 2x4 tops. Lengths vary from 36 to 42" (most are 40" as a result of 10 foot boards I had laying around). I used a jointer to cut the 15 degree bevel. A tablesaw would be a better way to go.
2. Used my compound miter saw to cut the legs. I used 6" wide WRC fence boards. Cheap and light. Set up a stop to get repeatable 30" lengths. Set the miter to 10 degrees, the bevel to 15 degrees, and went to town.
3. Ripped a sheet of 3/8" plywood into 8" strips for the gussets. Think I ended up using 3 of the strips.
4. Used the gussets as an "alignment jig" to get the right angles on the completed horse. To get the right width, tacked a pair of legs to one of the tops and measured the width at the top of the gusset. Made a "pattern" gusset using this dimension. Used the same pattern to mark all remaining gussets as I cut them on my compound miter saw.
5. From the mock-up, determined that the outside gussets needed to land on the legs 1 5/8" down from the top (owing to the 3/8" thickness of the gusset. The inside gussets landed at 1 1/2" down from the top (thickness of the top).
6. To make a horse, first marked the gusset positions on four legs (ganged them together and used a sliding T-bevel set to 15 degrees). Made sure to keep straight whether I was measuring an inside or an outside gusset.
7. Pre-nailed all the gussets with 4 penny common nails.
8. Grabbed 2 legs and a gusset. Ran a bead of glue on the leg where the gusset would land. Aligned the gusset with the mark and drove the nails home.
9. Flipped the leg over. Ran a bead a glue and nailed the 4 nails into one leg. Because of the splay, the opposing leg needed to be sprung in or out about an inch. So, I forced it into position (none split, thankfully), and drove the last 4 nails home.
10. Repeated 8 and 9 for a second set of legs.
11. Marked the tops 5" from the ends.
12. Slid the recently completed legs to align with the marks, put my weight on it to ensure good contact, and drove 6 penny common nails to attach (4 per side / 16 per horse). I used nails instead of sheet rock screws because for me it was faster/easier (Renn specifies sheet rock screws in Book 1; silent on fastener type in Book 2).
One top needed to be shaved down a bit to fit. Two others required a thin shim because an ~1/16" gap was too sloppy. This is where a table saw would have been preferable than a jointer to make those 15 degree bevels and obtain a more consistent width.
Another thing - any amount of twist in those tops will create a rocking horse. The good news is that the horses land flat on four legs with any amount of load. Self leveling!
