Sore Hoarses MkII - Now with added plans!

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TheTiddles

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That'll screw up the search engines!

Cutting up sheet materials is something I'm doing quite a bit now and supporting it evenly and allowing access is really important so the baby Mafell can get its teeth into it.

Obviously I could have a large table area set aside for this purpose but where would be the fun in that? So saw horses it is, designed to be as cheap, simple and compact as possible when not in use. So with a little inspiration and "a few clicks of your spondulicks" as someone says we have a design intended to be made from a single sheet of 18mm ply. Simply scale by 0.1, procure an A5 size piece of 2mm acrylic (which conveniently happens to be 1.8mm) and tickle with a CO2 laser till you have something like this...

SawHorses-001640x427.jpg


Which when assembled in the correct order, looks a bit like this,

SawHorses-002640x427.jpg


The original and most definitely not the best version of saw horses (full marks for effort, none for performance) had a single task left to perform before they were taken outside and sawed to death, making their replacements.

SawHorses-003427x640.jpg


The template (in the top right of the sheet) I made is a thin piece of polythene (as it's what I had left) cut to the exact size and stuck to a piece of 12mm MR-MDF for bulking and to give the guide bush something to run against. I used a bearing guided cutter to trim the MDF to the PE then to make sure it stayed aligned a few countersunk screws in strategic locations. But more of that later,

SawHorses-004640x427.jpg


With the sheet broken down to bite-sized pieces it's time for routing which I'm using my big 1/2" machine for and about three passes per slot.

SawHorses-005427x640.jpg


Here's the finished result, I used a 1/4" radius bearing guided cutter in my smaller router to ease the edges, by the time I'd finished all that routing I had vibration blisters on two of my fingers and they "rang" when I pinched my fingers together, never had that happen before.

SawHorses-006640x427.jpg


So, with it all structurally complete I needed to check it for strength, which was potentially hazardous, but thankfully a local ner-do-well was on hand and was easily persuaded to take the risk with a bottle of super-strength cider and some magic beans.

SawHorses-007427x640.jpg


Job done, all in about £20 and a couple of hours work. It takes up very little space, is easily transported and is really rather splendid. Happy with that. :D

Aidan
 
that is a good idea. i'd be tempted though to tie in the bottoms of the legs.

jeff
 
jeffinfrance":zia2ykbc said:
that is a good idea. i'd be tempted though to tie in the bottoms of the legs.

jeff

Actually, I was wondering what stops the splayed out legs from just collapsing in? Clearly your design works really well though!
 
flounder":350vrfuy said:
jeffinfrance":350vrfuy said:
that is a good idea. i'd be tempted though to tie in the bottoms of the legs.

jeff

Actually, I was wondering what stops the splayed out legs from just collapsing in? Clearly your design works really well though!

Indeed, that was the main concern in my mind too, however, they are angled at 10 degrees (plus a bit for slop) so when you resolve the forces into horizontal and vertical components there will be very little outward load that has to be resisted by friction against the ground.

If I needed to make all the slot together halving joints stronger I was going to screw slips of ash or oak either side of the joints to increase the contact area, but as you can see, no need.

It's not often you come up with a deisgn that you're really happy with, but this time I am

Aidan
 
for the wieght of a panel, yes you're right aiden.

i'm always overengineering stuff. mind you, better to er on that side than the other.

jeff
 
haha, that's one of my favorite pet hates! :twisted:

Engineering is making something fit for purpose (ok, it's a lot of other things too, but for the sake of this discussion), to "over-engineer" seems to be making it overly complicated, heavy, expensive etc... which is BAD engineering!

As you can see from the picture of me, sorry, that silly person, standing on them there is a considerable loading on the structure, let's estimate at 5-6 times the weight of an 18mm MDF panel (what a chuffer!) and I could bounce around on it too, I mean, he could. 8)

Anyway, I'd never make something overly complicated just because I can*

Aidan

* - yes, I would.
 
Aidan,

Why the extra slots at each of the ends of the 3 longest boards? As these were also in you model I guess there must be a reason?

Cheers

Andy
 
have to disagree with you there aiden,

engineering is making something work. primarily engines. as justified by many 200 year old steam engines still running. albeit not that economically, but there are many other factors involved in that.

houses built by craftsmen with plenty of allowance are invariably still standing. it went **** up when building engineers were invented. see dangerous skyrises of the 60's. in fact, talking of skyrises, your argument of perfect engineering has even been used as an excuse for buildings to fall down despite actually being "over" engineered.

over-engineering normally makes something less complicated as simple joints etc are made stronger than absolutely necessary.

raw materials in the western world are much cheaper than labour, so over-engineering here is also cost effective.

not much point pouring over drawings for two days to save 100 quids worth of materials.

i do see your point though, it is satisfying getting something just right. just right for me tends to er on the side of something working!

jeff
 
dedee":ba36m3fk said:
Aidan,

Why the extra slots at each of the ends of the 3 longest boards? As these were also in you model I guess there must be a reason?

Cheers

Andy

Those are there such that the length can be adjusted to give more of less overhang. If I want to be able to each further into the sheet or get clamps underneath. You could add as many slots as you want really to give lots more support or for any other purpose

Aidan
 
I think that that is splendid, Aidan. My live-all-year-round-outside trestles have just about given up the ghost and need replacing. I may just use your design.
TVM
S
 
I like it. It looks rock-solid.

Only thing I might have done differently would have been to add sacrificial strips to the top edges, so that only they get chewed up. But, I guess it also depends on how much you're going to use the saw. :)
 
Great idea.


There used to be a saying "that an Engineer can make something for a penny that any fool can make for a pound"! :)


Rod
 
Why dont you offer to sell a cutting list and a photo-copy template of the wee jig as a 'group buy' Aidan ?
:wink:

2xA4 sheets of paper, 1xA4 envelope, 2nd class stamp

about £2.50 each :D
 
Nice one Tidds. Olly has a point about the edges getting chewed. But as long as you set your depth right each time then it'll take a fair amount of cuts to make them unusable. Plus I'm guessing you can just cut replacement parts out of offcuts as and when they come available.
 
wizer":lhbhkpv0 said:
Nice one Tidds. Olly has a point about the edges getting chewed. But as long as you set your depth right each time then it'll take a fair amount of cuts to make them unusable. Plus I'm guessing you can just cut replacement parts out of offcuts as and when they come available.

I just stick a bit of old MDF on it and cut on that, it's got cuts and routed slots all over it. The sacrificial strips is an idea but as I use it for assembly and other rough stuff I need something spanning the big gaps.

If there's interest I'll complete the drawings and post them

Aidan
 
Hi,

I'm equally as challenged re space in the shed, oops "workshop", as you seem
to be. I had been thinking about how to build a portable bench, but couldn't get my mind clear on how to do it - everything I came up with was just too big/heavy. I think yours is a great design, thanks for sharing it!

If you are able to make the drawings/sizes available that would be great too.

Thank you

Graham
 
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