Compound cuts for a traditional sawhorse

[kaseryn]

Someone please clear up something that's been bugging me for a while. I haven't had the need/chance to make a traditional sawhorse so far but last week did something similar when i needed to make a timber/ply replacment tripod for the laser. I'm working high up in an open frame building and it needed some heft to resist the wind and shaking so i just did a splayed stand with 4 legs of 3x2. What i'm wondering is this. Most of the guides i've seen for the sawhorse recommend slightly different angles for the splay.. 15 in one direction, 13 in the other? Whereas my stand was square and i used the same angle in cut and bevel i suppose the legs were all interchangeable. But does this cease to be the case for the sawhorse construction, or does it not matter? Do eg only diagonal opposites fit each other when you have an unequal compound cut or does it make no difference?

cheers

 

[Ryler]

I just set a concrete block on mine for stability.

 

[foxhole]

Tripod needs just 3 legs!

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I just set a concrete block on mine for stability.

Try a bag of sharp sand. Conforms to whatever you sit it on

 

[kaseryn]

Yes.. 3 legs for a tripod. Technically speaking, you are correct. But this one had four. You may call it a quadrapod if you like. Or a stand. The actual tripod was missing and i needed something solid. But all of this is beside the point! Angles, people. Stay on point!

 

[foxhole]

Yes.. 3 legs for a tripod. Technically speaking, you are correct. But this one had four. You may call it a quadrapod if you like. Or a stand. The actual tripod was missing and i needed something solid. But all of this is beside the point! Angles, people. Stay on point!

Angle no important, as long as it doesn't fall over its fine

 

[Deleted member 174758]

OK, on point.... i always preferred 4 x 2 (stronger than 3 x 2, allows you to put a fork in one end of the top plank to hold doors, too) and I was taught that all.the angles are cut the same - so you can get by with one settng of your sliding bevel. Two angles would require two bevels, or making no.mistakes with perfect timber (I can see that happening) when making the pair or better yet three trestles you always seem to need

BTW I don't know the angle - however the ratio of the triangle to set the bevel is 4:1. In any case who the hell measures angles on a site? You tend to talk in terms of rise and run

Edit: Just to be awkward 4:1 is just over 14°

 

[kaseryn]

Ok thanks for that. I like the idea of the notch. Regarding angles and ratio runs, you might be surprised. I'm newly into fix work after nigh 20 years shuttering and my first roof job last year was all given in angles. Young company/workers mind but far from their first loft and main man didn't know about the hip/rafter scales on the square. i.e. how one gives the other.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I'm getting used to structural engineers who don't know their arse from their elbow. The reason why we use rise and run is because they can be physically measured, accurately, in the worst of conditions (i.e. on top of a roof on a site in the rain) with nothing more than a tape measure and be more or less guaranteed correct. Angles on the other hand don't work well with rafter squares, the traditional tool for the job, and the discrepancies you can get when setting a roof with a combined base run of 40 or more feet using a 7in or 12in angle gauge (and misreading by a couple of mm) can become significant. But then these guys come from university and are better educated than us poor ignorant minnions.... aren't they?