Sawhorse Special Request: Fancy Feet

The sawhorse design I picked has legs that end like any normal 2″x4″; rectangular. The sawhorse’s legs are at an angle. That means the rectangular end interfaces with the ground as if it were a point rather than a wide flat surface. I never gave it much thought.

The video suggested a point is better for “digging in” to soft surfaces like dirt (for when you use your sawhorse outdoors). I’ve been using a them on my shop’s floor (cement) and outside (dirt). I didn’t notice anything good or bad about the leg’s “untrimmed” end on any surface.

A couple folks mentioned they’d like to trim the leg. They want an angled cut so the leg’s end is parallel with the floor. Who am I to complain?

I noodled around in Fusion 360, dredged up long forgotten high school geometry, and printed out a jig that does the job. Trace it on the leg (all four) and follow the line to cut the leg’s end. Now it matches the ground.

I had to make a name for the file so I called it “fancy foot”. If you’d like a jig to trim your sawhorse’s feet parallel to the ground, “fancy foot” is precisely what you wanted.

I added “fancy foot jig” to the world’s crudest order form at https://adaptivecurmudgeon.com/sawhorses/.

“Fancy foot” is entirely optional. You can make a rockin’ sawhorse without “fancy feet”. Or you can add “fancy feet” and enjoy the added awesomeness. It’s up to you.

It’s pretty simple so I’m only asking $3.

Pics or it didn’t happen so here goes. Hold the fancy foot jig on the bottom of the leg like so.

Trace a line.

Cut on the line and now your sawhorse’s feet are flat to the floor. I used a square and some scraps to test all the angles. It works flawlessly. (Note this is scrap for testing. The leg is unusually short in this image.)

Here’s how the “build the whole sawhorse” jig and the “fancy foot jig” would fit on the same leg. (Note, the leg is unusually short, it’s just scrap I used for testing.)

Improving the sawhorse produces almost no waste; which is awesome because I’m a cheap guy. A “fancy foot” sawhorse and a “default” sawhorse both use the exact same input wood.

I want to formally apologize to my high school math teachers. I whined “when am I ever gonna’ use this”. Yet, just now I was flipping angles precisely like I was taught. If my teacher had said “many decades from now you’ll use geometry to fine tune computer models that create 3d printed jigs to fine tune homebuilt sawhorses” that would have been real helpful. On the other hand, no sane person would have guessed it.