Scavenger Chic

Rustic Pallet Wood Sawhorse diy

• By Joan
• January 21, 2015
• 4 Comments

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There is a lot of furniture out there these days that use the lowly sawhorse as it’s base.  I’ve seen kitchen tables, desks and media cabinets. And sometimes, just sometimes, you don’t want to use brand new pine 2×4’s for your sawhorse because it would just look too new.

These were just the first 11 to appear with a search of Sawhorse Furniture.  Are you inspired yet to build your own sawhorse?

This is where pallet wood comes to the rescue once again.

Now usually a pallet will have those notches carved into the side rails where the forklift would pick it up, but every now and then you’ll run into a pallet with solid side rails (really just plain 2×4’s), and that is what we want for the legs.

Of course, the hard part with any pallet wood project is dismantling that pallet which tends to put up a good fight.  I usually use a combination of hammers, crow bars, circular saws and reciprocating saws to free my beautiful wood.  Luckily for this project , my wood was just sitting there waiting for me, castoffs from a prior project.

You will need 6 pallet 2×4 pieces about 30 inches in length.  If you don’t have a pallet to disassemble, you could always use  2x4s. (2, 8 foot 2×4’s should do it).  You will also need a couple of scrap pieces of wood for the end brackets and a piece of pallet wood about 5 1/2″ x 31″ for the top.

Cut 4 of the 2×4’s 30 inches in length for the legs.  The 5th piece, for the top cross bar can be any length, mine was also 30 inches.

On each of the 4 legs, you’ll need to make 2, 15 degree cuts as shown.

A large notch at the top so that the board sits flush, and a smaller 15 degree notch at the bottom so that the sawhorse can sit level.

Attach the legs with screws to the top 30 inch crossbar 2 x 4 piece you cut.

Use a scrap piece of pallet wood for the end brace.  Just place the piece on top of your sawhorse and using a ruler mark your cut line.  Nail into place.  

Measure  how far from the top you placed this end piece because you want to do the same thing for the opposite end.

Using a wider piece of pallet wood (mine was 5 1/2″), cut a top piece an inch longer than your sawhorse (31″)and nail into place.  If you are using new wood, it would be a 1×6, 31 inches in length.

The last step will be using up that  remaining  2×4 piece.  Measure the distance between the 2 end braces. Cut your remaining 2×4 to length.  The cut should be the length of the top crossbar piece (30″) unless you set your legs in a bit.  Nail that 2×4 into place.

If you used enough screws and nails it should be strong enough to sit or stand on…the things I make my son do  😆

All ready to be used for that desk or table or for what I’m going to be using him for…a sawhorse!

Update:  I still have a sawhorse that I use as a sawhorse but I made 2 more and now I have a great desk using all reclaimed wood. You can find it here.  Total cost for the desk and 2 chairs was $10. (the chairs were $5 a piece)

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