Our first gainful adult experience with construction was as ditch diggers and construction laborers. Although it was the bottom of the totem pole in the residential carpentry/construction trade, it was a good foundation and made us appreciate what is a demanding, yet integral piece of the construction puzzle.

After our internship as construction laborers, we advanced to apprentice carpenters and learned the many facets of the carpentry trade. At times this was a slow and painful process, when framing a building in blistering weather and carrying sheets of thick plywood subfloor, for example.

One of the first projects we undertook as apprentices was to build a combination step stool/tool carrier. Some called it a finish bench because it was used primarily for finish work such as installing doors, baseboard and trim. As was everything else we built, it, with the exception of the carpeted top, was constructed of wood. This stool allowed access to high places and came in handy when storing or getting tools. The aforementioned carpeted top was a mighty comfortable place to rest a spell during one of those all-too-few breaks.

Having mastered bench building, we next constructed a pair of sawhorses. Having come from a family of carpenters and contractors, we were intimately acquainted with sawhorses, yet we had never made one. We soon learned that for carpenters a pair of good sawhorses is indispensable. They provide a stable base on which to cut or assemble material, and greatly improve safety and the quality of the work being done.

When paired with an old door or a thick piece of plywood, sawhorses can be part of a great workbench or sewing table. Saw horses even can be used as furniture. It isn't unusual to see a desk or worktable constructed from a pair of sawhorses and an old door, a piece of veneer plywood or a sheet of glass.

You don't need to be a carpenter to make a sawhorse. All you need is a few sticks of lumber, some nails or construction screws, a hammer, some wood glue and a hand saw or circular saw. If you'd rather leave the sawhorse construction to someone else, you can purchase them ready-made. Or you can have the best of both worlds by making your own sawhorses using bracket kits available at hardware stores or home centers.

In either case, start by cutting two-by-fours to various lengths for the components - one saddle and four legs per sawhorse. Although you can customize your sawhorses to any size or height, the saddle should be about 38 inches long and it should run past the legs at either end by about 6 inches. The bottom of the legs should be even with the end of the saddle to produce an angle that will offer maximum stability.

An angle cut will need to be made at the location where the legs attach to the saddle. In addition, angle cuts should be made at the top and bottom of each of the legs - at the top for a flat surface and at the bottom so that the legs sit flat on the floor.

The final piece of the sawhorse puzzle is the cleat or gusset that holds the opposing legs together and offers additional support for the saddle to rest on. More often than not, the cleat consists of a piece of scrap plywood and is attached using wood glue and construction screws or nails. In fact, using wood glue and construction screws at all connections will make for the sturdiest of sawhorses.

Once built, your sawhorse can be equipped with "bells and whistles" to make you the envy of the neighborhood. For example, you can protect workpieces by making a cap for each sawhorse using two 1-by-3's for the sides and a 1-by-4 for the top. Cover the top piece with carpeting and tack the carpeting to the sides. You can slip them onto the sawhorses whenever you need them.

A tool tray is a handy accessory that you can add between the legs of a regular nonfolding sawhorse. Make a shallow box that consists of a 1-by-4 frame with a plywood bottom. Attach it to cross braces running between each pair of legs. Mount a tray on just one sawhorse so that a pair will stack.

To make measurements a snap, mount an old metal ruler or tape measure blade to the side of the saddle. Although you can use a yardstick, the measurements are typically not accurate enough for the type of work performed on a sawhorse. Moreover, a yardstick doesn't hold up as well as metal.

A good pair of sawhorses can be a most valuable home-improvement aid.