---
title: 'Low Japanese Sawhorses'
description: 'Lessons learned from shoddy work that results in real function'
date: 2026-07-02T22:01:52-07:00
thumbnail: null
article: false
---

# Abstract / Chapters / Sections idk

* greet
* problem of trying to work more 'free'
* looking to the bench hooks for crosscuts but  in need of rip cut ability
  * clamping works but requires multiple 
  * enter the low japanese saw horses at this point
* rationale for the materials
* cutting up the pieces and processesing
  * worth mentioning the lax nature of this build
* functional stopping point and closing thoughts
  * including the part where we talk about taking the project a bit further

# verbal script notes

* `V:` stands for voice over
* `S:` Describes the scene
* `E:` Gives extra details about transitions effects and other extras we may need


#  Script

## --

* V: hi i'm temper, and I make stuff
* S: Introduction from inside main house (vrc)
* E: house should have a framed picture of the thing we are building

## --

* V: sometimes the stuff I make is made out of wood which requires sawing
* S: minor change here because we're going to swap angles to something where we can actually see the framed pic we were mentioning earlier

## --

* V: And as a handtool wood worker there are two main types of sawing that I do... crosscutting, and rip cutting. Firstly crosscutting which can be easily done but using a pair of bench hooks to easily cut **across** the grain
* S: First we'll show off some random b-roll of cross cutting, before the scene change
* E: tiny text joke about being a weekend warrior or something, to drive home the non-professional easier going vibe

## --

* V: And secondly rip cutting which is... a bit more tricky as it requires some kind of clamp to setup before doing the cut
* S: show some pic of the setup with the clamp which can be finicky and what not

## --

* V: Luckily for the few times where a rip cut is necessary, particularly on smaller stock the low japanese sawhorse is a reasonable option which also packs away, doesn't  eat into my bench and allows me to work freely; a style of working that I've come enjoy more and more when ever possible due to being able to manipulate the piece so easily and for the dead-simple workholding setups
* S: sliding b-roll of the saw horses, nothing too fancy
* E: during the mention of working freely we should fade in a note to the 'working free' stuff which is a big driver for this mentality going forward.


## --

* V: Also, these are super easy to build and get started using so let's have a gander at the plan. Materials consist of some random 2x8 cedar that I had laying around. my stuff is from *house depot* which actually cleans up really nicely after some planing and finish is applied, plus its super cheap
* S: showing some plans in the back starting with the materials list
* E: house depot meme. and material bullet point list with pics of the items as they are mentioned

## --

* V: It probably goes without saying that if you want to use some other type of lumber then ofc you can but I would personally stick with at least "2 by" material so that it can withstand a bit of abuse. Remember that these go on the floor and will have to stand up to some jostling
* S: Back to the shop/room scene where we're mostly just standing around
* E: some kind of fade in to this scene or just a jump cut but definitely we want to turn into the camera without the green screen when doing this kind of aside content stuff.

{{< pic "/img/scripts/low-japanese-sawhorses/ridge.png" "reference of layout 1" >}}

{{< pic "/img/scripts/low-japanese-sawhorses/legs.png" "reference of layout 2" >}}

## --

* V: Cuts for this are actually super forgiving  because once you rough out the large cuts to get our overall blocks  we can cut down the sides of all the notches and basically just hammer them away. more stubborn...
* S: b-roll of the cutting and smashing. we'll have to cut between the two but the next scene change will be a quick on to show off some of the stubborn notches we are chiseling out
* E: quick fades between scenes for smooth transition ( try like 1 second  transitions )

## --

* V: _Continuation of previous scene but with a focus on cleaning up the stubborn notches_. For these we'll have to chop out the waste with a large chisel to make quick work of the waste before cleaning up the walls and floor of the notches. Since these are so forgiving you can always try new techniques to cleaning up saw cuts with a chisel.... _pause for affect_ just another reason to love making shop gear
* S: showing off some of the chiseling work here
* E: nothing here just fade-jumps from different stages of the chisel work

## --

* V: No seriously shop gear is probably the best place to try new things because the only real goal is that the final piece needs to be functional. Methods for hiding "errors" can be tested with reckless abandon and ultimately the dust of it's surroundings **will** hide even more issues for free! It's for that reason that I don't worry too much about the aesthetics of these things but I also need a good thumbnail so one of these will be getting a more premium treatment.
* S: More b-roll here and footage of the chiseling work for the sake of 
* E: Nothing here, just straight clean footage of the b-roll to stop from distracting. Just GS the model in to a spot that looks natural to sit/stand in

## A good place to stop for  most people

* V: At this point you should be able to click these together and fasten them if you so choose. I'm not going to do that because I want these to break down and store away without being mega akward to store. Honestly just using them as is feels totally fine and the body position is only slightly akward if you have bad technique  like I did at first but once you get the hang of things it's really not so bad. I'll likely just be using these for now and not keeping up with there use long term though since these absolutely need a long handled saw to be effective and I only have the 1 harbor freight pull saw which while functional I will not be replacing in the future.
* V: some footage of putting these things together and also breaking them down
* E: Again nothing except for a smooth transition between footage of the setup & breakdown of the pieces ( no finished parts just yet )

## Making things clean

* V: For the sake of completeness and asking "what if" I'm going to add a couple of details that really do go a *long way* to making these look so much better than they normally would. In this case I'm going to round  corners and plane all surfaces down before applying some oil. 
  * These steps are completely  :sparkle: _extra_ :sparkle: but sometimes it's nice to answer that question of "what if I tried" and "what **could** it look like". 
  * As it turns out, just a couple of very simple changes from rough to planed surfaces, and sharp to soft corners makes a world of difference.
  * The effort required really isn't that bad and it's  that part of a project where everything else has already fallen into place where you can very easily just get completely lost in detail.
* I find it easiest at this stage to get into a flow state because of this since there's basically no pressure anymore to make this work; I've already done that part and now get to make things look cool for the sake of artistic [cosmetic?] expression
* E: None just more smooth cuts between planing and rasping/filing footage.

## --

* V: Oh yea and I used some quick and cheesy saw cuts to remove the bulk of the corners, then hit it with a rasp, and finally finished them off with a bastard cut file.
* S: 
* E: Simple flowchart ahh thing that pops up and shows the saw pointing to a rasp pointing to a file
  * TBH I might just do this within vrchat on a greenscreen since it would help get the point across but also the rasp/file might not show up super good so idk
  * Alternatively I could make a simple clip of a literal powerpoint greenscreened paced to the VO. This would mean doing the VO first then clicking through the slides while the VO plays to get the timing down pat

## --

* V: And of course for the faces/edges I just them all with my trusty Taytools
#4 because anything bigger on these parts and I would probably lose my  mind 
trying to balance the thing
* Gotta love the sweet planing stop I've got which has given me a dissapointing 
amount of success in its usage despite the super janky 0 grip nature of it.
* Though I have to admit having a stop with a smaller profile would definitely 
be really nice, even if I had to give up the angled divot in the block
* S: more GS model but with some sharp cuts to different poses and VO work that
takes each `V` line into it's own pose/position in the shot. Little motion here
wouldn't hurt I don't think
* E: some work to make the varying poses between lines work but those can be hard cuts without disturbing the background.


## Closing thoughts on making things pretty and using these things

* V: All in all these [watch the y] **horseys** are reasonably usable but only because
my back isn't shambles [sneak a 'yet' here if poss]
* S: some b-roll and rolling shots of these things side by side or something
* E: maybe a bit of music here [ some mod stuff would be cool [:link: example](https://youtu.be/dQ1R_-EaNyE?si=n4x3DuKL74DgXoRd&t=2694) ]

## - 

* V: Are these genuinly useful?
* V: yes
* V: Am I going to use these for very long?
* V: No, bending over like this sucks, full stop. I prefer to work on a bench
but I needed _something_ better for rip cuts that I could build out quickly
that wouldn't make me want to explode.
* V: And no I won't be spamming clamps on this work bench because I intend on
staying away from clamp usage in the future and don't want to get into the habit
now while I can still try out different things
  * [in the background] A moxon vise would be cool!
* V: After having actually used these for some projects now I can fully say I...
* V: really just want a vise; but yes these are easy to make and will probably
facilitate making there replacement at a later date.
* S: lots of GS model cuts in front of some sweet pics and footage of these
things in action
* E: most of the effects here are going to be for moving the model around and
basically nothing else


## Closer

* V: Not much else to say really, these are quick to make, have a super low
floor to making them usable and very a  high cieling for them cool.
* V: The standish design is  honestly kinda neat in it's own right so I'll probably
be stealing this design for future stuff but for now I'll enjoy working clamp free
again for a little while longer. Before crossing yet another thing off my never ending
project list
* V: So onto the next baiye
* S: Mostly just back to the studio room with some drawings and b-roll playing
on the greenscreen projector in the back
* E: GS some b-roll and then we fade out to a gausian blurred outro panel for a bout 3 seconds or something idk bro

