Best Sawhorses in Australia (2026)

A sawhorse is one of those things you do not think about until the day you are trying to cut a sheet of ply on the garage floor with your knees in the dust. Two of them turn a concrete slab into a work surface at a sensible height, and a decent pair costs less than a weekend at the hardware store usually ends up costing anyway.

Searching for sawhorses in Australia mostly turns up hardware store category pages and American YouTube videos. So we did the boring part: we pulled the current Amazon Australia listings for purpose-built steel sawhorses, checked what each one holds, how flat it folds, what it weighs and what it costs today, and threw out anything that was really a workbench or a trestle table wearing a sawhorse label. Seven pairs made it through.

What is the best sawhorse in Australia right now?

For most people the answer is the BORA Workhorse X PM-3350T two pack. It carries the highest rated load of any pair here, about 1,225 kg across the two horses, the frames are alloy steel, and it has a deep review record for the category. It is the pair you buy once.

If that is more than you want to spend on something that lives folded against a wall, the ToughBuilt C300 sawhorse twin pack gives you 1,100 lb per horse in powder coated and zinc plated steel with fast open legs and a carry handle. It is the sensible middle of this list and the pair we would hand to a first home buyer setting up a garage from scratch.

On a tight budget, the Goplus 2 pack folding saw horses are the cheapest of our seven picks and still rate 4.8 stars. They need no assembly, they take 2x4 timber in cast steel hooks, and the pair weighs 7.7 kg, which matters more than you think when you are carrying them out to the driveway.

How do our seven sawhorse picks compare?

Capacity below is the manufacturer rating for the pair, which is how sawhorses are almost always sold here. Prices move, so treat the last column as a starting point.

How we evaluated these sawhorses

NestPath does not run a workshop. We read the listings properly, in Australian dollars, against the way a sawhorse actually gets used in a suburban garage.

• Rated capacity taken per pair, because listings flip between per horse and per pair figures to make the number look bigger.
• Folded size and pair weight, since most Australian garages store these vertically behind a car that still has to fit.
• Star rating and review count pulled fresh at pick time, with a minimum bar so nothing gets in on three reviews and a hopeful description.
• Scope held to purpose-built steel sawhorses, so folding workbenches, trestle legs and bracket-only kits were left out.

Best sawhorse overall: BORA Workhorse X PM-3350T

The BORA Workhorse X is the pair to buy if you would rather solve sawhorses permanently. Each horse is alloy steel with an A frame that drops into place on a single release latch, and BORA rates the pair at 2,700 lb, or roughly 1,225 kg. That is the highest rated capacity of our picks, and it is not close on the two heaviest jobs a home sawhorse ever sees: holding a full sheet of 2400 x 1200 ply while you break it down, and taking the weight of a door you are trimming.

What makes it worth the money is the top beam. It is pre-drilled at the end brackets so you can screw a length of timber along the top as a sacrificial surface, which means you can cut straight through the workpiece without chewing into the horse itself. The same brackets let you run 2x4 material between two Workhorse X units to build a longer, stiffer platform.

The pair lists at 25.8 lb, about 11.7 kg, and that mass is what stops them walking across a slab when you lean into a cut. Assembly is moderate rather than nothing: you deploy the legs the first time, but there is no per leg latching because the A frame does the work.

At 4.8 stars from 1,389 ratings this is also the most reviewed sawhorse on this page, which is the closest thing to long term evidence you get in this category. If you are building out a garage properly, pair them with a fixed workbench and let the horses handle everything that is too long or too awkward for the bench.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It is one of the dearer picks here and it is heavy to lift into a ute tray. The orange finish also scuffs the way any powder coat does once you start dropping timber on it. Neither changes what it does.

Best value pair: ToughBuilt C300 Sawhorse Twin Pack

The ToughBuilt C300 twin pack is the pick we would put in most Australian garages. Each horse is 100 percent high grade steel rated to 1,100 lb on its own and 2,200 lb as a pair, which lands at about 1,000 kg, and the steel is both powder coated and zinc plated so it copes with a carport or a shed that gets damp in winter.

The detail that matters day to day is the fast open legs. You grab the horse by the built in handle, swing it, and it stands up, with no fiddling with four separate catches while holding a sheet of MDF under one arm. Folded, each horse is only 10.5 cm deep, so a pair takes up about the width of a hand against a wall. Set up they stand 72.5 cm tall and 93.5 cm long.

ToughBuilt also rolls the edges on the top rail rather than leaving a raw stamped lip. That sounds like marketing until you have run your forearm along a cheap sawhorse.

At 4.7 stars from 546 ratings the feedback is the boring kind: people who bought them, used them, and did not come back to complain. The C300 comes up constantly alongside the BORA range when Australians ask which pair to buy, and having compared the two we think the ToughBuilt is the one most people should actually buy, with whatever is left over going into clamps.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Assembly is required: the legs attach to the main body out of the box, which is a ten minute job with a spanner. The listing weight figure is also clearly wrong on Amazon, so ignore it and judge by the steel spec instead.

Best budget sawhorses: Goplus 2 Pack Folding Saw Horses

The Goplus folding pair is the cheapest of our seven picks and the only one here we would call genuinely impulse priced. You get two metal framed horses rated at 1,100 lb each, so about 1,000 kg for the pair, with non-slip foot pads and four cast steel hooks that hold 2x4 timber across the top.

They arrive ready to use with no assembly at all, which is rarer than it should be at this price. Set up, each horse measures about 96.5 cm long, 47 cm wide and 76 cm tall. Folded, they collapse to roughly 84 cm long by 11.5 cm square, so a pair slides behind a door. The set weighs 17 lb, about 7.7 kg.

The non-slip pads deserve a mention because Australian garages are almost all sealed or bare concrete, and a steel foot on sealed concrete slides. Goplus has put rubber on the feet rather than relying on weight, which is the difference between a horse that stays put and one that creeps every time you push a saw through a board.

At 4.8 stars from 86 ratings these tie with the BORA for the highest star rating on this page, though on a much smaller review base. For a first garage, a rental, or a pair you only drag out twice a year, they are the obvious call. If you already know you will be cutting most weekends, spend up.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

There is no adjustment of any kind, so what you see is the height you get. The steel gauge is lighter than the BORA or ToughBuilt and the finish will mark quickly. The review base is small compared with the two picks above it.

Best for uneven ground: Stanley FatMax Telescopic Saw Horse

If the place you actually work is a sloping driveway, a backyard on clay, or a half finished slab, the Stanley FatMax telescopic pair solves the problem the others cannot. Each leg extends independently by up to 215 mm, with overall height adjustable across a 125 mm range, so you level the horse to the ground instead of shimming it with offcuts.

This is the only pick here with telescopic legs that adjust individually, and it is the reason it earns its place despite being the dearest of our picks. The feet are bi-material aluminium and polypropylene, which grip without marking a finished surface, and the pair is rated to 1,135 kg. Each horse is 815 mm long, 650 mm tall and 100 mm deep, and there is a lower level in the frame that gives you somewhere to rest offcuts or a cordless drill instead of putting them on the ground.

Stanley quotes 5.25 kg per horse and the listed pack weight is 12.26 kg including packaging, so you can carry both in one hand. Assembly is required out of the box.

The rating is 4.5 stars from 795 ratings, the lowest star average on this page, and a chunk of that comes from people expecting a fixed heavy duty steel horse and getting an adjustable one instead. Judge it for what it is: a levelling tool. If your work happens outside on Australian ground, nothing else here comes close.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It is the dearest pick on this page and the adjustment mechanism is one more thing that can seize if you leave it out in the weather. The lower star average also reflects genuine complaints about leg locks on early units.

Best lightweight pair: Evolution Power Tools EVOSH1

The Evolution EVOSH1 pair is for anyone whose sawhorses have to move. Each horse supports up to 500 kg, so 1,000 kg for the pair, and the whole set lists at 3.6 kg. That is light enough to carry both up a flight of stairs in one hand, which matters if you are working in an apartment, a townhouse with an internal garage, or anywhere the job is not where the car is.

The pair ships with four cast steel hooks for mounting worktops, so you can drop a sheet of ply or a length of timber across the top and have a paste table, a paint trestle or a mitre saw stand in about thirty seconds. There is no assembly at all, and the frames have integrated carry handles.

Evolution sells this as a saw bench as much as a sawhorse, and that is fair. It is the pair we would use for the jobs that are not really sawing: laying out a flat pack, painting a door, holding a bike while you work on it.

At 4.7 stars from 941 ratings it has the second largest review base on this page, which is reassuring for something this light.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Light weight cuts both ways: without a load on top these will slide if you push hard, so keep timber across them. The metal is thinner than the ToughBuilt or BORA and it feels it.

Best galvanised pair: Baumr-AG Folding Steel Sawhorse Set

Baumr-AG is a name Australians will recognise from the tool aisle, and this folding set is the one to look at if your storage is outdoors or semi outdoors. The frame is galvanised steel with a combination of powder coating and zinc plating, which is three layers of rust defence on something that will spend most of its life leaning against a damp Colorbond wall.

The set is rated at 1,000 kg combined, 500 kg per horse, and it takes 2x4 support arms across the top with a non-slip surface. There is no assembly needed. Folded, the horses measure about 106 x 12 x 7 cm, which is long but very flat, so they hang neatly off a couple of hooks rather than taking floor space. The set weighs 6 kg.

For a shed with a dirt floor or a carport that catches the weather from one side, the galvanising is the whole argument. It is what stops the feet blooming with rust after a wet winter.

The catch is evidence. This set carries 4.6 stars but only 8 ratings, the smallest review base of our picks, so we are leaning on the specification and the brand rather than on hundreds of owners. If you want volume of feedback behind your purchase, buy the ToughBuilt or the BORA instead.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Eight ratings is a thin evidence base and we say so plainly. The long folded profile also means it does not tuck into a narrow gap the way the ToughBuilt does.

Best for holding the work still: WORX WX065.3 Clamping Sawhorses

The WORX WX065.3 pair does something none of the others do: it clamps. Each horse has a clamp built into the top rail, so instead of balancing a board and hoping, you lock it down and cut. This is the only pick here with clamps built into the top rail, and once you have used it for trimming a door or ripping a skirting board you notice the difference immediately.

The set is rated at 1,000 lb as a pair, about 450 kg, the lowest capacity of our picks and the trade for the mechanism. That is still far more than any sheet good or door you will put on it. The frame is alloy steel with plastic in the clamp assembly, and the pair lists at 15.67 lb, about 7.1 kg. No assembly required.

WORX also includes bar clamps and a 7 inch metal triangle ruler in this bundle, plus a built in shelf and cable hooks on each horse. Those hooks keep a power lead off a wet slab and out from under your feet while a circular saw is running.

At 4.6 stars from 121 ratings the feedback base is moderate but consistent. If your work is mostly cutting rather than supporting, this is the smarter buy of the mid priced picks, and it pairs well with a decent set of joinery jigs if you are building furniture rather than just breaking down sheets.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It has the lowest rated capacity of our picks, so it is not the pair for supporting engine parts or a stack of pavers. Plastic in the clamp assembly is also the part most likely to fail years from now.

Which sawhorse should you buy?

Match the way you work to the pair that suits it.

What should you look for in a sawhorse?

Start with the capacity figure and check whether it is per horse or per pair, because listings switch between the two without warning. A pair rated at 2,200 lb usually means 1,100 lb each. Once you know which number you are reading, almost everything on the market is stronger than the job. A full sheet of 18 mm structural ply weighs around 35 kg and a solid core internal door about 30 kg. The capacity war between brands is mostly marketing, and it only matters if you are supporting something genuinely heavy like an engine block or a pallet of tiles.

Does Australian timber fit the 2x4 slots?

This is the one thing the overseas guides never mention and it catches people out. Almost every folding sawhorse sold here is designed around American 2x4 lumber, which finishes at about 38 x 89 mm. In Australia you walk into a hardware store and buy 90 x 45 mm dressed pine, which is close enough that it seats properly in the 2x4 brackets and hooks on the BORA, Goplus, Evolution and Baumr picks above. Where you get trouble is if you grab 70 x 35 mm because it was cheaper. It will rattle in the slot and the whole platform will feel loose. Buy 90 x 45 and the American design assumption stops being a problem.

How high should the top sit?

Australian retailers generally stock sawhorses between 750 mm and 900 mm, and that band exists for a reason: it puts the work near your hip so you are not bending over a cut. Anything under 700 mm has you hunched, which is how a two hour job becomes a sore back for three days. The ToughBuilt stands 72.5 cm and the Goplus 76 cm, which suits people of average height using a circular saw. If you are tall, the Stanley is the pick that lets you raise the top.

Folded size matters more than you expect

In a standard Australian single garage, the car takes most of the floor and the rest is fought over. Check the folded depth first. The ToughBuilt folds to 10.5 cm deep, the Goplus to about 11.5 cm square, and the Baumr set is very flat but long at about 106 cm. A pair that stores badly is a pair you stop dragging out.

Sawhorse or trestle table?

They are not the same thing and the difference matters. A sawhorse is a support: two of them plus your own timber becomes a work surface, and you can cut straight through into the sacrificial top without ruining anything. A trestle table is a finished surface you should not put a saw through. If your main job is cutting, buy sawhorses. If your main job is laying things out flat, buy a table. Plenty of people end up owning both.

Steel gauge and finish

Every pick here is steel, but the gauge varies and you feel it when you lean on the frame. Finish matters just as much in Australian conditions. Powder coat alone is fine indoors. Zinc plating or galvanising underneath the powder coat is what you want if the horses live in a carport, a shed with gaps, or anywhere on the coast where salt air gets in.

How do you look after a steel sawhorse?

Very little is needed, which is the point, but a few habits will double the life of a cheap pair.

Fold them and store them off the concrete. A slab wicks moisture, and a steel foot sitting in that overnight is where rust starts. Hooks on the wall or a hanger in the rafters both work, and both get them out of the way of the car.

Keep the pivots dry and give them a squirt of light machine oil once a year. On folding designs the hinge and the leg latch are the only moving parts, and they decide whether the horse still opens easily in five years. If you have the Stanley with telescopic legs, wipe grit out of the tubes before you collapse them, because sand dragged inside the leg is what makes an adjustment mechanism seize.

Replace the sacrificial top before you cut into the frame. If you are running 90 x 45 pine across the brackets, that timber is meant to take the saw blade. When it starts looking like a comb, unscrew it and put a fresh length on.

What else do you need alongside a sawhorse?

A pair of horses on their own is half a setup. These pieces turn them into a working bench.

• HORUSDY 8 pack bar clamps in 12 inch and 6 inch sizes, so you can lock timber to the top rail on any horse that does not clamp by itself.
• Century Drill 2x4 steel sawhorse brackets if you want to build an extra horse out of offcut pine for very little money.
• Stanley frameless safety glasses, because sheet goods throw dust straight up at your face when you cut at hip height.
• Stanley Tylon 8 m tape measures, two pack, since one always ends up in the car and the other in the shed.
• WZQH leather work gloves for handling rough sawn timber and steel edges without collecting splinters.
• WORKPRO rechargeable magnetic LED work light, which sticks straight to a steel sawhorse frame and lights the cut line in a dim garage.
• McGuire-Nicholas gel knee pads for the jobs that still end up on the slab despite everything.

The competition and what we left out

Plenty of well known products did not make the list, and mostly for the same reason: they are not sawhorses.

The BORA Centipede work stand and the WORX Pegasus are both excellent, but they are folding work tables. They give you a large flat surface rather than two supports, and you cannot cut through them. If a table is what you want, buy one deliberately rather than by accident.

Bracket kits like the BORA Jobhorse leg brackets, the Fulton 400SHB brackets and the POWERTEC plastic brackets are a legitimate cheap route, and we have linked one above as an accessory. They are not finished sawhorses though, so they do not belong in a picks list.

The WORKPRO 3000 lb adjustable pair reads well on paper but carries a fraction of the feedback the BORA has behind it, so the BORA wins on evidence. The Klein Tools 66187 rates beautifully and is genuinely good gear, but you are buying a single horse rather than a pair.

The VEVOR pair rates 3.9 stars and is rated at only 440 lb, low enough that we would point you at the Goplus instead. The Keter plastic sawhorses are fine for light work but they are not steel, and Relaxdays folding trestle legs are trestle legs, not horses.

Sawhorse questions Australians ask

What is the best sawhorse for the money in Australia?

The ToughBuilt C300 twin pack is the best balance of price and capability for most Australian garages. You get two high grade steel horses rated at 1,100 lb each, powder coated and zinc plated against damp, with fast open legs and a carry handle, and it holds 4.7 stars from 546 ratings. If your budget is tighter, the Goplus two pack is the cheapest of our seven picks and still rates 4.8 stars.

How much weight should a sawhorse hold?

Far less than the marketing suggests. A full sheet of 18 mm structural ply weighs around 35 kg and a solid core internal door about 30 kg, so any pair rated to 500 kg or more is already well past what a home project asks of it. Capacity only becomes the deciding factor if you are supporting something like an engine block, a pallet of tiles or a stack of hardwood.

Do Australian 90 x 45 pine boards fit US 2x4 sawhorse brackets?

Yes. Almost every folding sawhorse sold here is designed around American 2x4 lumber, which finishes at about 38 x 89 mm, and Australian 90 x 45 mm dressed pine seats properly in those brackets and hooks. The mistake to avoid is buying 70 x 35 mm timber instead, because it rattles in the slot and the whole platform feels loose.

Do you need a pair of sawhorses or is one enough?

You need a pair for almost everything. One horse supports a single point, which is only useful for holding a log while you cut it with a chainsaw. Two horses spaced apart give you a stable span you can lay timber across, which is what turns them into a work surface. Every pick on this page is sold as a matched pair for that reason.

What height should a sawhorse be?

Between 750 mm and 900 mm suits most people, which is why Australian retailers stock that band. That height puts the work near your hip so you are not bending over the cut, and it keeps a long board from feeling tippy. Anything under 700 mm has you hunched over, which turns a two hour job into a sore back for days afterwards.

What else should you set up in the garage?

Sawhorses are usually the first purchase in a garage about to get used properly. These guides cover what follows.

• Best workbench in Australia for the fixed surface the horses cannot replace.
• Best circular saw in Australia, the tool most people buy sawhorses for in the first place.
• Best clamps in Australia for holding work to the top rail.
• Best cordless drill in Australia for fixing the sacrificial top on.
• Best safety glasses in Australia for cutting at hip height.
• Garage storage ideas so the folded pair has somewhere to live.
• Home tool kit essentials if you are starting from nothing.

About the author

Anish Puri founded NestPath in 2026 after going through the Australian first-home-buyer process himself. NestPath focuses on Australian first-home buyers because the existing review sites are American, generic, or both. Anish handles editorial selection across the homeowner hub. Reach out: hello@nestpath.com.au