Jacked-Up Outfeed Roller

Here’s an outfeed roller that you can adjust in seconds to support boards coming off stationary power tools of every height in your shop. And if you bolt the roller to a sturdy sawhorse, only a rampaging bull will knock it over. Along with the sawhorse, you’ll need:

• A heavy-duty scissors jack.
• A heavy-duty scissors jack.
• A bracketed roller. Buy the longest roller available if you want to support wide boards and plywood.
• Nuts, Wing-Nuts, bolts and washers to attach the jack, roller and sawhorse.

It’s a snap to build:

1. Drill two holes in both the base and top of the jack with a metal-cutting bit and drill. You need large-diameter bolts, so drill the largest hole you can.
2. Bolt the roller to the scissors jack and the jack to the sawhorse. Use Wing-Nuts under the sawhorse so you can quickly remove the support when you need the sawhorse for other jobs.

P.S. It’s easy to crank the jack up and down with the jack’s standard handle, but to do it faster, chuck a screw hook in a portable drill, put the hook in the jack’s drive hole, and run the drill in forward and reverse to raise or lower the jack. Thanks to reader Parkis Kennedy for rolling out this idea.