When setting this up there were several guys in and out of the workshop and I heard a couple of comments like, oh yeah I saw that on the infomercial. That was to be expect I suppose however one of the guy had actually said his mother asked if he wanted a Jawhorse for Christmas and if someone’s mom is asking about it for a Christmas present, I’m going to assume all the Coptool.com readers have at least heard about it. Also several other fellow bloggers have already done reviews on this: ToolSnob, HomeFixated (see their video below), Stu’s Shed, LumberJocks, Toolguyd, Toolmonger, etc.
Having seen the infomercial myself it seemed like the Jawhorse could potentially be a very handy piece of hardware however I don’t fully believe anything I see on TV. I just saw the movie Avatar and can no longer tell the difference between what’s real and what is CGI. So when this Jawhorse came in the mail I was pleasantly surprised that the box seemed to weigh a ton. Not so heavy you can’t carry it, but beefy metal construction (no plastic) with solid springs. The best way I can describe it would be to say it feels like if it fell off a moving truck I’m pretty confident it would still work fine. It was also fully assembled and set up in seconds, right out of the box. Because there are already so many other reviews on the Jawhorse itself I’m going to dive in on the 2 accessory kits I also had a chance to review. Checkout our 20+ review photos.
Rockwell Jawhorse Miter Saw Station RK9110 ($75 Amazon)
It wouldn’t be hard a make a simple Miter Station for the Jawhorse out of plywood and 2x4s but this kit adds some very handy features. All the kit pieces attach to the clamp square and the handle makes it very easy for the whole unit to travel around with the Jawhorse. I was slightly disappointed in the fact that there is no way to easily attach a miter saw to the table top although clearly it would be impossible for it to work with even a fraction of the different miter saws out there. Since the unit will most likely be married to 1 or 2 miter saw over its life, it really isn’t that big of a deal for most. I was testing it out with several saws in for repair and didn’t want to permanently attach it to any of those. The 2 adjustable rollers are very nice add-ons, together with the outriggers a very nice customizable system. I would personally probably always use the rollers but maybe not the outriggers. For long boards the outriggers can be put on for support and you can stick the rollers several feet out. It is really great how customizable this whole system can be with just a few scrap 2x4s.
Rockwell Jawhorse Plywood Jaw Attachment RK9109 ($55 Amazon)
The Jawhorse alone can be configured between 0-37” which is really great but if you want to handle full sheets of plywood you will also need this jaw replacement that can handle 32”-52” material. The kit includes 2 outrigger clamps to extent the work surface similar to the Miter Station however I was disappointed to find these two kits use different outriggers (one holds 2×4 vertical, the other horizontal) so you can’t use two sets of outriggers with the plywood attachment, which may of added stability. Another disappointment with this kit is the outrigger clamps don’t fit on the jaw so you could potentially loose one pretty easy. With the Jawhorse and miter station everything was so well designed for portability. The nitpicky stuff aside the Jawhorse with this attachment was easily able to handle ½” plywood. The wood 2x4s needed to be screwed into the new Jaw (holes already there) to work properly which again adds a little time to set up and takes away from the portability. If you want to work with 4’x8’ sheets of wood comfortably, by yourself, with an easy portable setup, this has got to be one of the best solutions around.
Overall the Rockwell Jawhorse RK9000 was a pleasure to review and just a really nice solid well priced tool for anyone to own, hack to pro.