How to cut (cross, rip and mitre) reclaimed hardwood sleepers made from Azobe

[surfjungle]

Hello. I have an interesting garden project that I plan on completing myself over several days. It involves bordering my lawn - a long rectangle - with sleepers. So, the centre is grass and the edges are bark mulch, either treed area or beds with bushes. It's a horseshoe arrangement. As I'm reasonably handy, enjoy such things and would prefer to spend my money on quality sleepers and tools that can keep.

Notes:
1. The reclaimed hardwood sleeper dimensions are 260cm x 25cm x 12.5cm.
2. The total lenght to border is around 60m.
3. I plan on cutting all sleepers in half (from 260cm to 130cm) to make them easier to process and to help improve the look of the garden.
3. I plan on lying the sleepers flant on their wide side (the 25cm side).
4. Most connections with be end-to-end, some will be mitred corders and on section will be an arc.

Here's what I plan on doing:
1. Carefully plan the area with 130cm or smaller sleepers
2. Level the area the sleepers are.
3. Put down, tamp and level pebbles to ensure water cannot settle and prematurely rot the sleepers..
4. Cut the wood to measure. Includes cross and rip cuts and some mitres. There will be some cutouts using either an auger / forstner bit and a reciprocating saw.
5. Put the wood down, align it and affix sleepers with builders stainless steel banding using 10cm stainless steel coach bolts.

My questions to you are:
1. How do I cut the sleepers?
2. How do I attach them to each other so they don't move? I will need to cross cut, rip cut as well as mitre for the corners and arc. I'll need to do some cut outs for some awkward locations but not many. I do not foresee any bevels.
3. Bonus points if you can suggest ways of moving the sleepers 25m from the front of the house to the back garden via an open side passage where the ground is smooth for the majority of travel. I can only cut them in half at the back of the house.
4. Any other advice!

Kindly note that I already have some Festool gear including several tracks, an MFT with the angle set. I also have a pair of Toughbuilt C700 sawhorses. In terms of power tools that may be of interest, I have a Festool reciprocating saw and TPC 18 drill.

I have an idea of how to cut the wood after doing some moderate research. The Festool sword saw with a RAPID-FS (large) clamp, which can run on my existing tracks seems like the best option with some large clamps. I hope it is powerful enough. I see different chains for cross, rip and universal (both). Festool don't do a circular saw big enough and I don't fancy using their HK85 and make two cuts or a Mafell KSS 85 Ec 370. Mafell have a sword saw that is four times the price of Festool (I can't believe I just typed that). Chainsaws are out because they're not accurate enough (I'm excluding sword saw here because it's far more accurate) and too dangerous for me, a reciprocating saw is too inaccurate especially for rip cuts, Makita's 5143R (355mm blade) circular saw is too big, unwieldy and awkward, especially for rip cuts.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, whether you can help or not and for your help if you have some ideas. I appreciate it.

 

[Duckler]

Have you considered one of those chainsaw attachments that bolts on a worm-drive Skil saw?
Not remembering the (unique) name of the product. But it is the bomb for large timbers.

 

[Frank-Jan]

I think it's the prazi beam cutter. link

 

[Birdhunter]

What is a sleeper?

 

[luvmytoolz]

What is a sleeper?

Timber beams used under train tracks. Usually an extremely hard and dense timber, perfect for re-use.

 

[surfjungle]

Have you considered one of those chainsaw attachments that bolts on a worm-drive Skil saw?
Not remembering the (unique) name of the product. But it is the bomb for large timbers.

Thanks for the idea. I didn't think of this but we don't really do worm drive saws in Europe. The only circular saw I own is the HKC55 which would not be appropriate.

 

[surfjungle]

I think it's the prazi beam cutter. link

Thanks for the link. We don't really do these in Europe / where I am from as worm saws are few and far between.

 

[ear3]

Can you get access where you are to a Sawsquatch, which has enough capacity to cut the beams on the 12.5cm side.  It would do both the cross and rip cuts.

 

[jeffinsgf]

... The Festool sword saw with a RAPID-FS (large) clamp, which can run on my existing tracks seems like the best option with some large clamps. I hope it is powerful enough. I see different chains for cross, rip and universal (both).

Had no idea this even existed. Another NAINA. Have absolutely no use for it whatsoever, but I want one.  [big grin]

 

[surfjungle]

Can you get access where you are to a Sawsquatch, which has enough capacity to cut the beams on the 12.5cm side.  It would do both the cross and rip cuts.

Good call. That was something I had considered a different way using the 230 volt Makita 5143R circular saw with a cutting depth of 130mm / 5.11". However, I concluded that it was very big and awkward. I live in Ireland. I believe some law prevents those specific Skilsaws from being sold here. That said, the Festool sword saw on a short guide rail with the FS clamp is still a better option as it's almost half the weight of the Makita and can cut 66% deeper.

 

[surfjungle]

... The Festool sword saw with a RAPID-FS (large) clamp, which can run on my existing tracks seems like the best option with some large clamps. I hope it is powerful enough. I see different chains for cross, rip and universal (both).

Had no idea this even existed. Another NAINA. Have absolutely no use for it whatsoever, but I want one.  [big grin]

I and no idea it existed either until I went looking for a way to cut sleepers and investigated the Festool Sword Saw. There were a few useful Youtube videos, one from a Festool rep that showed the use of it which I eventually cottoned on to.

 

[Cheese]

What is a sleeper?

Timber beams used under train tracks. Usually an extremely hard and dense timber, perfect for re-use.

Don't railway sleepers contain creosote? That may not play well with small plants & bushes.

 

[surfjungle]

What is a sleeper?

Timber beams used under train tracks. Usually an extremely hard and dense timber, perfect for re-use.

Don't railway sleepers contain creosote? That may not play well with small plants & bushes.

That's a good point but I'm not too worried about that as if I believe they're not suitable, I can still get them new but made from oak or pine though both are not ideal, especially the pine.

 

[Svar]

What is a sleeper?

Timber beams used under train tracks. Usually an extremely hard and dense timber, perfect for re-use.

Don't railway sleepers contain creosote? That may not play well with small plants & bushes.

Should be fine for plants. They add insecticides and fungicide to creosote for wood treatment. I often see old railroad sleepers used in landscaping.

 

[woodbutcherbower]

Why not stop over-thinking this and just cut them using your recip saw? This is garden landscaping, not Sheraton-level cabinet making.

 

[Svar]

How much cutting are we talking about? 5, 10, 100 sleepers? I would use a hand saw unless you need to rip cut a lot.
I'd test cut with whatever power tool you have as I'm afraid lumber treated with creosote will gum up the teeth quickly.
Also, where are the pictures [big grin].

 

[luvmytoolz]

What is a sleeper?

Timber beams used under train tracks. Usually an extremely hard and dense timber, perfect for re-use.

Don't railway sleepers contain creosote? That may not play well with small plants & bushes.

So far as I'm aware sleepers in OZ don't, at least I've never seen or heard of it here, maybe as we have a large supply of super dense redgum and ironbark which practically last forever in large slab sizes.

I got hold of some really old red ironbark sleepers recently to make door stop blocks from, and it's just about like machining stone! ;-)

 

[Duckler]

When I looked up “azobe” I learned that it is a wood from Africa. And that it is very dense and resistant to decay. So that would seem to be a great material to use in the garden/lawn. In fact, it is not obvious to me why one would want to put it on gravel.
Regarding the Festool Swordsaw: where you are located do they let you tryout their tools for 30 days and return if not satisfied at end of that period?

 

[Cheese]

So far as I'm aware sleepers in OZ don't, at least I've never seen or heard of it here, maybe as we have a large supply of super dense redgum and ironbark which practically last forever in large slab sizes.

I got hold of some really old red ironbark sleepers recently to make door stop blocks from, and it's just about like machining stone! ;-)

FWIW..."sleepers in the US"... aka railroad ties... are usually manufactured from white oak with a HEAVY application of creosote added in. The "used" versions have been traditionally offered to the US public for free because it was a cost effective way to get rid of the carcinogenic stuff rather than having to follow government guidelines.

"Telephone poles" (high voltage home-to-home pole supports) are also creosote treated and have a life expectancy of 50+ years. The "telephone pole" in our back yard was installed in 1953 and is still functional but it's starting to wane. I'll give it another 10 years.

My neighbor built a raised planter using free railroad ties to frame the exterior boundaries. He tried to grow raspberries within the perimeter framed area but the results were not very encouraging...he eventually gave up and it's now a graveyard for weeds.  [sad]

 

[surfjungle]

Why not stop over-thinking this and just cut them using your recip saw? This is garden landscaping, not Sheraton-level cabinet making.

That's a very fair point indeed. I've thought about it a few times but am concerned that the blade will wander too much given the size of the sleeper and size of the blade (about a foot / 305mm). If all cuts were cross, that would be one thing but keeping it straight for 1.3 metres (I'll cut all sleepers at 2.6 metres in half) is a difficult ask.