Recycled Railway Sleeper

**wayneo75** · 21st December 2007, 01:51 PM

My father in law had a crazy idea that he would use a whole heap of railway sleepers to extend the back deck. Simply cut up all the sleepers into 20mm thick stock and hey presto all is done.....crazy thing is he though he could do it free hand with a chainsaw!!! After the first sleeper was cut, he's gone back to the drawing board.

He then finds out i have just bought a triton workbench and asks "can you cut them on that for me"? Reluctantly I said I would give it a go just to keep him happy. I knew I would not be undertaking to cut up 25 sleepers like he was hoping, but I did take 1 home just to have a play.

The results are below and I am returning the finished product to him as a xmas present, to replace the small table at the back door that the dog chewed!

As you can see I dressed one side to new looking timber and the opposite side I dressed as little as possible to leave the weathered look, in hindsight though, I should have also left a weathered edge on the top on that side, as I feel it looks a little mismatched....

Anybody have any idea what kind of timber it would be?? Sleeper came of a track near Gunnedah.

**Bleedin Thumb** · 21st December 2007, 02:07 PM

I started reading this and thinking who would even contemplate chopping up a sleeper on a triton (or any other TS). I'm glade I persevered until I saw the photo's.

Good job

..........don't know about leaving one side undressed though

anyway a good use for a sleeper.

Would have a clue about the timber..it doesn't look like River Red Gum.

**charlsie** · 21st December 2007, 02:55 PM

did the sleeper stink of creosote when u cut it up? if it did it might be jarrah i get a few people here in melbourne buying old sleepers and asking me to cut them up on the lucas and the creosote ones i will never cut again

**wayneo75** · 21st December 2007, 04:14 PM

Originally Posted by charlsie

did the sleeper stink of creosote when u cut it up? if it did it might be jarrah i get a few people here in melbourne buying old sleepers and asking me to cut them up on the lucas and the creosote ones i will never cut again

Nope looked as dry as and had no real smell to it at all

**Barry Hicks** · 21st December 2007, 04:30 PM

A word of caution! Be a bit careful with old sleepers as the railways some nasty poisons to control grass, weeds and termites.

I know of a guy who died from arsenic poisoning when he used a tin he picked up under a railway bridge, to carry water. He drank from the tin and died.

Railway employees had been treating the bridge timbers against termites.

**wayneo75** · 21st December 2007, 08:10 PM

Originally Posted by Barry Hicks

A word of caution! Be a bit careful with old sleepers as the railways some nasty poisons to control grass, weeds and termites.

I know of a guy who died from arsenic poisoning when he used a tin he picked up under a railway bridge, to carry water. He drank from the tin and died.

Railway employees had been treating the bridge timbers against termites.

aaarrggghhh ....now you tell me....thankfully I have only done one, and no more!!!!

i used a respirator whilst cutting as the timber was so dry it was dusty as!

**zenwood** · 21st December 2007, 08:44 PM

great looking table and I love the unfinished surface left on one side. How about glueing on a strip of unfinished edging to complete the look?

**Shedgirl** · 26th December 2007, 11:39 PM

I like the unfinished side, too.
Was it hard going for the Triton? I have ...well, countless sleepers but had never considered subjecting the Triton to them! Ours are from a railway bridge in Qld; I guess the species used varies pretty widely and you wouldn't really know until you tried.. bit scary.

**wayneo75** · 8th January 2008, 09:52 AM

Originally Posted by Shedgirl

Was it hard going for the Triton?

I have a GMC saw on the table which copped better than i thought it would. The only dificult thing was the weight of the sleeper.....80kgs, the first few cuts till i got it down in size where difficult to handle.

**HappyHammer** · 8th January 2008, 10:02 AM

Nice table. I'd like to see a version completely un-finished as I like this look. I reckon a bandsaw would be easier than the triton, not sure I'd cut one on mine and I have a triton saw in it. What dimensions are the sleepers?

HH.

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