help on sanding and finishing a red iron bark railway sleeper

Hi All,

this is my first visit and post on this site. glad to know how this community helps one another. I'd greatly appreciate some help on what I'm doing currently. i've bought a red iron bark railway sleeper that I'll be using as a ledge on my stone fireplace. two qns I have are:
1) The sleeper is terribly rough on the sides and top. what's the best process and tool to accomplish results? I've got a festool rotex 150. Should I be using a belt sander or planer as well?
2) what's the best finishing to use e.g. tung oil, danish oil, feast watson's polyurethane etc?

Thanks in advance for the advice!

Hi and welcome.

Your Rotex is your friend in this endeavour. Use it in Orbital mode with some serious grits and you'll clean the timber up nicely. Start with something like 36 or 50 grit in orbital and go up through 80 and 100 or so and you should have a fairly smooth piece of wood. Then you can change to random orbital and move up through 150 and 180 then to 240 or 400. But end up with the 400. You really should have a nice smooth "log" by then!

As for finish, that's really going to depend on the look you are after. Personally I favour Tung Oil. I like the way it brigs out subtleties in the grain. But Danish Oil will give you an adequate finish and protection. If you decide on a Poly finish, I'd suggest a satin finish, unless you want it to stand out like the proverbials!

Regards,

Rob

G'day birkoff77 and welcome to the forums.

If the roughness is something you wish to keep or highlight but you want the "rubbish" cleaned out - then give a thought to using a wire brush on a drill or grinder to do most of the donkey work and a hand wire brush to finish in any "delicate" areas.

If you have not done this before or wish to check out the finish - try it on a piece of rough scrap eg an old hardwood fence paling.

Keep us in the loop and let us know how you get on.

Also do it outside, with a respirator. Possible contaminants of old sleepers include creosote, iron filings, pesticides, asbestos, herbicides........

Hi there
I've got a Rotec 150 as well (best damn bit of gear I 've bought), it will do the job very well. I've done the same sort of thing and had a good result.
If the sleeper is real rough, perhaps a light plane to remove the knarly bits. I use a 25 grit on the rotec on max speed in rotary mode, be carful as it will remove a lot of material quickly. I only use this grit to remove bulk excess before starting with 50 grit etc.
As to finish, I too love tung oil. Once you sand to a 400 grit, you can use your rotec to 'burnish' the tung oil in and you will get a fasntastic result, much better than the normal soak and wipe off. There has been a number of threads here about how to burnish. Let me know if you need some info

I have just started using the dewaxed hardend shellac and I have to say, it's my favorite finish on our hardwoods as it looks like freshly milled timber (wet look). Really 'pops' the grain with out the shiny plastic look. Have a look at U-beaut polishes who are a sponsor the this forum.

All the best
Brian