Cutting Jarrah railway sleepers into planks

[Myfordman]

Cause you're talking about Jarrah its full of silica and extremely hard and unruly, and will kill most bandsaw blades so you'll need to find a durable blade that can handle the silica and maybe the odd metal bits... Because you used the tablesaw to remove most of the material the bandsaw blade should have a bit more life in it. But be prepared to go through a few blades depending on how much ripping you're planning to do.

Can you give me a rough estimate on the life of the blade? How many boards can I expect to rip with a blade @ 2.6m long boards?

Not easy top say but if you go for a bimetal blade with a large tooth pitch it should last well enough

Talk to Ian John at Tuffsaws, explain the task and he will give you some of the best advice available.

If you give your location a bit more explicitly in your profile, there might just be a member with a big bandsaw who could help you (if you provide the blades!!).

I would offer help but my BS is not big enough for your stock.

MM

 

[cambournepete]

I've never tried cutting a Jarrah sleeper, but I've some smaller bits of it and they're really heavy.
I wouldn't want to try to lift a sleeper of it and try and manoeuvre it through a saw.
I think you need to move the saw through the wood, so the chainsaw mill with the right blade sounds like the answer to me.

 

[SpinDoctor]

Cause you're talking about Jarrah its full of silica and extremely hard and unruly, and will kill most bandsaw blades so you'll need to find a durable blade that can handle the silica and maybe the odd metal bits... Because you used the tablesaw to remove most of the material the bandsaw blade should have a bit more life in it. But be prepared to go through a few blades depending on how much ripping you're planning to do.

Can you give me a rough estimate on the life of the blade? How many boards can I expect to rip with a blade @ 2.6m long boards?

If you're gonna rip them entirely on a bandsaw and use a stock standard blade, I would expect to get a few full length rips before the blade is really dull and burning its way through. Also what sort of bandsaw do you have. It better be a good one cause it's gonna have some work cut out for it, you're cutting wood that was made in the fires of hell. If you rip on the table saw first and take most of the cut out you could expect to at the very least triple the bandsaw blade life, probably much more and not burn the bandsaw out. This will also depend on whether the sleepers are new or recycled. If they full of dirt from previous use then expect less life in the bandsaw blade. When I was working recycled woods I'd always skim an 1/8 off each side to get rid of the dirty surface and then proceed with cutting the boards out of the beam. Skimming will also expose buried nails and such. Don't even think of trying to run any dirty boards through a planer or jointer, you'll kill the blades in seconds, skim all the exposed surfaces first on the tablesaw.

Other option is to rip them down into widths that can be managed on the tablesaw. A 10" saw will cut a 6" thick board when cutting from both sides. So cut the sleepers down to 5 7/8 thick then rip your boards out of that. I wouldn't be using real wide boards anyways. Aus woods are notorious for warping and then poping glue joints. Thinner boards will reduce the chances of that happening. Just make sure you use a good glue like titebond iii. Also, like a good roast, when you've cut the stuff let it rest for atleast a few days, I've found when I've cut something it can warp days later after it's gone through a few changes in humidity and temp.

YMMV

 

[charvercarver]

I'd second what Woodmonkey said, try sharpening your rip chain. It's a lot cheaper than a bandsaw.

 

[Richard T]

If I have a lot of chainsaw ripping to do I sharpen the saw chain with a lesser angle, I only do it by eye but I'd say it would be about 80/75 degrees to the guide bar. I just use an ordinary chain.

A little less pointy teeth make quite a difference when cutting with the grain.

 

[Bod]

Would it be possible to split the sleepers, using wedges etc?

Bod

 

[paulm]

As others have said, given you already have the chainsaw and mill, and appear to have had some success (albeit not very straight cuts) before the ripping chain was fitted, it seems sensible to persevere with that approach, most others being significantly more expense and/or hard work !

Rip chains do generally have the teeth ground to a shallower angle as Richard T mentions as this suits the task better, If it's not cutting then it just needs sharpening as charvercarver says. The silica and possible grit in/on the sleepers could blunt the chain pretty quickly. I think you can get a different kind of chain that is more abrasion resistant and often used for this kind of work, cutting tree roots and similar, and that would cope better and need resharpening less often such as those here http://www.newsawchains.co.uk/epages/es ... 0Chains%22

Good luck !

Cheers, Paul

 

[Smouser]

Thanks I will have another go with the chainsaw today hopefully. The ripping chain I bought was useless on the sleepers. The original chain that came with the saw did a much better job. I will sharpen the original chain and maybe look at getting a chain that is more abrasive resistant.

 

[gmgmgm]

A local sawmill will have the equipment to do this- worth making a few phone calls to find one willing to cut it for you.

Our local sawmill happily does this (though will require recompense for nail damage etc.).

 

[Smouser]

Hi

Just to give you guys a small update on my progress. I did buy a different chain for my chainsaw, the multicut one and it did cut the sleepers fairly well but you do get very rough ridges on the boards.

I then decided to make my life easier I would buy a bandsaw and bought a M42 bi-metal blade from Tuffsaws. I made about 7 cuts lengthways on the sleepers and that blade is not up to much more to be honest.
This Jarrah wood seem to destroy any blade except a table saw blade in no time at all.

Anyway thank you all who replied.

The results:

 

[custard]

Congratulations on seeing it through! What's the next step?

 

[Woodmonkey]

It's beautiful wood I can see why you persevered.