I’d probably use the silky saw, most dangerous of all handsaws.

Now that I can agree with, it’s a vicious beast if it bounces in a cut, makes a right mess of your hand.

That chainsaw video, the man deserves what he nearly got, utterly inappropriate use of a chainsaw, the most dangerous thing there was the operator.

If you really want to get manly you need one of these
I really miss having access to these, 2 blades 2 axis cutting computer controlled and with a digital length stop hands free, just press the button and step back, auto shields, auto clamping.

a piece of 2400x200x100 oak will weigh at least 70kg

48kg according to the supplier’s website.

and THREE packets of Haribo Tangfastics. Can’t say fairer than that.

Having a a laugh this one, no way can haribo tangfastics be compared to Princess Marshmallows. No way

English oak weighs about 45lbs per cubic foot- 1 Cubic foot is a board 12’x12″x1″
American white is a little bit heavier.

For those enjoying the restoration vids on YT, here’s a manly saw for dissecting big timbers.
The scariest of scaries, the Swing Saw.

You need fingers to grip handlebars, and even the loss of a single digit, let along three means an end to cycling.

While I’m all for safety, were you drunk when you wrote this? You think losing a finger will be the end of cycling? Then this man probably wants a chat

She’s pretty good with tools generally

Evidently 😁

Sorry Moly, couldn’t resist.

I’m waiting for the ‘I took my saw to bits and now have it in 1000 pieces…’ thread 👍

48kg according to the supplier’s website.

Pretty small … I use these for the fireplace and composter but the borders/wall is made of reclaimed sidings ones which are MUCH bigger and heavier.

Either way stick a strap under when lifting off pallets etc. to avoid fingers getting caught… even 48kg will sting if it drops on a finger.

I used to work for a guy, you know the type, “no, it’ll be fine, I’ve got plenty of experience with a chainsaw”
He can’t walk properly now as he was cutting up some felled trees and one of them rolled against the other while he was standing between them.
Totally mangled from the knee down, he had an external metal thing fitted between knee and ankle for a number of months.
He, now, recognises that he didn’t really know what he was doing with a chainsaw.
Common sense isn’t actually all that common.
All this happened when he was about 30, he’ll be in his early 60s now, so half of his life not walking properly.
I take any safety precautions seriously.

The scariest of scaries, the Swing Saw.

That looks like something out of a 2000AD creation, that would be on the arm of some crazed cyborg. Madness. What could possibly go wrong? 😀

48kg according to the supplier’s website.

My maths might be wildly off, but I’m getting about 34.5kg for a 240x20x10cm piece, @ 720kg per cubic metre?

Common sense isn’t actually all that is all too common. Actual sense, not so much.

ftfy 😎

He can’t walk properly now as he was cutting up some felled trees and one of them rolled against the other while he was standing between them.

That bit seems the hardest to work out, was reading about felling in forests on sloping ground and predicting what happens to each half of the tree when you finish your cut is quite tricky – occasionally ends up with someone being crushed to death when one half of the tree flips off in the wrong direction eg moves uphill.

My maths might be wildly off, but I’m getting about 34.5kg for a 240x20x10cm piece, @ 720kg per cubic metre?

No thats about right.
English oak is about an average of 670kg per cubic meter and American white oak is about 750kg per cubic meter.
Japanese oak is comparable to English and Persian is comparable to American. Turkish oak is about 870kg per cubic meter and Evergreen oak is an average of between 800 and 960kg/c/m.
(I’ve a book from college – Handbook of hardwoods that lists all the properties of all the commercial hardwoods, its actually been invaluable over the years.)

when one half of the tree flips off in the wrong direction eg moves uphill.

The barberchair.
The tree splits as the backcut is made,as it falls it can send the trunk backwards into the operator, or if its high off to either side. Luck denotes its the operators side

Did just this 2 years ago and again this year, on 125×250 sleepers, about 40 of them.

Chainsaw works best, some good advise above on using one safely – I had a petrol erbauer model from screw fix. I had the chainsaw gloves and that helped. My hardwood sleepers were ridiculously heavy and I had to swap out the chain at some point.

For the other garden project I used 100×200 sleepers and I was able to use my srewfix mitre saw that would just cut through them in a single pass, made the whole job much easier.

I did have to cut a few sleepers with a handsaw and I really wouldn’t recommend it.

I have a Festool Kapex

Genuine tool envy here. Saw one demonstrated a few years ago; feels so solid and precise. I needed a chop saw to do our decking, but couldn’t justify even the KS60. Went with a decent Makita which was on silly special offer, but it’s been sat in a friend’s house since I did the deck. He used it once and put it away in a cupboard. So it’s actually been pretty poor value for money. He’s badgering me to take it back, as it’s taking up space. I might just sell it to be honest; a decent chop/mitre saw is a great tool if you need one, but unless you’re doing regular work with it, it’s bulky and redundant most of the time.

For the other garden project I used 100×200 sleepers and I was able to use my srewfix mitre saw that would just cut through them in a single pass

@walowiz what model was that?

Prob https://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-emis305s-305mm-electric-double-bevel-sliding-mitre-saw-220-240v/736fv

@walowiz what model was that?

@molgrips It was this one Erbauer EMIS254S 254mm Electric Double-Bevel Sliding Mitre – still at the same price as I paid – £180, but I figured I had more than enough projects to justify it. I don;t knwo how it compares to Festool etc, but for the money its very nicely made, solid and importantly cuts really well.

I combined it with a mitre saw stand (from Aldi of all places – as the Erbauer one wasn’t in stock for ages) and using the mitre saw on a proper stand made cutting the sleepers way easier.

Link https://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-emis254s-254mm-electric-double-bevel-sliding-mitre-saw-220-240v/244fv

I don;t knwo how it compares to Festool etc, but for the money its very nicely made, solid and importantly cuts really well.

90% of the functionality for 20% of the price 😉

I have a Festool Kapex

Genuine tool envy here. Saw one demonstrated a few years ago; feels so solid and precise.

Such a shame they put the handle on the wrong way… 😉

90% of the functionality for 20% of the price 😉

@footflaps lol, I really really wanted a festool, but everytime I looked at the full cost, I had to go and have a little sit down.

It says 90mm cut on that saw, is it typical for the cut to be a little more than advertised? I mean, a 254mm blade is clearly more than 100mm in diameter.

Such a shame they put the handle on the wrong way… 😉

Tell me about it. I’ve a dewalt dw700 which also has a vertical handle and its really difficult to use. Not keen on it at all.

It says 90mm cut on that saw, is it typical for the cut to be a little more than advertised? I mean, a 254mm blade is clearly more than 100mm in diameter.

Theres a bit more to it than that. The mount, the guard and casing get in the way. Or someties the saw is direct drive and the placing of the motor limits depth of cut.

Opting for the screwfix saw then are we ?
Best check this out, and please take note thats a little saw, not the beast that screwfix are doing.
https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/news/leeds-news/leeds-grandad-chopped-entire-hand-19438924

You;ll notice he didnt use the clamp.
If thats not the best representation of a sheepish face, I don’t know what is 😆

It says 90mm cut on that saw, is it typical for the cut to be a little more than advertised? I mean, a 254mm blade is clearly more than 100mm in diameter.

But the spindle, motor, blade guard mechanism etc are all in the way and stop the blade getting exactly half way into the wood.

Of course, but @walowiz says he cut 100mm timbers with a saw advertised as cutting 90mm so clearly something is open to interpretation.

Managed to reduce the amount of work we have to do by 33% by only actually ordering 20 instead of 30.

Best check this out, and please take note thats a little saw, not the beast that screwfix are doing.
https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/news/leeds-news/leeds-grandad-chopped-entire-hand-19438924

Yep, that’s quite a small chop saw!

Managed to reduce the amount of work we have to do by 33% by only actually ordering 20 instead of 30.

You could remove all cutting required by digging really deep holes.
Are there any sawmills locally that would do the lot for you in a matter of minutes?
For a price obviously. And transporting 20x sleepers may be the bigger problem there.

Lol

#didntthinkitthrough

Are there any sawmills locally that would do the lot for you in a matter of minutes?

Good point, our local builder’s merchant has their own timber yard and you can just order timber pre-cut to exact lengths if you’re buying a load.

i bought a circular saw to do 5. i did them half way through and flipped them over. it went through them like butter.
i did actually do one of them by hand, just to see how long it would take and i was quite pleased how easy it was with a regular hand saw. they didn’t bend and bind like soft wood does.

Have you got them yet. I was staggered by how heavy they are, compared to softwood ones.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-dwe560-gb-1350w-184mm-electric-circular-saw-240v/83289

Yeah they arrived this morning. Just finished my work call so I’m heading out now to have a crack at one of them.

Uh oh. Standby… 😜

I’m heading out now to have a crack at one of them.

Posted 3 hours ago

3 hours? #Pray4molgrips

Yes, any updates?

Bruneep; I once saw a man cutting a ply/MDF board by holding it up in mid-air with one hand, and cutting it with a circular saw in the other. Quality work practices. Some people shouldn’t ever be allowed to hold spoons, let alone dangerous power tools.

Thinking about that horrific dismemberment above; what’s the insurance situation for such injuries? I’m pretty sure that there are strict conditions relating to the use of dangerous equipment, such as having had proper training, using correct safety procedures etc. Such an injury is life changing, and potentially massively debilitating. Putting aside the years needed for surgeries, proper rehabilitation, physiotherapy etc, even if you were to regain use of a limb, it would never function 100% again. So that could have a huge impact on a person’s economic situation, possibly requiring them to need the financial support a big payout could provide. But I’m sure insurance companies protect themselves against idiocy. If that happened to someone, and they didn’t get a payout, that could have massive consequences for the rest of their life. Terrifying.

I’ll put a fiver on

Half the pieces are to long the other half to short after using the first cut sleeper as a guide and getting it wrong.

I noticed in the photos of that chap who chopped his hand off, that the saw was not mounted to the stand just placed on it (likely for the photo). Think I’d just use a nice sharp hand saw. Hmmm, see what I did there.

Sorry to disappoint. The circular saw is still boxed, turns out it is indeed a piece of piss to saw them in half (properly measured of course) with a hand saw (lolol).

I had to take another few inches off the bottom of the trench and then come up with a method for erecting them reasonably accurately. I roughly levelled the trench using a fence post and a spirit level and some more digging – this involved removing some pretty large rocks that were preventing the last few inches from being loosened up. Then I used a ratchet strap to lash the first eight together, I developed techniques for straightening them up using the pry bar and big stones, now the concrete is setting:

I think doing the rest will be easier because this lot are more or less straight and now fixed in position so I can just lash the next eight to these and pour.

they might be straight by spirit level but they look squint as **** to the eye which is going to piss your wife off no end.

Straight at the bottom edge and all hand cut to slightly different lengths?
If purposeful to have a staggered top edge then it works well. If not, then you’ll have to quickly run a chainsaw along the top to straighten them off 😉