Mitre saw for cutting sleepers

Doing some major garden work this spring including fencing, patio and a raised, sleeper, border.
I’m looking got get a new mitre saw as it will have lots of uses.
Question is, what size saw would I need to cut 200mm x 100mm oak sleepers?

Ignore what I wrote before, too early.

Question is, what size saw would I need to cut 200mm x 100mm oak sleepers?

There aren’t many chop saws that’ll cut 100mm safely (if that’s the depth). I think for 100mm depth, you’re stuck with a hand saw and elbow grease I’m afraid.

Hmm, might have to have a word with my joiner brother-in-law then. He’s got some industrial kit

I used an Alligator saw when I had to cut a number of railway sleepers. It provided the neatest cut and managed it just fine. Hired one from Beaver Tool Hire.
https://www.beavertoolhire.co.uk/tool-hire-catalogue/199/Logging-Saw/

My Bosch Gcm12 will cut 100mm….Just.

It also has about the widest cross cut ability in its class. Fantastic saw but obviously a bit spendy.

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Getting the workshop a bit more sorted today. It's not a massive workshop so I built a portable mitre station for the mighty Bosch! #mitre #mitresaw #mitresawstation #workshop #bosch #boschtools #boschprofessional #furnituremaking #cabinetmaking #woodworking #wood #woodworkingskills #woodwork #mdf #homemade #blackteaonesugar #chopsaw #machinery

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Id use a chainsaw.

I’m pretty impressed with my reciprocating saw. Maybe consider one of those?

I have a dewalt radial arm saw I need to get rid of. It’s 3 phase though.

I’ve cut things too thick for my chop saw by careful marking out, cut half the depth, turn over and cut the other half.

You can use a chainsaw but treated railway sleepers will blunt it very quickly.

I just used a regular hand held circular saw and straight edge to cut round all sides and then finished through the middle bit using a new first fix / wrecking hand saw (so only cost £5-10 in new tools).

I’d go with a circular saw with a square. Much more versatile for heavy lumber.
Assume you’re not actually planning to mitre the corners?

How about a handsaw ?. Pretty much unlimited depth of cut, is seriously undangerous.
Keep you fit and build up those forearm and shoulder muscles. Ideal for a cyclist if you ask me 😀
Cutting timbers at the capacity of a powered saw, chop, crosscut or other is dangerous. If you must, then clamp the board to the saw, make the cut, or half cut, turn over, reclamp and finish it.

Rushing or speed are not your friends. Handsaw or proper set up of a powered saw takes longer, but is safer.

Yes just try a decent handsaw first – unless you’re making hundreds of cuts you’ll be fine. Try it and if you don’t like doing it or don’t like the results look at other options.

Circular saw and a clamped guide would be perfectly adequate but will make more noise and put more of the sawdust in your hair / ears / pockets / socks / biffin. The problem with a mitre / chop saw is the tool itself is only part of the solution – you need to solve supporting those big heavy timbers too – so you need to buy or make something to do that as well. And then you’re carrying everything back and forth from where you’re cutting it to where you’re working – thats a perfect opportunity to forget your measurement 🙂

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lumberjack-SCMS305DB-Double-Bevel-Mitre/dp/B00NIPRBGA/ref=sr_1_18?keywords=305mm+mitre+saw&qid=1583587605&s=diy&sr=1-18

Stevied Where are you?

Thanks for the suggestions chaps. Think I’ll get my bro in law to give me a hand with his table saw.
I’m in malvern eyepic

Are they used? If so beware, they’ll be full of crap and bits of metal

Think I’ll get my bro in law to give me a hand with his table saw.

Using a table saw for cross cutting sleepers? Yikes.

Anyway we’re getting hung up on the sleepers – forget about them for machine cutting – just use a handsaw – it’ll be fine.

For the fencing and stuff where there’ll be a lot of repetition any mitre saw will be fine – something that slides might help – pretty much everything slides these days anyway. And it can be cheap as you don’t need crisp clean super accurate cuts for a fence, it just needs to be tidy – something with a 250mm blade size or there abouts  will cover all the bases

Circular saw, metal square and a few spare good quality blades.

I deliberately went with smaller timber last year when we did our garden so that I could use the mitre saw I had. It saved a fortune too.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/K8VjTz7s9MrZwvEf6

I had to make loads of cuts in softwood 225mm sleepers. An electric chainsaw made short work of it. The only times it was a bit too angry was a few specific cuts I wanted fairly accurate, where the tendency for the chain to skate a little before starting to cut made it a bit fiddly.

I did mine with extra long jigsaw blades.

Got quite a clean cut, just need to go slow and steady.

Are you talking about sleepers, or just big lumps of tanalised wood from the garden centre?

I did a raised bed with real sleepers a couple of years ago with a half lap joint (but with sleepers on edge for height) drilled through and pinned to hold the joint together and into the ground to hold it in place.

To cut that joint I used a circular saw from each side, which left a bit in the middle uncut – the first joint I finished the cut with a handsaw, the remainder got a smack with a sledgehammer!

Bear in mind, the hard part was not cutting, but dealing with the years of creosote soaked into the wood and the weight of the things.

You won’t be lifting them onto a table saw easily – my workbench was the lawn and a few blocks of wood to prop one end of them off the grass.

Are you talking about sleepers

Yes, new oak sleepers (2.4m x 200mm x 100mm)
Might have got the table saw bit wrong but the b-in-l says he has the kit in the workshop to cut them, no problem.

I’d imagine a new one will be a lot lighter than an old treated one soaked in several decades of steam oil which are around 90kg each.

They’re also smaller – old ones were 8’6″x10″x6″ (2600x250mmx150mm).

With nice square edges you’ll be fine cutting from both sides with a circular saw, especially if you’re not trying to do anything fancier than cut them to length.

This is what you want…