audiounphile
New member
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2020
- Messages
- 41
- Reaction score
- 19
I’m hoping someone here can help demystifying railway sleepers. I want to make an outdoor patio table using sleepers. Main reason is that it’s going to be left outside exposed to the elements and sea spray. Patio doesn’t have a cover. I’ve seen some cool industrial designs using 4 sleepers as the table top and then some steel legs. Ideally would like it 2.1-2.3 meters long.
So I went to a sleeper yard today in Centurion. The guys where very helpful but left me confused too. I just wanna get some advice before making the final purchase.
I don’t like the dark red or brown look, prefer the natural washed look but there are quite a few different types of wood which is what I need help with - guy told me about yellow but said it generally has a lot of oil. I couldn’t understand if it was natural oil from the wood or the sleepers were dunked in oil. Then there’s Kamers ( I could have gotten the name wrong on some of these) and Massassa which looked like the lighter wood but then one of them has a lot of cracks - forget which one now. I think there was some other types too that I can’t remember now. Then there’s the grades which I understand but when I went to the A grade ( number 1) pile, the oke kept showing me stuff from other piles which didn’t look marked. I wasn’t too sure how the grading worked. I’m happy to spend the extra on grade A but also wanna make sure I’m really getting grade A.
Anyway, need help / recommendation on wood and anything else to watch out for. Here is a pic of what I’m wanting to make
So I went to a sleeper yard today in Centurion. The guys where very helpful but left me confused too. I just wanna get some advice before making the final purchase.
I don’t like the dark red or brown look, prefer the natural washed look but there are quite a few different types of wood which is what I need help with - guy told me about yellow but said it generally has a lot of oil. I couldn’t understand if it was natural oil from the wood or the sleepers were dunked in oil. Then there’s Kamers ( I could have gotten the name wrong on some of these) and Massassa which looked like the lighter wood but then one of them has a lot of cracks - forget which one now. I think there was some other types too that I can’t remember now. Then there’s the grades which I understand but when I went to the A grade ( number 1) pile, the oke kept showing me stuff from other piles which didn’t look marked. I wasn’t too sure how the grading worked. I’m happy to spend the extra on grade A but also wanna make sure I’m really getting grade A.
Anyway, need help / recommendation on wood and anything else to watch out for. Here is a pic of what I’m wanting to make
