Tom creates a raised bed from Azobe (Ekki) tropical hardwood railway sleepers
I bought some Ekki (Azobe) railway sleepers from you in November 2020 and thought you'd like to see some photos of the projects I've completed with them.
Here's the traditional railway sleeper raised beds completed entirely by myself and my ride-on mower, done very slowly and carefully when moving the railway sleepers around. The beds are doweled together with 1" Ekki dowels machined on a metal lathe, I quickly discovered putting screws in wasn't going to happen. Drilling the holes was difficult, I found using a drill bit which touched the sides was pointless because as soon as any heat was built up the resin in the wood melts and glues the bit in place. After various trial and error I discovered using an SDS with masonry bits was best, starting small and slowly increasing in size. For cutting the railway sleepers I used a circular saw and cut them from both sides, for finishing up some of the cuts where you couldn't get the circular saw in I used a fairly fine toothed panel saw and a lot of elbow grease. I found a chainsaw didn't work very well as the blade blunted very quickly, basically if it wasn't a tungsten carbide tipped tool then don't bother. I then ran over the outside of the raised beds with a power planer to improve the look.
I've got a few more projects to use the railway sleepers for but I thought you'd like to see what's been done with them so far.
Tom
Swadlincote, Derbyshire
RAILWAY SLEEPERS USED:
Grade 1 Azobe tropical hardwood railway sleepers
2.6m x 240mm x 140mm
RailwaySleepers.com Says..
Many thanks for the useful information about how you approached your excellent project and for all the brilliant photos. You describe vividly the reality of cutting and drilling such a tough and resistant tropical hardwood railway sleeper, and your perseverance is there for all to see. Many would have thrown in the towel and swapped them for new softwood railway sleepers. But there again, they would have missed out on the challenge of creating such a durable piece of landscaping, and revealing the beauty of such a gorgeously grained tropical hardwood timber. I love the picture of your project continuing in the snow. That definitely shows determination!