On May 23, 8:14*pm, willshak wrote:
James wrote the following: I have taken all comments to heart, and plan to cut the beams with a 12 inch
miter saw, and cut in more than one pass. * Several responders said that
would make *a smooth cut if care is taken in the process.

Take a square and make a cut line around all 4 sides of the beam. You
may find that the last drawn line doesn't meet up exactly with the first
line you drew.
Unless you intend to have this beam stand vertically on end on a
perfectly level surface, that doesn't really matter much.
You're building primitive steps on a slope in a mountainous area, you
are not building furniture!
Who the f**k is going to look at the ends?
Anyone that does mention the unevenness of the ends should be eliminated
from future guest lists.
Just sayin'.

The OP should reread this thread and ask himself why he ignored the
advice about the screws (and info on driving them) until his
'carpenter-helper' suggested them.

Later, after his 'carpenter-helper' points out that cutting landscape
tie joinery is dumb, maybe he'll check back here and ask about that.
I'm guessing that after he's humped a few of those ties up onto the
miter saw, and then tried to rotate them and move them accurately,
he'll see the light. Maybe.

These sort of scenarios are always entertaining. Someone posts a
"question" and then ignores all of the advice. They're not really
asking for advice, they're asking for validation. Unfortunately I'm
really bad at validating dumb ideas. Maybe Stuart Smalley could help.

R

R