What’s a wood shop with out wood dust? You have to have it cover everything…
I have the same saw and it’s excellent. I thought the standard blade was a bit too coarse so I bought a metal blade from Canadian Tire. I used it the other night on 28 guage galvanised steel and it cut like soft butter.
I find I can cut down to 2mm thickness. The standard fence doesn’t work that close so I clamped a piece of metal to the table. I could possibly get it to 1mm but I was using cedar and the wood is just too fragile.
As for cutting sleepers (ties), I was planning to cut them lengthwise to avoid the saw marks across the grain. I haven’t tried it yet so I can’t vouch for the method.
By the way, my saw started to make a pianful whining noise. I tracked it down to the cleaning brush.