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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Location
    United States
    Posts
    1

    Default skarfing strategy

    Just bought the plywood and now looking for the lumbar for my GIS build. Finding 17 ft. stock might be a problem in my neck of the woods, Fargo, ND. Although I found a small shop that can rip the 3/4 inch stock, for example, into the appropriate widths. But then I would have quite a bit of skarfing to do. Does it make sense instead to buy the stock lumber, skarf the whole pieces (probably 10 ft pieces) all at once, and then rip to the right width? It would mean having to buy a table saw, but maybe I need to do that anyway. Thanks for your help.

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    NSW, Australia
    Posts
    474

    Default

    Scarfing is easy once you've done a couple. Beginners tend to worry about it until they have done the first one, then they wonder what they were worrying about. I'd just do it any way that works with what you can get locally.

    Do note that usually the scarf is cut on the long dimension. For instance, if scarfing 2x1 you'd usually cut a 16" scarf on the 2" dimension rather than an 8" scarf on the 1" dimension. You might get away with the latter, depending on the use case, but the former is stronger and will give a more even bend. What this means is that for structural stuff, you wouldn't generally scarf a 10x1 and then rip it into 2x1. Cutting a scarf 80" long would waste too much stock.

    You can cut scarfs very quickly and easily if you set up a basic jig. This can use either a hand-held circular saw, or a router. Either will work, and give you a perfect joint in about one minute flat.
    You know you're making progress when there's sawdust in your coffee.

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    New Jersey, USA
    Posts
    767

    Default

    You might want to make sure the shop is ok with ripping the scarfed lumber. It probably will be, but you wouldn't want to find out the opposite once it's too late.
    Dave
    StorerBoat Builder, Sailor, Enthusiast
    Dave's GIS Chronicles | Dave's Lugs'l Chronicles | Dave's StorerBoat Forum Thread

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Location
    Massahusetts
    Posts
    25

    Default

    I agree with Dave that the scarfing isn't all that tough. I've never been to North Dakota, but you're relatively close, compared to us here on the east coast, to the source for the red cedar and Doug fir. Have you looked for the longer stock, it is fairly common in those species. If you are bringing material to a shop to saw boards, they could also probably mill rough stock to thickness as well. This might give you a few more options for sources and the finish might be better than what you'd get on surfaced material. All that said, there are only the two chine pieces and the gunwales and mast that are long so not many scarfs.

    The epoxy is pretty forgiving on the scarf joints. A skilsaw and then clean up with a hand plane or do the whole thing with a power planer. I scuff the scarf surfaces with coarse sandpaper then butter the surfaces with a wet coat of epoxy, no filler, and let it soak in, if it's really sucking it in do it again, and then use the thick mayo epoxy with the filler before clamping.

    I've typically scarfed joints based on which way the joint is going to flex. I think if you are bending perpendicular to the long diagonals and the thin glue line it is weaker
    than bending with the scarf in the thickness of the board. For the chines, you could scarf say a 1x6 in its thickness ( a 6-8" scarf) and then rip it in two for the two chine logs. Buying narrower stock and ripping in two will often give you the best grain orientation, rift or quartered, and is cheaper than wider stock. Another option is to buy thicker flatsawn stock, 2", 8/4 or 10/4, and then rip 3/4" strips which will be rifted and quartered grain. A nice side benefit of this method is that you get consistent color throughout if you intend to varnish and you might spend less time picking boards. In this case you might want to scarf across the width of the board before ripping rather than scarfing across the thickness. Or you could scarf after ripping the strips and then mill the strips to finish thickness.

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Eustis, FL, USA
    Posts
    2,270

    Default

    For the money a shop might charge to rip 1 by stock, you could buy a circular saw with a rip fence and do it yourself. For that matter you could make a portable table saw with the circular saw, by plunge cutting through a hunk of 1/2" plywood and screwing the base plate to the plywood. A simple clamped on fence and you've got a mini table saw.

    Ditto the scarf remarks, they're not difficult, though you do need to get a process down, so you feel comfortable about them. You must remember, with epoxy joints (liquid joinery) anything will do just about, so you don't need to be particularly precise, unless the joint will be finished bright (varnished). I can cut a reasonable scarf with a power plane, followed by a hand plane or maybe a kissing with a belt sander, in the time it takes to setup a router based scarfing jig. A blind man can make the cuts and thickened epoxy, a little filler, under paint and any wood butcher can look like a professional.

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