Glen-L.com

I came up with this VERY simple jig for scarfing the panels for my Squirt (11'). I basically combined several ideas that I was able to gather from this forum. It is nowhere near as elaborate as the others, but with only a few boards to scarf it was easier to set up.

The whole idea is to get the surface as level as humanly possible. This means that the front and rear guides must be level as well as the piece of plywood to be scarfed. The center brace only serves to hold the plywood flat to the jig and you can see that it is bowed in order to accomplish this. It basically presses the plywood down at both sides as well as the center in three "points". The rear (2" x 4") guide should not be pulled down on the plywood. It isn't necessary and would only tend to bow it, thereby destroying the level of the scarf. The small front guide and jig surface needed to be leveled by placing a 2" x 4" piece below and clamping it tight. The router "guide" is simply a board with a hole in it for the router blade with two wooden guides to keep the maximum travel away from the front guide and center brace.

I screwed up the first few attempts, but it was easy to finally feel my way to a decent scarf. This has to be much easier to do than butt joints during the build and it should provide a truer running surface.....I hope.

That is great.

I love "easy".


Thanks for posting.

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Bruce.

~~ Do what you love, and love what you do. ~~
~~ To me - only my boat is not yet perfect. Everybody else's is to be admired for I know the path they have walked (Dave Lott, 2010) ~~
Dow's Monaco Project

Great idea!! Thanks.

Roberta

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Roberta
Built Zip "Oliver IV" and Super Spartan "Jimmy 70"

Great idea: similar to this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/algonquinp ... 278624487/

But I am always trying to reinvent the wheel!

Steve

I used a similar idea only I wasn't rich enough to have a Router.
I put three equal brand new Plywood blades side by side in my Skill saw. I had almost a half inch of cut-scrape-gouge that way.

It worked pretty well. Uh...if you don't count the variety of wood loss involved in the learning curve. Practice on Scrap first if you do it my way.
I found I needed my Air compressor handy to blow off the 'stuff' or I'd leave a High spot.
I learn everything the hard way!

Edit: Notice his router is mounted on a Six inch board?
I had to put the Skill Saw on a piece of 3/4" Plywood almost two feet square to keep it from tipping on me.

I do believe scarf joints are slightly better than butt joints, but mostly I wanted a 'clean' interior with NO butt blockers.

Here's my home made contraption made from parts salvaged from my old Ryobi table saw that bit the bullet trying to rip 8:4 white oak. I did find that there was the slightest stiffness in the scarf joint than in the plywood itself, but I would have to believe that it was less stiffness than a butt blocker. Congrats on your ingenuit.

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This is my first, last and only boat build.

http://www.gdzipbuild.blogspot.com