Malahini Design

Malahini Design

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Reinforcing the scarf

The plywood that covers the sides of hull is scarfed.  I covered this in my blog a long time ago.  The 1/4" plywood is tapered at a shallow angle so it can be overlapped with a complementary piece and epoxied to join two pieces of plywood into a longer piece (two 10' pieces actually.)   The joint has about 3" of surface area and should be stronger than the wood itself.   However, I was chicken.   I decided to epoxy some plywood patches on the inside to reinforce the joint.   I am not sure this actually reinforces the joint, but I felt better about doing it.
I rigged some 2x4 bracing so I could put some pressure on the patches using some Harbor Freight clamps that can be reversed to expand rather than compress.   I also used three pieces of plywood rather than one since it was easier to fit onto the hull.  After covering with epoxy, I put in place and pressed against the hull using the expanding clamps.


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