Compare and Contrast

Posted by Howard on Jul 5, 2005

as lee said...lots of different options....here are some observations comparing and contrasting the two approaches.

Butt Joints - easier to get good alignment, because you tightly butt the pieces together...not likely to get overly overlapped or underlapped or misaligned which is something you have to be careful with on the scarf joints. easier to get a clean/straight joint becuase there is no thin (tip of the scarf) to bang/chip.

Scarf joints - after initial glueing it is strong and ready to go. butt joints are not strong until you get a couple layers of glass on one side (the inside). takes longer to execute a butt joint before you can pick it up and move it. scarf joints create a fair surface on both sides, building the strength with the glass on a butt joint creates a "bump" that needs to be properly hidden somewhere on the inside.

both techniques are capable of creating perfectly strong and fair panels. for whatever its worth, i have found it is easier to get a fair panel with the butt joints. i think this is becuase the scarf itself gets relatively stiff in a smaller area than the butt joint that tends to spread the reinforcing glass over six inches or more.

In Response to: So basically..... by Crystal on Jul 5, 2005

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