Re: Glass butt joint?

Posted by Jim E on Jan 14, 2007

Mos people who are building from plans, join the wood sheets together before markong and cutting out the panels. Do that, and it does not matter if the scarfs are not super accurate.

I happen to be in the midst of doing the butt joints on my Artic Hawk. They are not quite Payson-style, since there is no tape on the outside. That would make a bump in the outside finish. Strength comes from building up 4 layers of tape, and one of glass, on the inside, in an overlapping tapered pattern. Hopefully that avoids a hard spot in the hull, but we'll see. I was wondering why butts were specified instead of scarfs, till I realized that some of the pieces are a full 8 ft long, with no margin for scarfing.

As for assembling the hull with duct tape, the AH instructions specify that also. The only wire is at the stems, which get planed off later. The nice thing about duct tape is that you can put quite a lot of tension on it, and it sticks to bare wood quite well. It's taken off once the seams have been glued. Leave it on too long and it tears the wood grain when you pull it off. You also need to scrape off any glue residue left behind.

In Response to: Glass butt joint? by Sander Saelthun on Jan 14, 2007

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