Messed up one of the scarf joints can it be fixed?

I thought I had them right bbefre I glued them but when I unstacked them the end of one of them sticks up about a 16th of an inch on what will be the side of the hull. I stacked them on the shop floor to glue them because I don't have an 18" workbench.  I weighted the pieces with barbell weights because I couldn't clamp them down to the concrete floor.  I am sorta figuring out that is not the best setup.    Anyway how is the best way to fix this?

I am considerign:

A: Just grinding it down and puttign paint on the hull instead of varnish. (was thinkign about painting the hull white anyway for visability)

B: Triyng to heat it up with a heat gun and see if I can get it apart. (has anyone tried this)

C:  Cutting out the offending scarf joint as well as the matching one on the htoehr side and puttign it back together again making the boat an inch shorter.

 


9 replies:

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RE: Messed up one of the scarf joints can it be fixed?

Jeepguy, The A B C's of scarf joining are

A that will work

B that's what I'd do

C don't even think about it.

SEEYA Jac

RE: Messed up one of the scarf joints can it be fixed?

Thanks for the info. I am going to try the heat gun.  It is almost like I didn't have enough pressure on it  because there is a gap where there is no epoxy where it sticks up.  Either that or I had to much pressure because some of the epoxy pushed out.

RE: Messed up one of the scarf joints can it be fixed?

I tried the heat gun and it didn't work.  I was getting the wood so hot that it started smoking and the epoxy enough to get it loose so i quit before I had to go get the fire extingisher.   I guess I am just gonna sand it, smooth it out with filler, glass it, and put a coat of Brighside on it to hide the mess and nobody will ever know.  I didn't want to  do all that much varnishing anyway. LOL

The epoxy I used on the ecarf joints  was some West System 105 with 205 Hardner that I had left over from a sailboat project I did last year that I wantwd to get rid of.   Maybe doesn't soften West System Anyone know?

RE: Messed up one of the scarf joints can it be fixed?

I had the same problem on my Merganser build and used option A. because like you my plan is to paint the hull. Be warned though, it makes the join very fragile because you will probably take off most of the top laminate, I did and actually snaped 18 ft length of ply at the thin part of the join. Treated like a but joint after that disaster and appears ok now just a bit ugly where I built it up with thickened epoxy. Good Luck

Wayne

RE: Messed up one of the scarf joints can it be fixed?

I think I am going to glue the boat together before I sand it down to make sure that doesn't happen.  Once I put the 6oz glass on the hull and inside the cockpit that little bit I ground off shoudn't make any difference.

 

 

RE: Messed up one of the scarf joints can it be fixed?

How much shorter than the opposite panel is it?

RE: Messed up one of the scarf joints can it be fixed?

JeepGuy - I've warmed up West 105 / 205 before, but just to remove some wire trapped in epoxy when I tacked the joints together.

See "soften epoxy fillets" from just a couple of days ago.

Keith

RE: Messed up one of the scarf joints can it be fixed?

It is not significantly shorter than the other panel probably 1/16th of an inch at the most.  I stacked the panels on top of each other to glue them like it says in the manual and and this one apparenty must have slipped a little when I weighted them down because the joints on the other panel turned out perfect.

 

RE: Messed up one of the scarf joints can it be fixed?

I had the same problem.  I just filled in the discrepancy with resin until both panels were smooth, with the gap undetectable by hand.  After fiberglassing, resin on top, and varnish coats it is not noticeable at all in the finished boat.

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