Scarfing joints

[ColinC]

Depends on how thin and how confortable you are with hand tools, a sharp block plane will deal with the thin stuff.

This is one mechanical way suggested by a Pietenpol builder:

http://www.oneoceankayaks.com/stitchglu ... rfjig2.htm

The Pietenpol site is worth a look anyway: http://www.cpc-world.com/

Regards,

Colin

[cardiffrob]

I bought a 1" chisel and sharpened it 'properly' in accordance with ancient arts (I bought a book on Olde woodworking) and it was a doddle to scarf 5-ply 2.3-ish mm ply. Having made a little piece of card with marks to show me exactly how many mm should be between each layer of glue I then was able to use a stanley knife blade to take the last few thou of timber off in places to make the lines perfectly parallel.

Absolute bu66er to do this with both hands in plastercasts and with metal rods through the thumbs. A 2 day job took nearly 2 months. Best physiotherapy ever!

[cardiffrob]

Here is a pic of the removal of a small cosmetic crack that could be felt through the fabric covering. I removed the area just in case the crack went through more than one layer but it turned out not to so I believe it may have been a surface defect in the ply sheet. This is after the first chiseling and before the tidying up with the stanley blade.

[G.Dawes]

I reckon that he was playing with the wheeling machine and his thumb is now 40 thou thick and curved

[cardiffrob]

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j279/ ... pair1a.jpg
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j279/ ... pair2a.jpg

Big car crash that snapped both thumbs back enough to rip the stringy bits off. 18 months off work and lots of physio. The surgeon said that they often recommend patients try to become knot tying experts because it exercises the hands with low-impact activity, just like aircraft woodwork.

[Nigel Ramsay]

Lovely! That's saved me from over-eating tonight...... Hopefully fully recovered Rob?

[cardiffrob]

S'funny, but as I bent over to pick up the envelope containing the cheque from the insurance company I felt this 'click' as the thumb miraculously fell back into place.

Actually, I still have awful trouble using the left thumb since they cut through the nerves and I have no feeling, thus making blind nut-n-bolt jobs a matter of luck. I also get aches in the damaged joint when it is going to rain.

A while ago I showed those pics to a colleague who had also been off for some surgery and he then offered to show me some pics of the operation he'd had done. Foolishly I accepted and he produced large, glossy pics of his haemorrhoid op. Looked like a close-range shotgun wound!


Anyway, as to scarfing joints, I found the sharpened chisel moved in a snakeing fashion to be quite effective and certainly the best method for internal corners whilst a combing stroke with the Stanley blade worked wonders for evening out the high spots. Getting the chisel sharpened properly had the most awesome effect on the performance of the blade.

[cardiffrob]

She's an Occupational Therapist, so....zero sympathy.

It is amazing what a simple break can do do your life in general. I had no opposable thumbs and thus couldn't tie shoelaces, open a tin of beans, read a newspaper, etc etc. I couldn't allow the wires to get wet because I'd get infection straight into the bone. After a week the hands started to smell like cat food.

Tip for the day? Get decent seatbelts and seats (Morris Minor had inertia belts and Rover 100 seats in it, thank goodness) The same applies to things like scarfing and rivetting. One slip could mean knackered hands for ages or being blinded in one eye. When you think about it, the LAA fleet are a health 'n' safety hazard zone. Spinning props, fuel lines, GRP catalysts, rivets, paint fumes, splinters. Might be worth an article for the magazine? That reminds me, are Spruce and suchlike at all toxic? I recall that Cedar dust is very bad.