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| How to do scarf joints in composite panels by hand. As a batch of panels arrived at Bob Orams place without the ordered scarfs factory cut... a great learning opportunity came about. Bob invited me over with the camera to have a lesson and here it is... |
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One section is done and leaning against a wall ready for lofting. But what is that pile of shit laying on the floor??
Later for that but lets get started with a demo on a peace of scrap. |
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Set your saw to proper depth and width of cut... should have at least a 10mm (3/8") scarf but larger if you like. |
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and let her rip... |
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and thats what it should look like.. |
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Then mount a diamond blade on your 4" angle grinder and seek the bottom of the composite material but short of the fibreglass. |
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Like so... |
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Steady........ |
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There... |
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Pull away the scrap.. |
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and thats what it should look like so far.. |
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Now mount a sandpaper disc to your angle grinder... |
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Again.. steady and watch the fibre glass begin to appear but don't savage it.. |
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It's OK to undercut the composite a bit but don't go through the glass... |
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There.. ready to go.. |
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Find some plastic stuff to put under the joint that the epoxy won't stick to.. |
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mix up some epoxy and paint it on both surfaces |
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place the other panel |
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work the panel back and forth whilst putting pressure against it to seat it and drive out any air. |
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put some more plastic on top to prevent adhesion to the stuff put on top and... |
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start piling on heavy shit... lots of it.. |
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And there you are.. give it a few hours to set and pull the junk off and start marking for very careful cutting. The precision of a CNC router is not possible to reproduce by hand but if you are careful your degree of error should be irrelevant.
A few hours to save a lot of money and if you do it yourself.. you know it's done right. |