Woodworking 101 thread. Beginner needs help!

Well, I'm about to lose my life's savings because I SUCK at wood. This thread is for anyone who has questions about simple woodwork they just can't grasp.

I have 36 sheets of 3mm okoume ply ($1500 worth?) stacked up with each sheet stepped back 1.5" to create a touch more than a 12 to 1 scarf.

I used an angle grinder. It took chunks the size of quarters out of my delicate scarf joints when it caught funny. I just bought and tried a power planer. It took out chunks of plywood the size of your little finger nail.

How the f#%* am I supposed to get good scarf joints??

The designer uses either a grinder or a planer.

I'm "this close" to ruining $1000 worth of plywood. Help!!

 

Well, first thing to know about wood, is that it is not composite. So basicly you might try your luck in the wood section of this forum, instead of the composites section.....

Anyhow, wood requires high quality, sharp tools. One of the most important things is learning to sharpen all kind of tools, like planes, chisels, drills, saws, screwdrivers... (oops, the last option comes from the book "alternative uses for general tools")

Good scarf joints: a method is to clamp the sheets on the workbench, right on the edge, then plane down. Another method is to use a circular handsaw, with a "scarfer" addition to it. (I believe West System sold these)

Best way to learn is to become an apprentice at a woodworker. In my days back in Italy I knew a woodworker that could make scarf joints which were hardly visible. I wished I could have learnt from him. (Federico Radente, for the interested. Wonder if he still lives)

 

Sorry, Herman. I thought wood/epoxy/glass boats fell into composite.

My tools are all brand new. I am using the workbench method. Should I just use an orbital sander? Planing down is pulling some chunks the size of a small finger nail out of the scarf.

 

Sorry, Herman. I thought wood/epoxy/glass boats fell into composite.

My tools are all brand new. I am using the workbench method. Should I just use an orbital sander? Planing down is pulling some chunks the size of a small finger nail out of the scarf.

 

In the front part of the planner is a knob to adjust the depth it takes at one pass.. Try to practise on something cheaper so you get your hand steady on the edges. And by the way cheap power planners are useless crap so hope you didn't..

 

Yes, I tried on various settings on some scrap wood. It came out nice and smooth. When I tried it on the okoume, it took some of the bottom layer of some sheets off in small bits. It's a Bosch power planer. Here are some pictures of the problems:


Damage From Angle Grinder with Sanding Disc

**The angle grinder and sanding disc is used in the designer's video. I did see one of these types of mistakes go on the mold for layup in the designer's video.


Damage From Power Planer

**This part of the scarfs looked good before I planed down with the planer. I had the planer on its lowest setting of 1/64th of an inch (very very small). Those chunks taken out are the work of the planer. It pulled the lowest layer of plywood off of some of the sheets in those chunks.

It is a Bosch planer.

Is it possible that I am already at the point where these power tools are just too much for what I am doing and I need to use an orbital sander?

Are these salvageable? I saw some like this go on in the video the designer made where he shows some people making one of his boats.



I should also mention that the stacked "stair step" has a problem with the plywood warping. There are "waves" where the plywood is lifting up off the other plywood. I think this is due to humidity. I try to hold them all down, but they are loose and not holding tightly to each other.

NOTE: All scarf lines are 1.5" (3.81cm) apart. The plywood is 3mm.

 

Try a belt sander.

 

Bosch should work, thou not my favourite.. Be carefull with the edges. Try to go towards inside and not at 90deg or close that of the surface veneers..

 

A Side Question

While we are at this woodworking 101 thread, I have a couple more pictures of things on my plywood to ask about.

The scarf joints are my biggest and most important issue though


There are some defects I wanted to see what you all thought about them. First there is a sort of patch where the top layer of the plywood is split near the edge of the panel. This happens on maybe 20 or 30 sheets:



Then, there is a big, brown thing that isn't quite a knot but it's big and sort of knotty... Is it OK to have in my hull?

 

If your still having trouble with this you might try it with a router
Routers tend to spin pretty fast and your going to get a carbide bit which will stay sharper longer than any steel bit your using in that plainer
besides you can use a template that will hold the sheet flat and you should get a nice neat cut every time

I once mentioned making a diagram of the tool we used to have out in the shop for making scarfs so folks could see it but then I got side tracked
anyway

if your still struggling with it just sing out and I can lead you in another direction if your interested

B

 

something else that might be useful is that epoxy is pretty good at filling small gaps and your wood work does not have to fit perfectly in order to get a good bond with it
it should be close mind you
but its not as critical as if you were using say resourcenal or however you spell that

 

Really??! *WHEW*!!

So these partially done scarfs may not be ruined after all?

So what do you think? Router? Belt sander? Stay the course and move to orbital sander now that they are sanded as far as the pictures show? (I didn't dare do anything else until I checked on what went wrong)

I don't own a router or belt sander and would have to go get one. I come from a lifetime on glass boats with balsa core as the most wood I have dealt with. This is a crash course in woodworking building a epoxy/glass/wood cat. I believe it's also a composite boat, right?

 

The problem I believe is that the ply is adjusting it's humidity and the sides are a bit curved like ~ so when you reach the edge it doesn't get adequate support from the next one so the thin edge resonates (sounds like a bee in box) and **** happens. You can try to make the last run with a belt sander as SamSam suggested. A router is tricky for a beginner esp to make appropriate jig for the job. Anyway as Boston said some small flaws don't matter so much with epoxy, and bigger ones you need some more microfibre filler than in normal gluing.

 

Orbital sander.. sooo slow but you can try..

 

i think you'd better slow down, learn how to use tools properly, get some ear defenders, mask, goggles, find a place to work where no.one bothers you, turn off your phone & CONCENTRATE , , build a scarf jig, like boston says use a router, or planer, or belt sander with depth frame, practice your planing on scrap wood, against, across, with the grain, till your better