If you look down the board a little way there was a discussion about scarfing plywood and I mentioned that I had found a website that shows how to scarf with a belt snader. Well, I have now scarfed my plywood and if anyone is interested here is a quick report of what I discovered. Fist of all, it is definitely possible to get a good scarf without the West Systems saw attachment, but if the $50 isn't an issue for you it is probably worth it. (my wife is alredy a bit unhappy at how much I am spending on the boat so every dollar I can save without sacraficing quality is worth it to me) Th first scarf I did I simply followed the scarfing instructions on unclejohns website using a 2x4 and a piece of 40 grit sand paper. This worked very well, but took a long time (hours)and left my arm very sore. When I scarfed the bottom I decided to try the belt sander with some 40 grit paper. It was a good thing I had a little extra plywood to play with because the first attempt was a complete disaster. Keeping the sander flat on the two peices of wood was quite difficult. But after a practice run I flipped the plywood around and started to scarf the other two ends. This time the only difference was I had a little experience running the belt sander on the plywood. The scarf turned out beautifully and it only took about 12-15 min. to sand it all the way down. If you are going to try the belt sander I would suggest you practice on some scrap plywood first. But it really does work.
Danny
MRB Home.....