Scarf Bevels
21 May 2016 | St. Marys, GA
Capn Andy/Thunderstorms
The storms came and caused a great deal of trouble. The Toughbook got wet and now is dead. A repair parts computer is on order to hopefully repair it. Meanwhile the old Lenovo Thinkpad is serving as backup.
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The strong winds of the thunderstorms blew the tarp part way off one of the work tables, uncovering some of the power tools, the Toughbook, a the roll of paper towels, and a bunch of other stuff. It was dark and I had clamped a plank onto the #3 beam and forgot it was there. I walked into the clamp, lacerating my scalp. It was raining and I could see also red drops falling to the ground. I tried to use the paper towels to mop my head, but first had to wring out the rainwater. There was a lot of blood and soon I had a mass of paper towel mush, sopping with blood.
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I didn't find out about the Toughbook until morning. It didn't look like it had been flooded, but it didn't boot up. After pulling out the drives and battery and letting it air out, it still didn't fire up, even after two days. Normally I could use the smart phone to do a lot of the internet chores, but I had used up almost all my data allowance watching the America's Cup World Series in New York. Now I had to be careful not to use the phone for data for a whole week and a half, until the usage cycle resets.
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The two neighbor boats in this yard had dark mesh sun shades, large and tied onto PVC and wood framework. The winds affected both of them and they had to be rebuilt. PVC isn't very strong. I saw that both sun shades were using PVC pipes with pipe joints between them, and it was the connecting fittings that broke, not the pipe itself. I had seen online Quonset Hut style shelters using PVC pipe bent in arches. I think one of those structures was crushed by a heavy snowfall, but I think that was the only
one built like that that failed.
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I ordered a 5" random orbital sander from Harbor Freight along with some replacement power planer blades. The order wasn't shipped until the Thursday after it was ordered on Monday. Sanding disks had to match the vacuum hole pattern of the sander and the Norton Premium Gold paper that worked so well wasn't available in that format. After some research I ordered Klingspor paper in 60 and 120 grit, the total coming to just under forty dollars for a 50 pack of each paper.
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The beam construction was proceeding slowly due to the requirement of prefinishing the external surfaces of the planks before gluing them into the beam. This was necessary because there was no room to even get a small paintbrush on some of the beam surfaces. Another problem was forcing the beam into the beam brackets. These are not the usual Wharram design, which are like angle pieces lag screwed into the beams, these wrap around the beam and the fit was tight.
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The scarfing jig was working better and better. I was trying to find out why I was getting inconsistent results, so I began carefully noting any variables that could affect the angle of the scarf bevel. I began using the same side of the jig every time. I found the thing that most affected the bevels was the condition of the lumber, was it warped, twisted, or curved? If the lumber can't lay perfectly flat on the table saw, the angle of the cut changes as it passes through the blade. Sometimes the saw jams, stalls, and pops the breaker. I think I will get this process organized so that all the scarf bevels will be perfect except for those cut in warped pieces of wood.
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The picture is of the latest pair of planks with scarf bevels cut with the table saw. These came out well and didn't need any corrective planing and haven't been sanded yet.