I built this huge table for laying out the planking and gluing it. It's made of a 4' x 10' sheet of 1" MDO. It's plywood that has a leveled surface that's covered with paper. It's easy to draw on, and really smooth and flat. I was hoping it would be a little stiffer, but it's good enough for a gluing surface. The half sheets are light enough to move around easily by myself, so I unscrew them from the horses and double them to make a stiff enough surface for scarphing.
I glued the port garboard scarphs today. I'm definitely getting better at it. I think that these ones are going to turn out pretty well. Better than the last seven anyway. Maybe by the time we get to the sheer strake I'll be expert at this plywood scarphing thing.
The most important things I've learned are things that I "knew" already. The subsurface (the bench or whatever the scarphed objects are sitting on) really has to be perfectly flat, at least the part directly under the scarphing zone and a bit past. Otherwise the plane will bridge over the low spots or take too much off the high spots. The clamping strip that's nailed or screwed through the scarph should really be exactly the width of the scarph. It's also nice to wrap the strip in plastic and staple it on so there's no plastic flapping around, allowing a clear view of the joint once it's clamped.
