ceder slpiceing

[dan petroski]

i'm having trouble finding 17' logs here in northern maine.
do most of you splice? and if so what kind of splice do you use. i have a lot of 8'ceder 2"x8" that i can put back in the mill and resaw. i appreciate your thoughts.

[Mac McQuinn]

Yes, It's pretty common to make a scarf joint and splice long strips. We made a little jig to glue them up on and used a 12" stationary disc sander to cut the 10 to 1 scarf joint on. We left the strips a bit thick, scarfed, spliced & glued them, let them dry over night and then ran them through the planner to desired thickness. We left the cove & beading till after they were scarfed, spliced and planed.
Mac

[Bob Smalser]

The "plain" or "feather scarf" is your best choice in 6:1 or greater. Epoxy works nicely on cedar but if you plan heavy steaming of thick planks, then (heat resistant) resorcinol is a better choice.



And remember that in carvel and lapstrake, the greater the curve in the planks, the more likely they are to require two "dogleg feather scarfs" to the prevent grain runout at the plank ends that would occur cutting a large, sweeping curve in one wide board. While I can mill my western cedar to 27', I only usually mill planking stock to 12' for that reason.