bead and cove before or after scarfing?

[mark m]

This is probably in here somewhere already. I just can't find it, sorry...

I only have 10ft boards for blanking. Is it better to bead and cove before scarfing the planks together or can it be done after?

It seems like it would be easier to bead and cove the 10ft planks and then scarf them after but will everuything fit together OK?

thanks

- I'm just about to start putting things together for my first build!

[alick burt]

Hi mark
I would bead and cove first in this instance because...
1.ripping and moulding your strips will be easier in 10ft lengths.
2.You may not need to join some pieces as they will be as short as 10 ft or smaller on the bottom.
Hope this helps
Cheers
Alick

[backpaddler]

Hey Mark,
I just finished stripping my 15' bob's special and I had about 10' strips as well. I beaded and coved them all first and then just butt joined them when I was putting them on. The joints are next to invisible once the sanding is complete. I think that scarfing them together before, or as you're putting them on would work fine and probably add a bit more strength, but I would bead and cove them first.

Hope this helps
Cheers
Backpaddler

[wb9tpg]

I cut my strip a little thick, scarfed them, then ran them through the planer to get to final thickness. It allowed some error in aligning the scarf.

[Mihun09]

We also used shorter stock but did the scarfing before routing the bead and cove.

Being the dead of winter in our case it was a challenge in the sense the basement is 26 feet long and the strips needed 36 feet of room to pass through the router. I opened a window and fed through from outside. The stock we used was already milled to 3/4" so once we were done it was 5/8" or less width which required more strips. 83 strips, 55 scarfed. Alot of the scarf joints are plain to see but that is due to the wood colour which is really light and variable.

If doing it again, I would still rout after doing the scarfing.

Karin

[mark m]

Thanks everyone.
My woodworking skills are very limited at this point which is why I'm hesitant about handling the longer scarfed strips into the bead and cove process. Never used a router and table before. (What's a planer? jk...)
If I was smart I would have got the materials already milled - but I'm not that smart.

I got extra material as I'm sure I'm going to screw up a good portion of what I really need

[KenC]

I also cut my strips from 10' long planks. I did all the bead & cove work before scarfing, and it worked out fine. I would do it that way again. I never had any trouble with aligning the scarf joints. It required some care & attention, but wasn't difficult. There were a few tricks that made it all easier. I'll try to recall (it was nearly a decade ago, and my memory isn't what it once was) what those tricks were, if you decide to go that route.

Cheers.

[aliguori]

I used used 12' boards to build a 13' Rob Roy and ended up doing quite a lot of scarfing.

One challenge of scarfing before milling is that if your scarfed joint isn't perfectly straight, it may get hung up in the router when milling.

I did about half of the scarfs before milling and half after milling. The scarfs after milling came out a lot better for me.

[BearLeeAlive]

I can see the merits both ways. I never really gave it much thought. I scarfed before milling, as I had allowed to shave a bit off with the planer anyway. I was only scarfing a couple dozen strips where I had to remove knots. Most of the scarfs I do have are really hard to find.

[KenC]

Interesting ... in your (BearLee's) photo, you're scarfing across the width of the strip. I scarfed across the thickness. Nice jig setup, btw. Some of my scarfs are more noticeable than others. If I end-matched adjacent strips, the scarfs tend to be invisible. But for some reason (I must have been daydreaming) a couple of my scarfs have noticeable grain/colour changes. I would say those are the operators fault (ie. mine), and not the scarf process.
Many ways to skin a cat.