Atelier Lalonde
Paul Lalonde's Weblog

I started building a small boat recently. It’s a lapstrake (clinker) built, 12ft sailing dinghy. The plans are Paul Gartside’s #130 Clinker Dinghy that he originally designed for the Silva Bay boat building school. The plans are extremely detailed, and lead you through the process of developping and lofting the rabbet, bearding line, and back rabbet pretty well.

I’ve now pretty much finished the lofting, and have my molds ready. This weekend I’m heading out to a mill in Sooke to pick up some local Garry Oak to turn into the stem, some fir for the keel, and a pile of cedar for planking. I’m looking forward to seeing the little boat take shape.

This arts and crafts bookcase is patterned after one of Gustav Stickley’s cases. The joinery is done, and I now need to drop it in my fuming box and finish it, then add the glass and hardware. I hope to do that in the next few weeks. The details on it are to match a little desk I built for my living room that I haven’t written about yet.

A few months ago I came across Bill Pentz’s excellent cyclone construction pages. After reviewing what was out there commercially I decided to build one to Bill’s plans. For a motor and impeller I cannibalized the impeller and 2 horse motor from my bag dust collector. Assembly was a little tricky and annoying, and doing it again I’d buy Clarke Echols’ kit. It wasn’t available when I started mine, but given that I paid $200 canadian to buy metal and have it cut (poorly), the kit makes a lot of sense.

The good news is that the cyclone works. Even without a filter installed it’s catching more of the dust than my bag-collector used to. My only complaint right now is that my trash bucket is too small and fills up too quickly. I’m looking for some nice high-volume fibre barrels to use instead, but refuse to pay $50 in UPS shipping to have to brought in. No luck yet in finding one locally.