More like SAD-attical

The first two days of my so-called sabbatical have been blisteringly bad. Rug-burn wrong. Basically, splinters in the balls.

During the next four weeks, I have vowed to write my next book, “Build a Chair from Bullshit.” It will have plans for a stool, a comb-back chair and a lowback chair – all made using materials and tools from the home center.

I thought I’d get the first prototype comb-back completed by today. (Hubris alert: I even bought the paint.) But instead, I’ve mostly been drawing in SketchUp, printing plans with our plotter and ruining perfectly good wood. I think the problem is I’m trying to do three things at once: 1) design a new nine-stick comb-back, 2) work with odd materials (home-center handrails for legs?) and 3) develop some new processes to simplify chairmaking.

After four different arm and seat patterns, here’s where I landed today.

Sandwich drilling in action.

I managed to drill the back sticks for the chair using the “sandwich drilling” system I experimented with earlier this year. Working wit…