Sometimes, a breath of fresh air is needed to keep everyone on their toes.

The American Basketball Association brought the slam dunk and colorful characters to the old guard of the National Basketball Association back in the 1970s.  The Kennedy Administration brought a new youthful exuberance to the formerly stodgy office.

And, new groundbreaking woodworkers continue to keep the craft vibrant and inspirational.  That’s one area in which woodworker Amy Devers shines.  You may know her from her home improvement shows on the DIY Network and The Learning Channel, but she’s far more than someone who can teach you how to spackle a hole in your wall.

Amy comes to woodworking through academics. While taking classes at a junior college and sharing a crowded apartment with four other tenants Amy was visualizing multi-function pieces of furniture that would allow some privacy in the cramped quarters.  “At the time, I had no idea that furniture design was even a field of study, but then I found out that San Diego State University had one of the best furniture design programs in the country. As soon as I heard the words ‘furniture design,’ a switch flipped in my brain, and I knew that’s what I had to do.”

With her degree from San Diego State  – along with an Associates of Applied Science degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology and a Masters of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Technology – Amy unleashed her creativity.  With her strong background in fine woodworking, joinery, metal work and upholstery, she has created some very interesting pieces developed from a combination of materials.  “Wood on its own is challenging, as you know. But any time you add new and different materials to the mix the technical and aesthetic challenges are much greater. Marrying diverse materials requires a greater deal of sensitivity to transitions, textures, and balance. Of course there’s an additional learning curve to working with the new material, plus there are the physical aspects of the different materials to consider.”

After working her way into TV on several home improvement shows, the DIY Network offered her the opportunity to work on her own woodworking show called Freeform Furniture.  As with any endeavor, a TV show can come with its own set of challenges. “What I love about TV, besides meeting great people and the kick-in-the-pants fun, is the ability to teach and share my passion with a much larger audience. Least favorite aspect? It’s like doing what you love but with a gun to your head. TV always needs it faster, cheaper, and simpler. Woodworking and TV have very different schedules. It’s a struggle to keep the highest standard of quality under those conditions, but I always do my best. Honestly, if I were just doing this as a hobby I would have the latitude to be much more adventurous in my design. TV just doesn’t have time for too much experimentation, so it’s a good thing woodworking is not only my profession, it’s my hobby!”

Now a celebrity among woodworking circles, Amy says she hasn’t yet lost the luxury of walking down the street without being mobbed by adoring fans.  Her family has been exceptionally supportive of her work, but her interest in woodworking did catch her family a bit by surprise.  “I’d always been into typically girly stuff – fashion, make-up, boys you know, the usual. I remember one Christmas I totally threw my parents for a loop when a cordless drill was #1 on my wish list, and high-heeled boots, and lipstick were demoted to #2 and #3.”

While the rigors of producing a TV show do take their toll, woodworking still holds its charm.  “I love the sound of a happy machine. I love sharp blades and chisels. I love the smell and feel of wood in it various stages of being manipulated. I love a nice tight fit. I love the moment of assembly, you know, when you can finally put all of those parts you’ve been working on for so long together and they become a piece. I love complicated jigs. I love cranking the music and singing while sanding. I love searching the pages of the McMaster-Carr catalog for that obscure but perfect piece of hardware. I love the a-HA moment when I solve a problem that’s been bugging me. I love blowing off the dust and cracking a cold beer at the end of the day.”

What does the future hold for Amy?  Her vision not surprising in the generation that has come of age with instant communication through the Internet is to keep an open dialogue with her viewers.  “I’m interested in how people are incorporating greener practices, and the resulting pros and cons. I’d also love to know what your readers would like to see on TV. Are they satisfied with the old guard of TV woodworkers? Are they interested specific techniques, materials, and styles? Also, I’d love, love, love to hear from people with green, creative methods of re-using or recycling saw dust!”

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Amy can be seen on the DIY Network’s DIY to the Rescue, Freeform Furniture and Blog Cabin. She is also a carpenter on the long-running TLC Network program Trading Spaces.  To e-mail Amy, contact her at mail@amydevers.com.

Christmas.  Hanukkah.  Kwanzaa.

If you haven’t checked your calendar recently, you’ll notice that we are in the middle of November.  These and many other holidays are coming quickly.

And, when those holidays roll around, woodworkers everywhere head to their shops to crank out gifts – both large and small – for friends, relatives and co-workers.  Cutting boards, clocks, small boxes… the number of gifts crafted in shops is pretty staggering.

However, a lot of us like to procrastinate (I was considering giving up procrastination, but I’ll get to it tomorrow) and wait until the last minute.  Remember, it takes time to get materials, cut and craft the pieces, let finish dry – and then many of them need to be shipped!

So, this week’s poll deals with building gifts for the holiday season.  Are you already done with your projects or do you need more time?

Just to provide you a little more motivation, here’s a little countdown clock until Santa pays us a visit…

Christmas Countdowns

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Build a Classic Chessboard

One of the things my oldest son loves more than football, fighter planes and annoying the heck out of his younger brother is playing chess. He can’t get enough of it.

I once bought him an inexpensive set, but he didn’t want any part of that. Instead, we are using the set I got when I was a teenager while on a trip to Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts.

While that’s working out great, my son is eager to get his own set.  You know, so he can drag out his own set and beat me without mercy.

Rather than go out and buy a new board, I think we’re going to be building one of these first published in Popular Woodworking Magazine.  I once built a board using these techniques for a charity auction and it came out great.

The best part about this plan is that building the 64 square board is a piece of cake.  Instead of cutting the individual pieces and trying to glue them together, the technique employed by the plan’s designer increases the odds that the squares will come out evenly.  As an added bonus, the board also stores the pieces below, allowing you to keep the entire set together so you’ll be ready to play whenever you want to.

It’s a very simple plan that yields elegant results.  Now, I have to learn how to accept the fact that I will be humiliated by a ten year old…

Wanna turn your basic circular saw into a precision cutting machine?

Believe it or not, there is a way to get extreme precision with your circular saw for a small investment of some scrap sheet goods, screws and wood glue.  You can build one of these babies and use it to break down sheet goods with no hassle and minimal measurements.

So, how do you do it? (click on images for larger sized views)

Build yourself a Sawboard.  I found this plan on the Internet and decided I just had to build one for myself.  I have an 8 foot model, and wanted a shorter one for use on smaller pieces.  So, that’s what I built recently in my shop.

First of all, I took this scrap of B-C plywood lying around the shop.  It’s 4 feet long, and about 22 inches wide.  I ripped a 4 inch wide piece on my table saw and sanded the edges of what would become the top edge to prevent any splinters.

Next, if there is any bow in the pieces, put them so the bows cancel each other out and the sheets will lay flat once screwed together.  I put on a good bead of wood glue and used 3/4″ screws to hold the pieces together.  Now, you have to remember to keep this piece roughly centered on the bottom piece, and allow at least the distance from the edge of your circular saw base to the blade on both sides.  The precision comes from the next step.

Once you have the pieces screwed together, what you want to do is set the edge of your saw’s base against the fence and make a cut.  You will automatically have a guide that will be the exact distance between your saw’s base edge and the blade.  It’s genius!

To use the Sawboard, mark where you want the cut to begin and end on a peice of sheet stock.  It doesn’t matter if you want a straight cut or an angled one, because the saw will give you a perfect cut.  Clamp it down with the edge of the guide over the two marks and cut away.

If you clamp the Sawboard to the ‘keeper’ side of the cut, the jig actually presses down on the wood fibers, keeping them from lifting.  A pretty nifty idea.

To get the best out of the jig, just lay the piece you want to cut over a pair of wooden saw horses, and set the depth of the blade a little deeper than the thickness of the keeper and the jig so you barely score the top of the saw horses.

Simple and elegant.  I love it!

So, you’re close to graduating high school, and you still haven’t decided what to do with your life?  I mean, I’m sure you are watching those Europeans fighting that war, and the Japanese Empire making trouble over in the Orient.  And, I know the economy has been terrible as of late.  But President Roosevelt says that the future looks bright for us.

I hear you are pretty good with your hands, and you have a good grasp of mathematics.  Since you are having trouble deciding what vocation you want to follow, I’ll thread this film into the projector and we can talk about what kind of job you want after you watch it.

This one came from Duan Packard in Kerrville, Texas – and it’s a good one.  Thanks, Duan!

When you buy a tool, you know how it comes in one of those fancy blow-molded plastic cases, right?  It gives the tool manufacturer someplace to slap their logo, the product’s specs and the standard warnings about tool safety.

Inside, you’ll find each of the accessories for the tools placed into its own little custom-formed recess, almost like a modern version of a Studley Tool Chest.

After you unpack the tool and – ahem – read the directions, what do you do with the fancy blow-molded plastic case?

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Choosing and Using Hand Planes by This Old House Magazine

Leave it to the guys at the longest-running home improvement show to tackle the task of teaching their readers how to choose and use hand planes.

The show’s general contractor, Tom Silva,  shows the article’s readers the difference between the different kinds of planes (jointers, jacks, smoothers, blocks and specialty planes), how to sharpen the irons and how to tune the plane up to get the best results.

The accompanying pictures show Silva clearly demonstrating the proper planing techniques, including the right way hold the plane and how the curls should look as they come off the board.

Sure, this isn’t an in depth dissertation on the finer points of plane craft, but it’s an excellent way to get your feet wet in the wonderful world of hand planes.