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Highlands Today

Woodworking Wonder

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

Andy Dilley, president of Traditional Woodworks, won first place with this entertainment console, he designed and built, in the Family Living Woodworking Competition's advanced woodworking section at the 2009 Florida State Fair.

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By BILL ROGERS

Highlands Today

Published: February 22, 2009

AVON PARK - Andy Dilley considered shop a gimme class in high school. He made the obligatory cutting board, a letter opener and got A's.

The 2004 graduate of Avon Park High School said people would find it hard to believe what he is doing now for a living.

"Nobody graduates high school saying I want to be a woodworker," Dilley said.

But that's what he is and a pretty good one at that.

Dilley, 22, who is president of Traditional Woodworks, a custom fine woodworking business in Avon Park, submitted an original piece of furniture earlier this month that he designed and built for a customer in Lake Placid to the Family Living Woodworking Competition at the 2009 Florida State Fair in Tampa.

He entered an entertainment console, which took him 421 hours to complete, in the advanced woodworking section and finished first in a field of 36 entries. Dilley received $75 and a blue ribbon.

The main thing, he said, is that now he is an award-winning artist and an award-winning furniture maker.

A first-time entry, Dilley is believed to be the youngest winner of the advanced section.

"It's very unusual," said Art Falcone, 67, of Riverview who has competed at the fair and does woodworking as a hobby. "He has achieved a lot for his young age."

"He's got to be the youngest," said Tom Soyke of New Port Richey, who has also been involved in the competition and thinks it began about 15 years ago.

"He has a great eye for proportion," Falcone said.

Dilley said he was surprised that he won but was also relieved.

"I was freaking out," he said. "The day I dropped it off was the day before the judging. The next day was the judging, so I had to go back to Tampa and that night I didn't sleep very good at all. I didn't get to clean it."

After graduating from Avon Park, Dilley said he wanted to go to college. But there was a problem with studying or more precisely the lack of it.

"I was always able to get by in high school and make good grades without doing a lot of studying," he said. "I never studied. I never developed the study habits that it takes to make it in college. I quickly found that out."

He went to South Florida Community College, but dropped out during the first semester.

"College wasn't for me," he said.

He started working in construction when he was 18. He started in flooring and setting tile and then went into trim work.

Dilley, who considers himself a furniture maker/artist, said he has no idea where his interest came in making functional artistic furniture.

"I bought a fine woodworking magazine," he said. "It's very strange. I never really know the correct answer to that question when somebody asks because I don't know. I kind of just one day I started."

Dilley, who started his business in October 2007, said he is "very shameless" and has called nationally known furniture-makers to ask questions or seek advice.

"I will call anyone, it does not bother me," he said. "Any wood worker I know. I'm real good about trying to develop relationships with people in the industry.

He said he has learned a lot from people including Kurt Magee of D&N Cabinetry in Sebring and people at Hardwood Lumber and Millwork in Lakeland.

"There is so much I don't know," Dilley said. "The thing about woodworking is that you will never learn it all. It does not matter how long you have been it. There are so many different types of wood and every type of wood reacts differently to air, temperature, moisture. There are so many variations to this. Even though you know how to put it all together you use a different type of wood and you may not be able to put it together that way.

"Diversification in the woodworking industry is very important because there is always something that is going to come to you," he added.

Dilley said he constantly does research and studies.

"This is my life," he said.

Bill Rogers may be reached at 386-5825 or wrogers@highlandstoday.com

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