Jeff Williams

"Build stuff and have fun!" That is exactly what Jeff Williams has been doing all of his life. As the host of According to Plan, Jeff gets to do two of his favorite things, namely, building one of a kind projects and producing television programs. "I've been building things for as long as I can remember, while the other kids were having battles with their army men, I was in the dirt pile construction the army base."

Born in 1958, in what was then a sleepy little suburb of Chicago, Jeff spent his formative years in the basement of his split-level house. "My Dad's workshop was in the basement, so I would spend much of my free time building with scrap wood or assembling plastic model kits. Once I finished the model kits I would take them outside and burn them. I had a great childhood! Tree climbing was the only organized sport that I participated in. Sometimes I would build things up in the trees but that, of course, was before my power tool days."

Professionally, Jeff has served as the senior model maker for an engineering firm in the Chicago area for more years than he'll let us tell. His job scope has included the design and construction of courtroom displays, product prototypes, test fixtures for product testing, photographic interpretation, 3D computer aided drafting and design and CNC machining. "Doing something different almost every day at work has been great preparation for the TV show. My experience with the fire and explosion engineers, for example, comes in quite handy since I seem to have a lot of fires on the show". He has participated in projects that range from building a full sized mock-up of an agricultural combine to being part of a team that conducted testing on board the NASA micro gravity jet, or The Vomit Comet, as it is affectionately known.

Jeff began to see television as a new creative outlet after attending a TV production class at Naperville Community Television in his hometown. For his class project Jeff chose to do an informative video about appliance safety that, oddly enough, showed a coffee pot and toaster going up in flames. "Well, the appliance fires helped to bring the video to a point and it was visually interesting. Besides, once my station manager (and class instructor) Liz saw the fire sequence, I instantly became the teacher's pet." That never hurts.

The projects that are featured on the show are designed and built by Jeff and ,while they usually turn out pretty well, perfection is not the goal. "I believe that one of the greatest enjoyments in life is to create something, but if you think it's no good unless it is perfect then what should be a hobby becomes just another chore. My goal on According to Plan is to give out the message that it's okay to build something that doesn't look like a machine made it. The handmade projects are the ones that become family heirlooms."

Build Stuff, Have Fun!