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A kitchen island can make a very nice upgrade to your home, adding both utility and value. If you have the room for it, an island like the one I’ve built here can even improve the efficiency of your cooking workflow, not to mention adding a cozy place for two people to sit and enjoy a meal.

Rarely do creatures speak to us of freedom and frailty as do birds. They brave bitter winter storms, exhausting annual migrations, natural predators and a host of other dangers throughout the year. Yet their enviable gifts of flight and beautiful appearance give us a lift whenever we see them. And while birds of a feather do flock together, most still prefer privacy while raising a family.

This picture frame uses a plywood base with decorative hardwood tiling, and it makes a nice home woodworking plan. Professionally made picture frames come in two types: the chintzy-looking cheap ones, or the really great-looking expensive ones. I decided that I would like to build my own and come up with a really great looking frame that was inexpensive but definitely not cheap!

Tis The Season To Give To Yourself. The season of giving is approaching fast. This year don’t forget to include yourself on the shopping list. Here are our top picks for treating yourself this holiday season.

If you're like most woodworkers, a table saw is the most often used tool in your shop. Getting adequate dust collection to it should be a primary concern. But not all table saws are set up to make dust collection easy. Open based contractor saws present a particular dust collection challenge. Two of our woodworking experts offer a few tips on the subject.

Whether you use a router made long before you were born, like the 1950s Stanley or one of the technologically advanced models built today, either machine can perform a range of essential woodworking tasks that can’t be bested by any other power tool. If you’re a woodworking novice, I’ll go so far as to say it should rank near the top of your “short list” of tools to buy first, even ahead of a table saw — routers are that useful.

To save a bit of money and get more use out of his workbench, the author constructed his own quick and easy router table. A router table doesn’t have to cost a fortune or weigh a ton to deliver professional results. My version’s 1" thick top doesn’t even require a cabinet base or legset. It simply clamps to my workbench. The project features an adjustable split fence with dust collection, plus a router lift made from ordinary home-center hardware. By removing three pairs of carriage bolts and wingnuts, I can remove the lift, router and fence easily for convenient storage.

Putting together your own cribbage board project is a good use of a lot of different workshop talents, and the end result can be almost as fun as making it. During those long, cold winters I spent growing up along the shores of Lake Vermilion in the far north of Minnesota, one of the ways that we wiled away the long dark evenings was playing cribbage.