Customer Reviews

Building Cabinet Doors & Drawers

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I eagerly awaited the arrival of this book after reading the 5 star reviews by other readers. I do not know where to begin to express my dissapointment with the book's contents. I guess I am a more advanced woodworker than I previosly thought. I am starting my own business specializing in custom made, solid wood, raised panel doors. Obviously, I already know how to make them (one would hope !). Since this is what the book's title is all about, I figured I could pick up some good tips. Well, this book is obviously for beginners only. With this in mind, I feel bad for any beginner trying to make sense out of some of Mr. Proulx's "formulas". I got to the chapter where he shows a picture of drawing an arc for an arched panel door. I thought, "Hmm, at least I can see if he as an easy formula I can adapt (there are many !) to draw an elipse/arch based on the door width". Nope, he states the radius of the arc once, with no explanation of why, how, where he arrived at this figure. To add insult, in later pages/chapters involving similar cuts to be made, he says "Refer to chapter #, or page so and so where this procedure or formula was explained/illustrated". Aggravating to say the least. Also, all door types made are with a router and router bits (no mention of shapers in here). Nothing wrong with this, but while I have always gotten by making raised panel doors on a table router all these years, I would think that a pro/author of such a book would mention that a shaper is the way to go, especially when rasing a panel !. He also mentions 3 possible thicknesses of panels to be used in conjunction with frame (rail & stile) thickness. He completely omits my favorite: a 3/4 thick panel that is "back-cut" to make the panel flush on front and back side of the door. There's a lot more, but I'll stop here. If you already know how to make a cabinet door and drawer don't waste your money on this book. If you don't already know how, you can pick up some decent general basics. However, if you're a beginning woodworker, don't even try to understand the section on european hinges (drawings and explanations). These belong in a more advanced edition.

If you want to see what kind of doors you CAN make, this book is not bad. If you are hoping to learn how to make a particular type of door, this book is not very informative. It lacks a lot of details that you'd need to know if you were going to actually make the door that the book describes.

Danny Proulx created a book that has all the ingredients that really matter. He covers all the different types of doors and drawers, and the essential techniques required to build them. Combining this book with experience at woodworking basics, and you are on your way to making first class custom cabinets and doors. I like his tips, notes, and safety notes. Gleaning from 30 years of experience, he mentions the common pitfalls in many of the applications.
I had bought some router bits from a gentleman in Canada, who was very helpful. He referred me to someone he knew, who really knew what they were talking about. He referred me to Danny Proulx the author.I coincidentally had bought his book the week before, and was then recommended to him. So I wrote to him about some questions I had. He was kind enough to get back to me with specific answers. I was impressed that a renowned author with many publications to his name, would take the time out to respond to my questions. The nice thing about the author is that he really cares.
This book is a keeper. One to keep at the ready to refer to again and again when developing your next project, or for reviewing the specifics of one. It's an easy read. Engineered to simplicity. All in all I give it 5 stars.

There seems to be a lot of white space and there are a lot of B/W photos that appears to be space fillers.

The book does have useful information for a first time cabinet builder, like me.

I also bought Building Traditional Kitchen CAbinets and that is a better book, at least to me.

This is an excellent short book with relevant, well taken photographs of joints, methods, and approaches to building simple, stylish drawers and cabinet doors. The author is realistic in today's economy in that he uses not only solid woods but also particle board and plywood materials in his well written chapters. You'll also appreciate the brief explanation of biscuit joinery for mitered joints and the sections on hinges just to mention a few topics. He presents lots of foolproof techniques for the home craftsperson.

This is an easy read and easy to use in the shop the first few attempts at building your first drawer.

Strongly recommend this work.

In its introduction, the book claims to fill a gap in the woodworking litterature concerning the building of cabinet doors.

I found that this book is really targeted to beginner (nothing wrong about that) and only contains some quick and simple way of building doors.

A third of the book is devoted to basic joinery (and the book si pretty slim to begin with).

There is also an extensive section on european style hardware, the different type, how to mount them etc. The traditional hinge is mentionned in a small paragraph. There is no explanation of the different style, how to mount it etc.

Some information are just not correct such as stating that the main tool to build raise panel are the table saw and the router.

Some information is just not there. What about wood movement in solid wood panel how much clerance should I leave, where etc.

The worse part is the chatper on drawer. The book is title cabinet doors and drawers. Only 2 simple style of drawer are described. No mention on how to fit them properly. Dovetails are described in the joinery chapter but not even apply to the drawers !!!

And I am still looking for the formula to get the radius of the arch panel.

I also would have loved some nice color pictures.

All in all I don't this book is completely useless for the beginner, but don't expect this book to be a reference on how to build doors or drawers. There are tons of litterature out there that provide more in depth coverage + description on how to build the whole kitchen cabinet for a similar price.

Danny Proulx did a great job. This is an excellant book full of tried and true methodes of installing most any kind of Doors & Drawers,including a lot of detailed explainations of new hardware on the market for them. All concepts are explained in pretty much non tech. language. I have read many books by woodworking tech. types. Many of them are mostly written by woodworkers who know there stuff, but conveying it to the non Norm Abrams type is a shot that makes most woodworking books sound like they were translated from an Alien language.
Danny Proulx showes he not only is hot [stuff] in the shop but knows how to teach it to anyone.

All in all not a bad book. The technique used to make an arched raised panel was different from my own but none the less works. This is definetly a book I'd recommend to anyone wanting to make their own flawless doors. I believe Mr. Proulx mentioned the fact that wood expands and contracts with a solid wood raised door but didn't mention a good gap between rails/stile and raised panel of 1/16" works very well. If using 2 1/4" rail/stiles and the router bit cuts 3/8" groove in the rails and stiles subtract an additional 1/16" for the expantion of the raised panel. Dry fit the door (try not to force it) if the panel is loose use small tacks to secure the panel from moving(mentioned in book)!!
Thanks Danny

I own several Danny Proulx books. His attention to detail and conversational style present everything in an easily absorbed format. If you don't have a master cabinet maker living next door, Danny's the next best thing.

iv read this book a few times and it really taught me alot , now i keep the book close by when i need to reference a door or drawer application.