Customer Reviews

The Complete Kitchen Cabinetmaker: Shop Drawings and Professional Methods for Designing and Constructing Every Kind of Kitchen and Built-In Cabinet

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have years of experience in residential carpentry and furnituremaking, and I've installed dozens of kitchens, but I had never actually made a set of kitchen cabinets. We are renovating our house, and replacing our cheap cabinets is one of the items on the list. I spent hours at my local Barnes and Noble and Borders stores looking for a comprehensive book that focuses exclusively on kitchen cabinetmaking, and couldn't find one out of the dozens of books on cabinemaking that thoroughly covered both the cabinet design and production processes. Then I took a chance and ordered The Complete Kitchen Cabinetmaker, and found exactly what I was looking for.
Lang writes well and, just as important, is a good teacher and explainer. The book is well organized, and the abundant illustrations, both photographs and drawings, are clear and detailed. Measured drawings abound. He describes both general types of cabinet, frameless and face-framed, and lays out efficient production processes for both, indicating where potential problems lurk and the consequences of inaccuracies at crucial points.
This is head and shoulders the best book I have seen on the subject. If you are even considering building your own kitchen cabinets, or starting a small cabinet shop, this book should be your first purchase. It will be the best money you spend on the project.

I used this book along with _The Complete Cabinet Maker's Reference_ by Jeffrey Piontkowski to build a set of nice garage cabinets. The two books are very different, and, I think, compliment each other well. This book contained information that allowed me to refine the basic cabinets in the other book. I was very pleased with the results! The project would have been much more trouble for me if I hadn't read this book first.

I purchased this book based on recommendations from Amazon reviews, and because I have the interest to learn more about furniture design and building techniques, basically focused in frameless type of cabinets, and this book covers both face-frame & frameless.
It provides a lot of pictures and drawings of how to layout, design, build, finish, and install face-frame or frameless cabinets.
Bob Lang made this book very easy to understand and I think is a great resource to beginners because of the structure of the book.
The book includes techniques and jigs that are great for cabinet construction. Several aspects of cabinet construction are covered with multiple options for joints, fasteners, materials, attaching doors (hinges), building drawers, etc.

I'm researching the possibility of making the cabinets for our new home and have found this book to be an excellent resource of information and tips by someone who has "been there and done that". Mr. Lang uses easy to understand language and examples on drawer construction, door construction, case construction and installation. Lots of time-saving tips, too!

A very practical guide that will help anyone with just a little experience making cabinets.

The Complete Kitchen Cabinetmaker is not a book on the details of joining or operating woodworking equipment. But it does do a very complete job of providing an overview of how to design and construct cabinets. It is comprehensive and economical in its explanation of how to construct both face frame and frame less cabinets. The author provides you with his viewpoint. Others would have a different perspective. Nonetheless, I would highly recommend the book for those new to cabinet making and as a reference for more experienced woodworkers. It has many insights that are only gained through the experience of building lots of cabinets and I found those insights to be very helpful.

Unfortunately, this book was a disappointment. I have years of experience in constructing furniture (dressers, side tables, night stands etc.) But I was looking for guidance on how kitchen cabinets are typically constructed and a detailed example of a cabinet broken down into the steps of measuring, cutting and assembling a cabinet, and measuring and installing drawers etc.
Unfortunately, this book provides a very very general look at cabinet construction covering topics such as possible methods of wood joinery (eg. dado, butt joint, butt joint with dowells etc.). Possible types of wood that is used (solid wood, plywood, composite plywood etc.).

The book may be well organized, but only provides a high level general overview of topics such as types of cabinet (frameless and face-framed), joinery methods, hardware types (screws, nails, staples etc.). If you are looking for practical guidance and a break down of the steps required to construct a cabinet from start to finish and how to fasten to the wall, install drawer guides etc, this book is NOT for you.

After reading through the entire book, I am no closer to knowing how to build and assemble cabinets.

Recommend you keep shopping rather than spend you money here.

The majority of books on cabinet making on the market are at best sub par. They usually cover the basics, and one will leave out what the other puts in and vice versa. You need an arsenal of books to get everything essential for beginners to start cabinet projects. I can safely say after reading and completing a set of cabinets from plans in this book, that it's all right here in one book. The descriptions, black and white photos from tools to materials to plans are very good. If this is a first book for you on cabinetry covering all the basics, I'd definitely start here. In fact, I've sold all the other books on this subject here on Amazon. This book is that definitive.

Bob Lang is an expert cabinetmaker and general woodworker with a great deal of experience in both. He is a Senior Editor at Popular Woodworking Magazine, which is, in my opinion, the best woodworking magazine available. His projects are featured regularly in that magazine. This book is not only instrumental to anyone who wants to build kitchen cabinets, it also teaches and illustrates a lot of basic woodworking techniques. The principles contained here apply to all casework construction, not just kitchen cabinets, so this book is valuable for all woodworkers.

If you have any interest in building cabinets this is a must have book. Well written, organized and detailed. It includes everything you need to know from layout to installation. An easy to follow explanation of how it's done from A. to Z. Bob tells you what works and what won't. If I could only afford one book,,,, this would be it.

Like the previous reviews stated, it's a great book that provides notes and hints on all the minor details that other books takes for granted. The book provide the reasons why the author recommends doing something a certain way. Then you can decide if that is the best way for what you are doing it verses another way some other book is telling you.


Bob provides suggestions down to what size screws, type, etc to use in every part of the construction or installation. The advantage of pan head vs. countersink heads. It's these finer details that make the book an excellent book for reference.