Customer Reviews

Designing & Building Cabinets (New Best of Fine Woodworking)

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

 

 

Not worth the money buy a different book if you are interesting in learning how to build kitchen cabinets. This book is random and appears to be chapters of previously published material.

Yet another Taunton republication of old articles. This one packages a set related to cabinetmaking and cabinetmaking materials. You will not find detailed cabinet plans here, nor dicussions of alternative building methods in any comprehensive way, etc. What you will find is useful articles on materials and interesting tips (like the NK drawer bottoms), and so on. As such, it only makes for a casual read.

If you are looking for serious cabinet design and construction books, especially for kitchen cabinets and built-ins, look elsewhere. A few I can suggest are: Illustrated Cabinetmaking: How to Design and Construct Furniture That Works, and Cabinetmaking Procedures for the Small Shop. For drawers and doors specifically, try Building Doors and Drawers: A Complete Guide to Design and Construction.

I liked this book. It challenges you to move past basic cabinet making to furniture quality construction. It includes good detail and suggestions that improve your skills. This book has the quality of it's namesake magazine.

This book was not at all what I was looking for. There were too many opions on cabinet building in one book none of which were in any detail. Too general and the various contributors at times condemed the styles of one another. Seemed as though they put together monthly issues of various woodworking magazines.Not what I exspected

I have read this book nearly cover to cover and have found it easy reading as well as most informative for a beginning/intermediate woodworker. The photos are very clear and the articles are easy to understand. I can't wait to put some new methods to the test.

I'm generally a big fan of fine woodworking magazine and Taunton press, but this book is very disappointing. If you are drawn to a book entitled "designing and building cabinets", you are probably expecting to read about the steps, challenges, solutions and various options that you might encounter while building a cabinet. You probably want to know about the best methods to properly lay down a plan, choose the most appropiate materials, and building, assemblng and finishing your project.
But this is not that kind of book. Here you will find just acollection of articles from the past few decades that have something to do with building cabinets. Even that's not completly true. Some articles don't really have to do with cabinets at all, like building a tambour door, or working with synthetic countertops.
This is not to say that the articles are useless or boring. The intermidiate and expert woodworker will definetly find invaluable tips and tricks from some of the best craftsmen in America.
But for the casual weekend handyman, or for anyone who doesn't actually call himself a woodworker, you might wanna look somewhere else.
By the way: all of these articles are available on-line at finewoodworking.com for a much more affordable fee of about 5$ a month. That's -in my opinion- money much better spent.