Customer Reviews

Illustrated Cabinetmaking: How to Design and Construct Furniture That Works

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As a semi-pro woodworker I found this book to be invaluable. It has detailed drawings of just about any type of joint or furniture item you can imagine. The first section is a discussion of wood and it's properties and then there is a detailed comparison of wood joints. Mortise and tenons, miters, dovetails, etc. are all discussed.

Then the book moves on with chapters dealing with various classes of furniture, desks, tables, beds, cabinets are all discussed with clear exploded diagrams.

Although the book does not contain detailed, measured drawings, it shows the conceptual details of how to make functional furniture. Additionally there are references to detailed plans that you can access via the internet or purchase to make typical examples of each piece.

Especially helpful are the "standards" sections at the start of each chapter. The "nominal" dimensions for tables, beds, kitchen cabinets are all given along with illustrations.

If you're serious about woodworking and furniture making, this book belongs on your bookshelf.

I like to check out books from the library before I buy them. I checked this one out, now I'm buying it.

As a novice woodworker, I anticipate this will be an excellent reference as I move forward with designing and building cabinets, tables, and chairs.

It's not a how-to book, it's a reference. So when I'm wondering how I'm going to design a small cabinet with four drawers and a television cabinet for the bedroom, this book will give me options and ideas from casework to drawers to what goes on the bottom and what goes on the top.

I think it's a great reference.

As a novice woodworker, but a professional trades instructor, I found this book to be a wonderful source of information about traditional and contemporary styles and techniques in furniture and cabinetmaking. It introduces the fundamentals of furniture anatomy, styles and wood movement. You are then moved along to joinery and furniture subassemblies with detailed and very readable illustrations. The strength of the book is, indeed, in the illustrations. The project section illustrates, by example, the styles and techniques introduced earlier but allows Woodworkers the freedom to add dimensions of their own. It is a very useful guide for those who are looking for ideas and allows great freedom to customize the design without getting too far off track.

This book is a wealth of ideas and illustrations. Every page has an illustration (non measured drawing) giving details of types of joinery, moldings, etc. that can be used in furniture making. The book is also a staring point to get ideas how furniture can be built. It illustrates how hundreds of types of furniture (beds, cabinets of all sorts,...) can be built according to different styles. This is no cookbook for furniture (such as "Country Pine Furniture" from the same author), but it is ideal for people who have acquired a little assurance in building furniture and are ready to make their first (or second) steps in designing their own.

Illustrated Cabinetmaking would make a decent idea book, but falls short if you're looking for a "how to" book. It is filled with many different types of furniture designs, including alternates. The chapters on furniture style and anatomy are adequate, however, the ones on joinery are lacking. Although quite adequate in describing and showing limited illustrations of the joints, there is virtually no instruction on how to construct them. The same problem occurs in the furniture section. The description is short and offers very little construction information. Consider the spice box on pages 272-273. The door of the illustration on page 272 appears to be lipped, but has a half mortise lock. What does it lock into?

This thick little book is filled with dimensional drawings of all kinds of furniture, including the very high-end furniture and some historical pieces. The author goes into great detail about every type of joint with some practical commentary on the pros and cons of each type. There are also detailed sections on legs and feet, table types, and drawer construction.

My only letdown, as an amateur furniture hobbyist, is that there is little or no talk about tool usage and how to make some of these pieces. The author favored information about origins, history, and aesthetics. However, the book makes up for this with its great perspective drawings on every page, complete with dimensions and names for each component. This will be a great resource down the road when I need to know how to construct a unique joint or when I just want to see something new to inspire me.

I own probably a half dozen books on furniture construction and joinery and found this book to be the best source for joinery techniques period. From it's detailed explanations to numerous pictures and drawings it thoroughly covers all aspects of great cabinetry. I really enjoyed reading this book, and I am not a book reader. The chapters are laid out well and are written as though a beginner might be picking it up, but don't let that fool you, this is a book an experienced woodworker will enjoy as well. There are tons of ideas and explanatory plans, while these plans are not measured drawings or as detailed as some other book, I feel they provide enough information to develop your own set of plans from. Most of the plans cover height, width and depth only, but the joinery is covered and the general concepts are there.

As a professional finish carpenter by trade and a furniture builder for fun and profit I find this book a great reference tool as well, I use it often. I highly recommend it for any serious woodworkers library.

This book is very complete covering fundamentals of furniture anatomy, styles, and wood movement, various joints, subassemblies used in all kinds of projects, and Furniture.

This is a great book for the beginner or professional.

Provides a lot of good inspiration as well.

Dining tables, occasional tables, desks, chests, cabinets, built-in cabinets, and beds are all of the Furniture types covered.

Beautifuly illustrated with exploded plans of how all of the parts go together... I can thumb through it and end up reading it for hours!! It's just really a very great book to own if you're interested in woodworking.

It seems I always have within an arms reach!

I love it!

If you're looking for a book on how to build cabinets, this ain't it. This is a primer on how to build furniture (which is often referred to as cabinet-making) but references to building cabinets are brief and limited. It's really an overview of furniture building rather than a hands-on, how-to book.

This book would be a great textbook for Introduction to Cabinetmaking. It explores history, basic joinery, and presents several different examples of end products for the basic styles of cabinetry and furniture.

Although the book has very recent publication dates (2003, 2008, 2010), the end products illustrated in the book were popular several years ago. In other words, don't expect to see plans for any of the end products in the next edition of Wood or Fine Woodworking magazine which I subscribe to.

If you're looking to recreate furniture that was popular 30-50 years ago, you've got to have this book in your library. If you're looking for examples of modern cabinetry incorporating drawer slides, casters, and soft-closing concealed hinges, look elsewhere.

Again, the book presents a great overview of cabinetmaking techniques, but falls short in showing `How to Design..." furniture for today's homes.