[.ca] Build Your Own Kitchen Cabinets (ISBN 1558706763)

sorry I ordered.:
From the reviews and writeup I thought I had found something interesting. Was I disappointed. Amateurish; Not well presented; Not well explained. Use of door stops, cheap materials and plugging visible screw holes is not my idea of quality. Wish I could get a refund. Mark Walsh

It worked great for me!:
This is a great book. I just finished building 27 face frame cabinets using 3/4" melamine and oak face frames. This book truly made the whole process simple. After receiving estimates from cabinet makers and going to major hardware stores, I decided to get this book and go for it. The lowest quote for cabinets only by a contractor was $18,000 and major hardware store $10,000 (I install). It will cost about $5,000 total for cabinets, hardware & doors doing it myself. I was a little skeptical at first but have no regrets now and would do it all over again. In fact, some of my wife's friends are already telling me what they want, and I'm not even complete with my kitchen. With the money I saved by doing it myself, I bought a new table saw, joiner and rewired my garage. I am a novice woodworker at best, with construction background. This book guides you clearly from beginning to end. I read and studied the book for a few weeks before starting (I had to wire my garage) and assembling the cabinets was easier than I thought. Cut lists are provided for several cabinet sizes (widths) along with easy to read and understand instructions and sketches that make the whole process very simple. From the information I learned from this book I was able to design and build a very big pantry that my wife loves. When I had a question or if something was't clear to me, I would email Danny and he always responded within 1 day. As with any project, it helps to have a plan and this book provides planning methods with enough flexability to make changes easily. Another advantage is you have time to make changes and incorporate them without cost. If you did this with a contractor the bill would start to grow. I would recommend having a good tablesaw (I bought a Delta Unisaw), 2 drill guns, a joiner, a planer would be nice but I did without, sander, etc. I did build a workbench 7' x 2', the same height as my table saw, on wheels for about $50. You can use this for a place for wood to land after pushing thru the saw as well as assembling cabinets. I did look at other books before getting this one and they didn't seem as 'user friendly'. The sketches and diagrams are very helpful also. Overall, the book was great for me, I'd recommend it to anyone who know how to swing a hammer. It was definitely money well spent. Buy it. Ed Jaworski edski@eagleiron.net

Buy this book!:
If I could give more stars, I would. I've never built anything out of wood before, and I just finished building all my kitchen and bathroom cabinets. I did not use melamine (the author is a fan of this material), as it would not be good for resale value in my particular area. I used polyurethaned birch plywood for the kitchen cabinets, and painted MDF for the bathroom cabinets. Using the author's instructions, they turned out very well, with very little hassle. The author has a no-nonsense approach to building cabinets (e.g., using screws in a butt joint, rather than time-consuming dados/rabbets). This saved me a lot of time and hassle. Since I was a beginner when I started this project, it was especially appealing. Certain other books were overwhelming to me because of the amount of space dedicated just to joinery. I've nothing against these other methods, but it was refreshing to see that they weren't actually necessary. Given the limited amount of time I had to build quality cabinets, it was the obvious choice for me. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to build his/her own cabinets, regardless of experience level. Also, I emailed the author to make sure the cabinets/cabinet legs would support my concrete countertops, and received a reply within 24 hours. A lot of authors will forget about the little people once they are published, but not this guy! (BTW, there was no support problems.)

D or less:
The book makes me think of garage grade cabinets. These are the low end of the scale but the color pictures look good. I would never buy these types of cabinets or make them for my home.

Great book for a DIY project:
This is my very first book about the kitchen cabinet and I like it a lot. The book covers a lot of details and displays a lot of pictures. It's simple and easy to follow, that's what you really need. Danny is also very good in replying your emails if you have any questions. Great book and great customer services. Keep up with the good work Danny!!!