[.ca] Building Kitchen Cabinets (ISBN 1561584703)

Great Overview But Flawed Formulas...:
This is a good book for someone with good basic woodworking skills who wants to do a kitchen cabinet addition or modification but needs some help with design concepts unique to kitchen cabinetry. Unfortunately, you cannot rely upon all the formulas given in the book. Here are some examples: On pages 60 & 61 the formulas to determine rail length and panel height for raised panel doors are both incorrect due to a simple error showing a subtraction operation instead of an addition. Now that I've discovered these errors I've got a much lower level of confidence in other formulas used to determine part sizes--especially for those parts that I'd rather not cut too short! The publisher's website doesn't have a forum for discussion or posting of comments/errors. I could not locate the author's Email address or website. All-in-all this is a good book for illustrating concepts and describing shortcuts. The user needs to do their own thinking about the accuracy of any forumulas given in the book before making those final cuts.

A practical guide from someone who knows.:
I like this book. Lots of pictures, insider tips, and a no nonsense approach to cabinet building. The author gives it to you straight. He uses pocket hole joinery in abundance. Why? Because it takes less time, joins strong, and is reversible if you want to correct something. He doesn't go for a lot of complex joinery that is very time consuming, and not what the customer cares about. Myself I want to also build some heirloom quality cabinets. You know dovetails in every drawer corner. Inside panel solid wood overlays. Dadoes throughout, with hand rubbed finishes. You know the works. This is not about that. If you want to get practical and build fabulous looking hand made cabinets for a living, or for yourself, and not spend a month or a year doing it, this is the book for you. Instead of using plastic laminated interior panels, with fake wood, like the home centers sell you, you can use cabinet grade veneer plywood instead. This book will show you how. Robert Yoder gives you the insider tips, on what it takes to make professional cabinets, and not waste time on non-essentials. For example, one of many that are in the book, he says that you have the option, of once gluing up your raised face panel, you can insert two finish nails in the back of the panel, at the joint of the rails and stiles, and free your clamps up for another panel. No having to have a wall full of clamps that way. See what I mean about practical. He also uses the pocket hole joinery to join his face frame panels, with the pocket holes in the back of the panel. Way quicker than mortise and tenon joinery, and actually less difficult to get a perfect fit. I think every cabinetmaker has to have at his disposal, procedures that will enable him to make a fine set of cabinets that fit into any practical budget. This book will show you how. This is a far cry from standardized home center cabinetry. Custom-built cabinets, take into consideration that over the oven microwave cabinet, that fits it perfectly. Unlike the standardized cabinets that are pre-built, then modified on site to accommodate the custom fit. It shows. I like everything about this book. His honesty, practical approach, insider tips, knowing what can go wrong, and ways to prevent it. Nothing talks better than experience. This guy shoots from the hip, and knows what it is like to be out in the field. I think every level of cabinetry should be in your arsenal, and at your fingertips. This one is the one you will most frequently use. An easy read, with lots of illustrative photographs in color. It makes a great addition to your library. Highly recommended.

Straight Forward Useful Information, Very Well Organized:
This is the third book of its kind that I have purchased, and thankfully I now feel I have the necessary information to construct our new cabinets, thanks to this book. This is by far the best book of its type for me. It covers everything you can imagine and then some, as regards to kitchen cabinet construction. How to select materials, shop equipment, power tools, and gives you very good suggestions on how to go about the entire process, in a step by step fashion. The only subject he suggests you get more info on is finishing, suggesting entire books are written about this subject, but he does go on and give you his brief advice for finishing your cabinets. The photos in the book are excellent, and once again, the how to and tips on what to avoid and where to look for problems is spot on and very well done. I highly recommend this book to any and all amateur cabinet makers. I cannot say enough good about it, this book is exactly what was seeking all along. hope this helps; Jeff

Good information, Poor math skills.:
This book has good overall information, but many of the illustrations are incomplete and dimensions are incorrect. This caused me anxiety while I was trying to plan my own cabinets. I will now buy another book that will assist me better with the planning process of my cabinets.