Whats the best book for making cabinets. New style

[Marlin Williams]

So what is the best book/s for building cabinets. I have some but they are older style and were cheap ones I got to just get a idea a while back.

Looking for start to finish type and also maybe something that does more then 1 cabinet style. My wife likes ones with glass in the face but the ones I have are just all the standard raised panel type. Not bad but like to have options when i go to sell the idea to my wife. That and it seems like a lot of them go into great detail over the doors/face but skimp over the body.

I looked at ebay, amazon, half, etc... and there are a lot of them. So i thought maybe some people here have found a couple gems in all of them.

[Bruce Wrenn]

My vote goes for Danny Proulx's book, "Making Your Own Kitchen Cabinets." His method uses melamine for the boxes, a semi-face frame, wooden doors and end panels. Boxes are just screwed together. I attach the semi-face frames with pocket screws. Looks like face frame construction, but allows the use of Euro hardware

[Dave Tinley]

PM sent about books

[Anthony Watson]

My favorite is "Building Kitchen Cabinets" by Udo Schmidt. It is distributed by Taunton Press (The folks who put out the Fine Woodworking and Fine Homebuilding Magazines). ISBN 1-56158-470-3.

Good instructions and lots of pictures. :)

Anthony

[Scott Loven]

My favorite is "Building Kitchen Cabinets" by Udo Schmidt. It is distributed by Taunton Press (The folks who put out the Fine Woodworking and Fine Homebuilding Magazines). ISBN 1-56158-470-3.

Good instructions and lots of pictures. :)

Anthony
This is by far and above the most purchased cabinet making book that people buy from my store.
Scott

[Ray Schafer]

Marlin,

The best books that are mentioned consistently in this forum are:
Danny Proulx's
Jim Tolpin's
Udo Schmidt's

I can say that they are all great. Danny's gave me the most specifics on step-by-step. I would check the library -- my library has all three.

Another book that was mentioned once or twice was Bobby Lang's "The Complete Kitchen Cabinetmaker." It supposedly (I have not been able to find a copy yet) includes the 32mm method, which I am trying to learn.

A book that I WOULD NOT get (but did) is the Complete Cabinetmaker's Reference. One reason is that I would not build my cabinets to the floor. I am using levelers instead. It saves material, is easier to install, and allows more flexibility in several respects. The other is that I have written a spreadsheet that calculates the dimensions of my parts. That is easy to do as you go along and removes the need for a book like that one.

Ray

[Brian Smith3]

I'm in the process of building my cabinets currently. Also I am assuming that you are talking about kitchens. I don't think there is one end all book on the subject. The books I used were:

"Making Your Own Kitchen Cabinets." Danny Proulx
"Building Kitchen Cabinets" Udo Schmidt
"Building Traditional Kitchen Cabinets" Jim Tolpin
"The Complete Kitchen Cabinetmaker" Robert W. Lang

I think that if you can look each of them over it is very helpful. I read the first two from the library, I looked over the Tolpin book and bought that, and I bought the Lang book. The first two books are good for a large overview of tools you will need etc., but they were not as strong on sizing, planning, making lists etc. I have found that making lists and planning are equally important to building a full room out as actually knowing how to cut panels etc. unless you have gobs of time. The Lang book is especially strong on that count. Seeing as your wife is involved, I would guess that time is not on your side, so a 2 year kitchen reno probably will not go over well. So anyway that's what I did.