Illustrated Cabinetmaking: How to Design and Construct Furniture That Works (Fox Chapel Publishing) Over 1300 Drawings & Diagrams for Drawers, Tables, Beds, Bookcases, Cabinets, Joints & Subassemblies

An excellent reference book for all things furniture related.

Informative

I picked up a few new ideas, but I am a cabinet maker and I know most of the trades tricks.

I feel like most everything I want to say has already been said. But I don't think it'll hurt to recap.It is such a joy just to open a book to a random page and be able to absorb and internalize the presented material. Obviously such a book would have to meet the reader on his experience level by presenting the material in a well organized and informative manner. It would have to open the door for the reader to extend his own creative impulses. And this is just what Mr. Hylton provides for us in his Illustrated Guide to Cabinetmaking. This book immediately sets out to appeal to a much wider audience with different styles and tastes and it succeeds on every level.I often find myself reviewing, from the first pages of the book, the nomenclature of the different methods of joining wood. I honestly believe he covers every means known to the wood worker. (Well, there is that thing I like called confirmat screws that he doesn't mention.) His presentation of topics is easy to understand and comprehend. For example, his discussion of wood expansion and contraction and how to accommodate this in furniture construction is truly a God send.The second and larger part of the book is a compendium of various furniture assembly illustrations encompassing simple end tables to large and complex armoires. The illustrations go as far as to describe the recommended joinery method for the individual pieces. (Note that I use the word 'recommended' because the first part of the book gives the designer a complete choice of other available joinery methods.) The illustrations do not include measurements which is, perhaps, my only angst with this book.Some people may be taken a-back by this book. It is a collection of illustrations/assembly guides for different types of furniture and different styles of the highlighted piece. It doesn't give the reader a step-by-step guide to build from scratch, even though it does provide references to more detailed plans and drawings. (To me, this is enough.) However, by giving you all the necessary joinery background and alternatives, any semi-experienced wood worker can run with it and let his own creative mind take over by adding personal and artistic changes. What book can truly rise to this challenge?It also needs to be made clear that this is not just a book covering the topic of cabinets and the 'cabinetmaking' in the title is misleading. It goes so much further by giving the wood worker a complete and unhindered view of furniture design and assembly. I highly recommend this excellent book to any intermediate to experienced woodworker who wants to expand his furniture horizons.

This was EXACTLY what I was hoping it would be. I wanted a reference that I could use to help me with ideas for projects and detailed diagrams for how to build particular components of cabinets.I love the detailed designs and plans. If you want to build different cabinet types, this is a great book. It's not a skills how to book. It assumes you have the tools and know how to work the wood. But, what a wealth of ideas and design approaches here.

This is a fantastic book for anyone who wants the following question answered- what joints were used to hold that piece together ? This is what I was looking for, so I am very very happy. Virtually every piece of furniture is shown in exploded form and the joints are revealed and in some cases discussed. If you're a capable woodworker, this is the really critical information you need to make your own variations on any given piece.If you're looking for actual plans with measurements etc, then this is not the book for you although I should add that each piece odes have a reference to plans or an article on that piece. This doesn't appear to be an ad for some plan-provider but rather draws from a wide variety of the usual places .. Fine Woodworking editions or online articles or another book.It's hard to tell which reviews are legit because people get paid to ( I have personally talked with people who were paid to do this) flood the reviews of items with three and ten word reviews giving it five stars. Reading these reviews and realizing they're bought and paid for makes trusting the reviews here hard.I hope potential buyers of this book can see my review is legitimate. I am very happy with this book, it gave me just what I needed with excellent and very clear illustrations. I just went and looked; my book has 367 pages and each piece gets about two pages so there's about 180 or so pieces.

All previous reviews are correct, with one addition: Although the book provides only 2 page reviews of each project with citations to get the actual plans - it is important to note that the citations are not to online sources or readily available books. I read prior reviews and got the impression that if I like a project I could go and buy the detailed plans to build that project. Not the case. The citations to where the plans come from all refer to old and out of print books, magazine articles, news letters, etc. It appears that none of the projects contain an online source for detailed plans. I have not been able to locate the original detailed plans for a single project, and I probably searched for the plans on about 20 of the projects discussed.So, if you get the book and find a project you would like to build, you will likely never be able to actually find the complete plans unless you happen to have a library of woodworking books and magazines from the 70's 80's and 90's.

I got this because I was going to be restoring a camper.It did not work out well, but the book itself has very good illustrations on how to do stuff.It does not replace someone that knows how to do it but it is a good starter