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

I bought this as I'm gradually building up my wood working knowledge ( at 60 plus! ). you never stop learning and I need to start preplanning building future projects and this is a good way to get into this mind set.

This is an extremely well written, insightful and concise overview of best practices for cabinet making. It features a large amount illustrated sample pieces of furniture, highlighting for each both the core design principles as well as the technical key elements. This is not a step by step project book. It expects the reader to apply knowledge already gained elsewhere. Instead, it breaks down the key elements of a very large number of varied pieces and thus allows you to come up with your own variations of these "best practice" designs. Highly recommeded and one of the best books on making furniture which I've seen. Don't expect a "do step 1, then step 2" style cooking book. This is more like a timeless text book which may easily stay with you throughout your woodworking career whilst technologies and fashions change.

No, this is not the "Gray's Anatomy of Woodworking", despite the front cover statement, but it is not very far from an "Atlas of Cabinet making": the difference being that Gray's Anatomy is an utterly comprehensive textbook. As an atlas, Illustrated Cabinet Making is only limited by its British-American perspective. This is mildly annoying as this book gives an otherwise very good historical background to each of the woodworking projects it presents. It's just that the history of Anglo-American cabinet- and furniture making is deeply influenced by continental European, which in turn has taken inspiration from Chinese-Japanese crafts.The above should not detract the reader from that an extensive and in-depth coverage on furniture making (exempting chairs), appropriate joinery, and history of the described projects is provided.After an introduction on the history of Anglo-American cabinet making, the reader is provided is with an in-depth review of the joints available to the cabinet maker, succeeded by descriptions and recommendations what joinery to use for those sub-assemblies which put together generate a cabinet or furniture piece. Most importantly, Mr Hylton provides important information on the properties of available joints, how to mitigate the impact of seasonal variation in moisture induced swelling of wood, and the tensions placed on various sub-assemblies and what joinery best mitigates those strains.The methodology sections are followed by a series of chapters where the methodologies are applied in the making of most furniture and cabinets, exempting chairs. Each main component of furniture, e.g. desks, tables, and beds, is illustrated by several examples, and each example is provided with very informative drawings on joints and sub-assemblies come together to form the piece. Furthermore, historical background, as well as alternatives to the presented piece, are briefly informed on in text boxes. Details for making the presented piece, and alternatives are given as references to publications. Some of these references are by now perhaps somewhat aged on not immediately accessible.The topic of this book is not to teach the techniques of cabinet making, but some elaboration on woods suitable - and why they are recommended - for the presented projects would have been welcome, as would have been which joints go well with what wood.In summary, anyone contemplating a wall-hung cabinet, not supported by brackets, can do more than well from the information this book provides on the suitable joinery and sub-assemblies for this kind of project. Likewise, will those in need of an extensible dining table find the intimate anatomy of such a piece of furniture, as well as alternatives.

First and foremost this is not a step by step guide or a book for beginners, this book is aimed at advanced or experienced joiners cabinet makers or woodworkers.This book is to be used as a reference book for projects, commissions or contracts. It enable you to have an insight of how pieces are built and ways around certain issues that may arise in the construction of pieces of furniture.I found this book immensely useful being a cabinet maker and joiner, at times I need to refresh or simply dicover how certain pieces I am asked to make are actually made since there are so many variants. The exploded views are superb since they give me the insight on certain subassemblies and joints they are suggested or required.I highly recommend this book for any serious craftsman or enthuiast to get this book as a reference

Reading.Not read it fully yet.

Not quite what I was expecting. There's plenty in here to read, and it's really good at showing you (for example) 20 different types and styles of feet for cupboards, which makes it great if you want to be able to discuss different styles of furniture. Unfortunately, I was wanting something to show me techniques etc. for making my own furniture, and for that I found it slightly less useful. All in all decent though, and tells you plenty of useful stuff about different ways furniture can be put together.

This is without doubt the best book I have on cabinetmaking!It is very thorough in it's explanation of wood movement, joints and sub-assemblies and basically gives you all the information you need to succeed in your projects.There are a variety of different pieces of furniture (each with a couple of variants shown) and they are all explained with the use of exploded diagrams.It is not a step by step guide of what to do for each project and it doesn't have cut lists etc, but that gives you the freedom to create your own designs/sizes/specs etc.There are enough projects in here to keep you going for years and I cannot recommend this book enough.

This book will tell you everything you need to know about how to design your own cabinets, tables, beds, desks and chests. I got my copy in 2016 and it's getting pretty dogeared because of the constant reference I make to it. If you're looking for a book that will give you lots of finished plans to follow then this isn't the book for you, but if you're looking to start working out your own designs and need some guidance on which joints to use, where to use them and why, then this this book is an absolute must have. If you want to take your woodworking to the next level, buy a copy; you won't regret it.