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Building Traditional Kitchen Cabinets: Completely Revised and Updated

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Building Traditional Kitchen Cabinets: Completely Revised and Updated

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First published in 1994, this book quickly established itself as the standard shop reference on building kitchen cabinets. It covers all aspects of building a complete set of cabinets, from choosing a style for doors, to laying out the cabinets, to finishing and installing convenience hardware in the interiors.

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Product Details

Author:	Jim Tolpin
Paperback:	224 pages
Publisher:	Taunton
Publication Date:	April 18, 2006
Language:	English
ISBN:	1561587974
Package Length:	10.8 inches
Package Width:	8.4 inches
Package Height:	0.7 inches
Package Weight:	1.6 pounds
Average Customer Rating:	based on 19 reviews

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review: 4.5

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a must for beginners Jul 19, 2008
This book will give you a lot of information so you can design and build your kitchen cabinets. It is great.

1 of 1 found the following review helpful:

Good book Oct 20, 2007
Planning, organizing, layout, building, finishing and finally installing cabinets. Jim also included some shop tips and simple jigs. Doors and drawers included, though there are more extensive books on that matter. The book is enough by itself to help you build your first cabinets from scratch. I made my first build a corner set with 8 ft of counter, tops and bottoms ( wood is my lucrative hobby ). I also recommend Jim's book for the pro cabinet maker as it has some organizational advise that complements this volume. This book gives several styles of construction and face assembly, all good. I used mortise and tenon bead for my build, but I had nice FESTOOL joiner with dust system already. ( Festool 574283 DOMINO DF 500 Q Set. My only FESTOOL and well worth it. )

good book

I also recommend:
"Finish Carpentry" by Taunton Press
"Understanding Wood Finishing" by Bob Flexner ( very good )
"Cabinet Doors and Drawers" by Danny Proulx

and just about everything from Rockler.com and Lie-Nielsen.com

Thats a pretty comprehensive list, I feel its complete for the task in question. Many reviewers say these books are mostly fundamentals, I agree. The authors assume you have a "complete" set of power tools and a viable work space with many hours safely logged in it. You're looking at at least $5,000 start-up cost for decent power and hand tools to get into this field of hobby, and at least that much again to pretend you're seriously in business NOT including quality materials on hand for manufacture. Yep on hand before you sell anything. Its the unsung costs of dust collection, climate management, quality finishing, insurance, and maintenance that make the cost climb up on you.

Can you compete with China?

But I digress. Enjoy a great read!

3 of 6 found the following review helpful:

Save your money and don't buy this book Oct 10, 2007
This book is old school and is way outdated as far as making cabinets. This book is very hard to follow and laid out very poorly. If you want a good book to make cabinets look into "Building Kitchen Cabinets" UDO SCHMIDT

2 of 2 found the following review helpful:

BTKC-BUY THIS BOOK Sep 04, 2007
Definitely the best money I have spent on a cabinet book. Tolpin really provides a LOT of valuable information that can be used for DECADES to come.

From what I gather through my readings, Tolpin is a traditionalist / purist at heart, but, he understands the necessity to produce time and resource efficient designs. He provides instruction on both sides of the spectrum: Fast and Effective as well as traditional and effective (a little something for both). In this way, he is able to speak to the enthusiast that is interested in making a traditional set of cabinets, and the professional that is interested in producing a quality set of cabinets more quickly.

I also gather that he really enjoys teaching others his thoughts, shortcuts, time saving jigs that you can really use and appreciate (especially if you have been busting head trying to do it another way). This fact is what really wants me to buy more of his books. His service to carpentry in general is extraordinary; he is a true teacher of carpentry and advises young carpenters in almost every page of this book.

I especially enjoyed making and using most of the jigs he describes. In one chapter he outlines more than 5 jigs. Having built them (extremely easy to make), I have already put them to use in more than one woodworking session and will continue to do so in the future because they are so useful.

If you're interested in cabinet making, buy this book. If you're tight on money, buy a used copy. The point is to buy this book and read this book. If you don't like to read, buy this book because the illustrations can explain a lot too. Building one cabinet will pay for the book.

6 of 8 found the following review helpful:

Highly rated but disappointing Apr 12, 2007
The hand written drawings are poorly done and lack significant detail. The photo illustrations are of good quality but are again limited in their application to the building process. Overall descriptions of the building process are scanty at best. Woodworkers interested in learning kitchen cabinet construction would be better served by reading Jere Cary's book; Building Your Own Kitchen Cabinets by the Taunton Press.