Positive Book Review

I just got "Building Your Own Kitchen Cabinets" by Jere Cary (Taunton
Press, ISBN 0-918804-15-9) from Rocklers and can highly recommend it for
others new to this project.

My current under-the-sink cabinets consist of an interior framework and a
face frame and there was no way I could honestly expect to get that right
while customizing it to match what my wife and I need from our kitchen in
anything like a reasonable period of time. I'm 53. I want to finish it
while I am still young enough to use it.

Cary does not deal with this style of construction nor does he get into
all that Euro stuff. Except as a function of door and stile design, he
leaves hardware decisions out of the project entirely and only just barely
touches on the topic of drawer design. And that's a good thing because
there are so many ways to make and install drawers that they are quite
rightly the subject of their own books.

While he mentions the possibility of alternate types of counter tops, he
only gives detils for installing plastic laminate surfaces. (Formica,
etc) Cary gives information on how to install what is perhaps the simplest
of surfaces to install and design consideration (only) to the others.

What he does deal with are the basic design and construction
considerations in enough detail that anyone moderately competent in a wood
shop can design and construct the basic units of cabinetry.

The book is sub-titled "layout, materials, construction, installation" and
Cary covers these nicely.

I have another book on cabinetry around here somewhere that deals with
Euro hardware and drawer slides, drawer and door construction and so on
... but doesn't teach me how to design & build the cabinets themselves.
Carys' book does that and does it well enough that, combined with that
earlier book, I've begun discussing design choices with SWMBO.

I think I'm ready to start jointing that tamarind heartwood I've
got stacked in the basement and turning it into glued up panels.

This is gonna be some kind of fun.

Bill