The Complete Illustrated Guide to Furniture & Cabinet Construction Hardcover – October 15, 2001

So you begin your new project and think about the joinery and materials you are going to use. Then you google/youtube the techniques so you can build it faster and better. Until you find out there were some things left out (because you did not know they existed or thought were not important) that may affect your outcome, any way, you fix them and then in the next project you are a better faster woodworker.What if you could just read a "best practices" book, or a comprehensive one containing lots of things to consider and techniques you could use for your projects?This book will help you with that, it won't go into much detail on how specifically tackle some things down, but it will give you a great pointer of what to research/google before you go and build, saving you lots of headaches in your glueups, joinery, you name it.So be sure you read it thoroughly, and once you pick a project you will able to select a more educated approach on how to make it happen by properly design your plans.Won't help you master techniques, but will let you know where to start deeper knowledge.

This book has plenty to offer anyone. A lot of it was review for me, but it is always good to make sure you don't forget the basics as you move forward in carpentry - it's like trying to attempt calculus without algebra.I have read this from cover to cover and feel I could read it again to pick up on the little things I missed. It is indeed as it's titled, the "complete" guide. I will say that some basic knowledge will be instrumental for fully grasping and understanding this book, but for the most part, explinations are clear, concise, and simple. There are a few charts in this book that make it very handy and also some very good pointers - some of it is very helpful, but doesnt' seem to be able to adhere to any of my brain cells, so this is one book I like to have close to my shop.Overall, I'm pleased with this book, and can't wait to read Taunton Press' Complete Illustrated Guide to Joinery, which is referred to in this book from time to time.

I have been very pleased with my copy of Construction. I am an advanced amatuer, trying to build furniture making skills by taking on some projects that are fairly complicated. I find myself returning to this text time and again to understand my construction options and the proper steps in executing the project. The book is well illustrated, comprehensive and organized. Notably, it is not just a bound set of Tauton reprints, but instead a real reference manual. I think that books like this should have a DVD that illustrates the content. There is nothing like watching an experienced person demo a skill to build your own abilities. With a DVD I'd have given this 6! stars. But still, this is worth having.

I purchased this along with the Tauntons guide to Woodworking. The woodworking and furniture construction books overlap a LOT of the exact same pictures and information. Both are very good. I returned the woodworking one and stuck with this because it had more information on furniture, such as design and table top construction, as compared to the woodworking which had brief sections on finishes.Overall very happy with quality and especially the hardcover. It was worth the extra. Bound very well and feels like it will last being on my workbench for years.

Truly a great comprehensive work on furniture and cabinet design. It's distinct from its competitors in its inclusion of more commercial techniques, e.g., commercial joinery, slides, materials. This does give it a breadth/depth problem, as it goes into less depth than some works, and contains fewer plans, either rough or detailed. It's best used as a companion text in a bigger library.

Great book with a whole lot of reference material and explanations as to why things are done one way over another. Well worth the price and much easier to use while actively working on a project... not to mention that if you make a mess of this you are only out about 25 bucks instead of the hundreds you are out with a laptop and or smartphone.

Although not for beginning woodworkers, this is an outstanding book--sort of like a combination Rodale & Tage Frid. It goes into detail on the construction of furniture and cabinetry--where Rodale provides an overview of cabinet/furniture types, and Tage Frid provides details of how to create specific joints, Andy Rae puts the two together. He provides a number of techniques that I hadn't thought of before, such as creating a raised panel out of cheaper MDF framed by solid wood.The other books in the series (Joinery and Shaping Wood) are great as well. But I find myself looking to this book more often.