Building Your Own Kitchen Cabinets by Jere Cary

 

Highly recommended.

A little background: This was one of the first woodworking books that I ever bought (1983).  While it was 1997 before I ever built some kitchen cabinets, and have done none since, I found this book valuable for general building of any sort of case goods.  Given the age, it's largely based on face-frame cabinets (cf., European frameless) and laminate (e.g., Formica) countertops, but that's OK.  I have been reading some old FWW magazines of that same era and ran across one of his early articles there.

 

Jere Cary was both a professional cabinetmaker and later a teacher.

 

Of particular general help is how to build carcases, doors and drawers.   For most items, alternative designs are presented, e.g., inset, half- and full-overlay doors and drawers.   At the end of the construction chapters is a section on how to recover from goofs (not that I've ever needed that).

 

Chapters are

1. Cabinets and Kitchens
2. Story Sticks (how to layout an entire kitchen on a few sticks, helps avoid errors)
3. Selecting and estimating materials
4. Preparing the Materials
5. Case Joinery
6. Sanding
7. Case Assembly
8. Face Frames
9. Door and Drawer Faces
10. Drawer Construction
11. Installing Cabinet Hardware
12. Toeboards
13. Countertop Underlayment
14. Cabinet Installation
15. Countertop Surfaces
16. Finishing Materials
17. Jigs and Fixture

Appendices

1. Appliance Sizes
2. Tools
3. Plan of Procedure
4. Forms for the Estimate of Materials, CUtting List and Panel Layout

 

Looks like an interesting book.  Put this in my "to order" box and will see how it turns out.

 

Anyone looking for it, shop around but it is available here: Building-Your-Kitchen-Cabinets-Layout-Materials-Construction-Installation

Edited July 4, 20205 yr by Gunny

available on the used market for a bit less than $5, eBay, discount book sellers, etc.

I understand that there’s a companion video to this book but haven’t been able to find it - does anyone know where it might be found?

Welcome aboard CWalsh, glad to have you here.  Good luck with the search.

On 1/16/2023 at 1:13 AM, CWalsh said:

I understand that there’s a companion video to this book but haven’t been able to find it - does anyone know where it might be found?

I could not find anything CWalsh, looked and tried my resources and nothing, by the welcome to our community!

I looked for this book. Price is good, but couldn’t find any open pages to compare. Anybody?

14 minutes ago, BillyJack said:

I looked for this book. Price is good, but couldn’t find any open pages to compare. Anybody?

Billy, you'll have to sign up, it's free, I find this a wonderful resource for reading and research, if you sign up, you can "Borrow" the book and read the entire book online for free.

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5916843W/Building_your_own_kitchen_cabinets?edition=key%3A/books/OL3508660M

I just needed to see a page or two of the construction.

Thanks…

 

It would be so much easier to teach someone on in person. 
 

Looks like I’d have to read each section 5 times to understand it..

Edited February 18, 20251 yr by BillyJack

I need to do a model of a kitchen cabinets can like roofers do on a small scale for a demonstration…

 

Back in 2000+ Danny Proulx was the leading cabinet book hobby woodworkers wanted. The problem was Danny did single boxes and not custom. In a commercial setting those boxes ar3 perfect using fillers ..In a home it’s wasteful. 

So on another forum a comment was made” cabinet boxes are easy” there is nothing easy about it.

 

lets take a 4’ base. First question is material. Is it wall to wall , finish left wall right, etc. dados in the finish end, wall end, butt joint, etc. face frame flush, do we want to make a panel and apply it after the build, build it in as a finished end. Do I want a 1/2 on tye wall end or 1.5 like a commercial end.

 

 

So many questions before you start…

 

Many have to follow a book word for word otherwise they get  confused.. 

Edited February 18, 20251 yr by BillyJack

I'm not sure I would agree with you that single box construction is wasteful.  Uses more material, certainly, but I think they are more efficient in terms of time and handling.  Last install I did was all commercial boxes and it went fast compared to installing custom built.  For a business, wasting time is vastly more expensive than wasting materials.  For a hobby the reverse is true.

 

Aesthetically I still prefer custom built large units, but then I see the details that tip me off to how stuff is built.

On 3/8/2025 at 8:08 AM, JWD said:

I'm not sure I would agree with you that single box construction is wasteful.  Uses more material, certainly, but I think they are more efficient in terms of time and handling.  Last install I did was all commercial boxes and it went fast compared to installing custom built.  For a business, wasting time is vastly more expensive than wasting materials.  For a hobby the reverse is true.

 

Aesthetically I still prefer custom built large units, but then I see the details that tip me off to how stuff is built.

 

 

Very true. Good point. 

The last couple of Saturdays. I went to a local dealer where a friend of mine did a multi-part series on cabinet construction. It made me dig this book out and review some of the chapters. I was still impressed by it. He uses "story sticks" as his layout tools. Most chapters on construction end with a "how to fix what went wrong" section. There are lots of illustrations, well done, and includes standard measurements for kitchen cabinets (height, depth, toe-kick, etc). The only shortcoming I see is that it was done before 35mm hinges were common, but I think I can handle that.

I spent last night at a daughter's house to be with one granddaughter while parents and the other one were out of town. Next to the bed I slept in was a cabinet that I built many years ago with doors and shelves. I'm pretty sure I used the book to help me with it.]

I have two copies of this book, so I'm giving one to the local library if they'll add to their inventory.