I’m looking to build my own Quarter sawn Oak cabinets in a mission style and am looking to you guys for a good resource/technique for building cabinets. I am especially looking for uppers that can have grilles and glass (prairie). The bases I get, plus they sit on the floor. It’s the uppers that have me worried about connections and the weight of plates,etc.
Any notable books/sources. I like the Crown Point website with it’s rich ornamentation, but alas no blueprints.
Replies
Paul Levines Book and Jim Tolpins Book. They both have info on building and hanging cabs I'd buy the doors
Head over to Knots & post the question. Then hire someone to read all the all the responses. ;-)
Seriously, Taunton has 3 or 4 pretty good books on kitchen cabs. Look at the on-line store.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
I wasn't wild about Jim Tolpin's book. He goes into excruciating detail about some things and completely ignores others. You basically have to have a cabinet shop and every tool ever made in order to do a lot of what he does.
One of the things he omits is what you are looking for - connections for upper cabinets. There isn't a single exploded diagram explaining what the pieces are and how they should fit together.
Regarding ordering doors, mission-style doors are super easy to make. If you want raised panels or cope-and-stick joinery, and don't have the right equipment, then I'd say order them. Scherrs makes good ones reasonably priced.
I'm an amateur, though, so keep that in mind when deciding whose advice to take.
I don't like Tolpins book at all....or any of his books, and that's putting it mildly. The Levine one is really dated. There was one called Modern Cabinetry by Jim Christ that is very good, but oriented to frameless cabinetry, and out of print anyway.
We use a textbook called Modern Cabinetmaking by William Umstattd...it's not perfect, but for a one-book intro to cabinetmaking, it's the best thing I've seen.
Cabinetmaker/college woodworking instructor. Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
Hsome pictures back during construction of my kitchen -- QS white oak with grills in the upper. 3/4" oak ply box and shelves. I don't have the crown on in the pictures...it's still-a-comin. :-)
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