Making Fine Furniture: Perfect Results with Power Tools

by Peter Anderson

Even those with no woodworking experience at all can experience the satisfaction of making beautiful furniture—right away. The secret lies in modern-day power tools, which allow anyone to produce first-class results without years of practice. And this superbly illustrated and easy-to-follow guide shows novices the way to success. It contains all the information necessary to a fundamental understanding of the craft, including essential descriptions of wood’s characteristics, explanations of the basic principles of furniture construction, and guidance on all the necessary techniques. Buying lumber, planing, jointing, gluing, and using the tablesaw, bandsaw, routers, and it’s all here. For every one of the projects—which include a chest of drawers, bookcase, and end table—each procedure is shown in fine detail.

304 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2007

About the author

Peter Anderson hails from South Africa, but currently resides in Texas, where he is an associate professor of English. The author of a previous collection of poems, Vanishing Ground, his work in fiction and poetry has appeared in numerous literary magazines and has been anthologized in both America and South Africa. The Unspeakable is his first novel.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extremely comprehensive book explaining how to make wooden furniture using power tools. The first section of the book covers 18 chapters, describing how to choose wood, the basic techniques required for making furniture, and some of the jigs required for the projects, for example, a mortising jig is used extensively. There are only three projects: a chest of drawers; a bookcase, and an end or side table. The instructions for the chest of drawers are very detailed, covering 80 pages! The instructions for the other two projects are not quite as detailed because they use many of the same methods as for the chest of drawers. All the dimensions are imperial, because this is an American book, but it does mean that there is not the annoyance of two sets of dimensions being shown.
I felt it would have been better to start off with some simpler projects to get those of us without the huge workshop, all the power tools and acres of confidence to get started, but that is a minor quibble. If you are interested in making furniture, this is a great book to start with.