Tolpin delivers an excellent piece that seems designed for intermediate or seriously aspiring woodworkers. My guess is that it would scare off novices rather quickly. I think I fit into the right target audience, and I enjoyed the book enough to read it cover-to-cover in two sittings. I will not, however, follow all his advice - at least not yet in my woodworking career. He explains great techniques for the mechanics of going from idea sketches to scale drawing, to life sized drawings. Like I said, I think my level is where the book is aimed, but frankly, the artistic part of design is where I feel the weakest, and his book doesn't help a whole lot there beyond the golden ratio. I didn't expect the book to do that for me, but neither did I expect it to spend time on drafting. Since I do not yet feel comfortable with coming up with my own detailed designs, the mechanics of putting the designs on paper are not that useful to me yet. Further, if I ever get to that comfort level with design, I'm not sure I will need the drafting process to implement them.

btw, the title for my review is based on the fact that Tolpin, like most, recommends that you keep measuring off of rulers (etc.) to a minimum and use story sticks and the like whenever there is more than one piece to cut to a particular length.

Bottom line is that I would buy the book again, and would probably replace it if lost or destroyed. It would not be at the top of my list, however, and I would not give it as a gift to a raw novice who was just trying to see is s/he liked woodworking.

I don't know about you, but after years of hanging around serious woodworkers, constantly tuning and improving expensive equipment, and buying measuring tools accurate enough to build a space shuttle, I've come to the conclusion that accuracy is a goal never quite achieved. And that is if you are lucky. I can't tell you the number of times I've cut four boards of 'precisely' the same length, run them through a locked down finger joint jig, and managed to produce a box that is 1/16th of an inch wider from side to side than it is from front to back. So when I found Jim Tolpin's book I grabbed it on the hope that it contained the one secret I had missed.

Unfortunately, if you've spent three years woodworking you already know most of what is here. Tolpin's secret is simply the rigor of working through stages of drawing and then cutting to the drawing. Now I already use a drawing package to lay out work, so I can reel off life size diagrams that tell me everything is 1000th's. And I find it far more accurate to use the diagrams for assembly and rough measurement and fit every piece by hand. If for no other reason than the tendency of wood to change size with temperature, moisture, and the will of God. Tolpin's explanations are helpful if you don't use a design methodology at all. But if you follow his advice slavishly, you will through out more wood than you should.

What I did find very useful is his final section on what to do when you really don't get it right. Several of his tricks for changing the dimensions of a piece of wood which is the wrong size at the wrong time will save you the cost of the book in one cut. These aren't necessarily easy techniques, but they are far better options than giving up. I also found the pictures of some of his more exotic measuring tools very interesting. Although it will be a long time before I spend $200 on a depth gauge. There is a good section on proportion as well. Tolpin does describe some jigs, but there aren't any plans for them. For those you will have to look elsewhere.

I also wish Tolpin had spent some time on computer aided design - at least enough to show what it can do. More of us already have the equipment around, and it can save a lot of time and erasing. Still, if you are just starting out by yourself, without access to training, this is a useful volume to have on hand. It gets you past the point of thinking that creating a cabinet is a combination of magic and pure luck.

I've finally read through this book. It was what I expected and I would recommend it for people to learn layout and how to go from a drawing to the work bench. It is a general book that gives you solid principles on measurement and proportion.