I'm building a new house and I'm looking at getting $5000+ of custom cabinets. No, these aren't kitchen cabinets; they are cabinets for various rooms.

It occured to me that maybe I can build them myself. I have no woodworking equipment now but I always enjoyed helping out in the cabinet shop that was next door to my place work a couple of years ago. Also, whenever I catch Norm Abram's "New Yankee Workshop" on TV, I'm always fascinated.

Can you guys guestimate what the "break even" point for a basic woodworking shop to build fine furniture (especially cabinets)? I'm expecting varied opinions on this but my thoughts on cost include:

1) shop equipment (table saw, router, drill press, etc
2) furniture grade wood supplies
3) my own time and personal enjoyment of making my own stuff

I have a 3 car garage and I'd use one bay to work on this stuff. Yeah, I know that sawdust gets all over the cars but these are not Ferraris and maybe a good dust collector would limit this.

By the way, (for my own curiosity) how much does a setup like Norm Abrams cost? I'm talking the cost for all his equipment, tools, jigs, etc. Not necessarily the cost of the barn and real estate it sits on. I looked on his website and he doesn't say.

There are people that do damn fine work with damn near nothing, and then there are those with fully equipped shops that make Norm's look tame and are still unable to make pointy sticks with it.

Not knowing where you fall in the range, it is hard to answer your questions. Beginning woodworking and the learning curve connected with it isn't what I would generally offer as an economically viable alternative to buying work done by experienced craftsmen. your third question.....your time and personal enjoyment? You've come to the right place. We can all tell you about that.