About
Somebody asked,
twelve years ago.
The question that started this site is still sitting unanswered on a woodworking forum, near the top of the search results.
Twelve years ago somebody posted on a woodworking forum: "I just started working for a millwork company as a drafter and don't have much experience in the millwork industry." That thread still ranks. Nobody ever answered it.
Why a reference site
Everything written about millwork drafting online is either an advertisement for an outsourcing firm or a book somebody wants forty dollars for. Meanwhile the same questions get asked, in the same words, across five subreddits and a forum, and the people who know the answers are answering them one at a time for free.
The gap is not software. Everyone can drive AutoCAD:
My biggest learning curve has been the overall construction of custom cabinets rather than AutoCAD skills.
r/Millwork
That knowledge lives on shop floors and in a handful of people's heads. Writing it down is the entire point of this site.
How it is written
- No number from memory. Hardware dimensions come from the manufacturer's technical PDF. Standards come from the published standard. Rates come from postings and published price lists, never one forum comment.
- The source is named on the page, so you can check it and so you know when a claim is a vendor's marketing rather than a measurement.
- Written for the reader, not the trade. Assuming you already care is how the rest of this industry writes, and it is why a newcomer cannot get in.
Who writes it
Right now, one person who had to look all of it up, which is the only qualification this kind of site needs and the reason it explains things a specialist would skip. Everything checkable is checked against the documents named at the foot of each page.
The plan is not to stay that way. If you detail for a living and you are already answering these questions for nothing on Reddit, there is a byline here with your name on it, your words left alone, and no exclusivity.