Tambour, how to?

larry merlau

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Delton, Michigan
to any of you folks that have made a Tambour door, how do you do it and i dont want to buy lonnie birds Router bits to do it. at least not right now..also how do you get it in place and yet have the case work together? run a straight grove to feed it in and then cover that with a cover piece after you have rerouted the travel to the final destination? this is headed for a hoosier reproduction.
 
The simple way is to chamfer each edge of each slat... you'd have to determine the slat size according to the curve it's to follow first, then chamfer the FRONT edges. Tack a pair (or trio) of fabric strips down on the bench, carefully determine where square is & tack down a stop block square to the strips, then spread glue on the strips. Lay the slats down on the glued strips so the strips get glued to the backs of the straps. Butt the chamfered edges together so they make an apparent continuous dentillated panel. Place weights on the slats till the glue's dried, then slice off the strips at both ends of your new tambour - it'll now be a very flexible panel with no obvious light glaring through the seams (it doesn't have to be perfect, 'cause the inside of the desk is dark).

To install it, the simple way is to rout the groove the tambour is to slide in, continuing it all the way to the rear. Feed the tambour in from the rear, attach handles to the leading (front, bottom) slat. The handles prevent the tambour from feeding back out to the rear.
 
tim, i get your idea of the rear feed but in this case i need it to go back down the back a little,, brain lapse i think i see how that can happen.i just make it shorter in length than the back corner and it will travel the downward direction rather then the back escape slot huh???
 
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