Thread: Quick poll on Tambour doors

Originally Posted by shanesmith80

I am going to be building a cabinet and want the doors to be able to retract mostly into the cabinet. I have looked at pocket doors but don't want all the stuff(can't think off the word) that goes with them.

So am looking at a tambour door.

My question is, What would be your preference for making and also visual appeal.
--- slats an a canves back, or
--- using Amana tools tambour router bit set. http://www.amanatool.com/54314-3-pie....html?___SID=U


Alternatively does anyone know how to make pocket doors with no metal components? (there's that word i was looking for)

cheers

I'd go Stu,s Shed web page he just did a big project using tthe Amana router bits, you might be surprised how good they are.

SB

I'm assuming a conventional tambour that raises and lowers vertically.

Use conventional round over and flute bits for the joining surfaces. Route a groove or dado in the top and bottom pieces.
In each of the slats drill two holes through the flute/round over machining. The intent is to divide the tambour slats into approximately thirds.
Assemble the tambour and thread some steel fishing leader through the holes. Use the fittings designed to be crimped to secure the fishing leader and slats.
Finally fill the groove in the bottom slat with a piece of matching timber.

The advantage of the steel fishing leader is that it won't stretch.

BTW - Finish the slats and wax them well before assembly. I would use paraffin wax.

Hi Personally I prefer the old fashioned wooden slats with canvas backing, much more straight forward and easier to repair.My parents in Have a cabinet made in in the 1770's with a tambour section and I don't think its ever been repaired, when it was purchased the tambour was stuck halfway, an old inventory label nailed to the back had partially jammed it for almost 100 years.when I removed the back of the cabinet to see what the problem was I found a workman's signature in the back hidden for over 200 years.

I heve never made one personally but have repaired one, the tricky part is finding the best glue that won't make the canvas brittle.It was actually and old 1940's tambour fronted filing cabinet that had split in several places so needed to be completely strip ped and reglued

While I can see the router set looks nifty I would be concerned how thin the timber would be at it's thinnest point and also how a build up of dust dirt etc over time might compromise its functionablity.

When I think about tambours I think about the dead space required for the doors to work.
e.g if the doors are sliding along the slide walls and round to the back would I need this space to create shelves or hang things on ? will an insert be required in which the shelves etc will now need to go and create a cavity for the tambour. Is there enough room in the cabinet to put x y z if I use the tambour.perhaps you have already passed this point In the design.

Hi pac man, any space lost at the back of the cabinet is more than compensated for because the tambour door can be very thin compared to a conventional door.
The design of the piece does ideally need a concealed void for the tamour at the back of the cabinet.

Originally Posted by Pac man

When I think about tambours I think about the dead space required for the doors to work.
e.g if the doors are sliding along the slide walls and round to the back would I need this space to create shelves or hang things on ? will an insert be required in which the shelves etc will now need to go and create a cavity for the tambour. Is there enough room in the cabinet to put x y z if I use the tambour.perhaps you have already passed this point In the design.

Thanks all for the comments.

Superbunny- I have seen Stu's post's and vid's and think it is very good bit set. And since I am also looking at making a toy kitchen similiar to his I think it could be a worthwhile investment.

but....

I do like the traditional approach with the canvas back, maybe i'm just old fashioned (although some probably just call me old). But now markdavid raises a point i hadn't really thought off, glue making the canvas brittle, will take some further investigating.

It will be a vertical tambour door, but I really don't like the idea of joining the slats with string/ fishing line, which is why I haven't gone for the 'Rockler' tambour set.

Although my plan is in the very early development stage, I think the void needed for the vertical tambour will be minimal, I hope anyway. And plan on having a suspended shelf that should hopefully look like its floating, but attached to the top(somehow) to help hide the tambour.

By the way it will be a liquor cabinet.

So now let me know what you think of this. The cabinet will likely be built in the Krenov style, but have the tambour door instead...

As you can probably tell by know, designing is not my forte.

cheers
Shane

Originally Posted by mark david

Hi pac man, any space lost at the back of the cabinet is more than compensated for because the tambour door can be very thin compared to a conventional door.
The design of the piece does ideally need a concealed void for the tamour at the back of the cabinet.

I guess I was thinking of the surfaces to hang things off that would be lost eg in this case no fixture could occur on the roof of the cabinet. In the sliding sideways tambour 1 or 2 walls would be lost. Unless of course you built an inner that you could hang the stuff off

I agree with the traditional approach , Canvas .
We used to repaired plenty of Cutler desks and I made a T/D cabinet at trade school with second walls . With hide glue the cutlers seem to last about one hundred years, PVA works .
I owned a lovely fine 1790s English desk with one for a while , nice fine slats,
Practicing getting just the right amount on the slat is a good idea, and washing it out between slats with water is a good reason for using a water based glue.

One good thing with Traditional is you can choose or make up a slat shape that you like , you have heaps of styles to choose from.

Rob

I've made several tambours using cotton duck (light canvas) adhered with PVA. Also repaired a 1920s German one which was backed with hessian, and newspaper over that.

Labyrinth at bottom copy.jpg

Old German tambour copy.jpg

Tambour chest of drawers copy.jpg

Just like the one I repaired some time back, total PITA.
Had to strip down the whole thing, I made the hessian backing full width except where it slided in the grooves.

Had some issues with the pva as it has very little tack and was worried about making the whole thing a bit brittle at the folds.The old fashioned animal glue was probably perfect for these.
I have no Idea why they used nespaper though?

Originally Posted by AlexS

I've made several tambours using cotton duck (light canvas) adhered with PVA. Also repaired a 1920s German one which was backed with hessian, and newspaper over that.

I have no Idea why they used nespaper though?

Possibly because there were gaps between some of the slats. Maybe the idea was so that you couldn't see between them. It certainly wasn't the best quality or design. For example, the whole weight of the tambour was carried by the lock at the top, when closed.

It looks to me like the person who laid it, had the newspaper there so the work
would not stick to his work board or table top .

If you look at the timber slats there is hardly any glue coating out from the fabric
that I could see .
They may have laid down news paper , then brushed the glue onto the fabric two
or six slats worth at a time and placed the slats down onto the fabric.

I have always had the fabric down and brushed the back of the slats . and wiped
near the edge of each one each side to minimize glue squeezing out.
After wiping a few slats you get to know just how far back to wipe it.

You want to minimize fabric saturation between slats as said before.

The way I was shown was to have a board big enough for the whole door .
nail a stop , a strip of 19 x 30 along one edge , mark out two square lines off that,
slightly wider than the door, to make sure the slats are square to the leading edge.
And stick them down.

They are a great thing to see working right . The trade school I went to had us lay
a strip of flat black teflon ? or plastic for the door to slide on as well.
Its still going well and sits next to my desk at work with the stereo in it.

Rob

Originally Posted by AlexS

It certainly wasn't the best quality or design. For example, the whole weight of the tambour was carried by the lock at the top, when closed.

Bad choice there! it could have let go in the middle of the night
I suppose you would see it getting worse before hand though.

Shane, I like the router bit set door. I've made one tambour many years ago with a cotton cloth back. Although it worked fine and looked ok I always felt it was a bit fragile and not particularly, hmmm what's the word i'm looking for here?, possibly sophisticated or maybe a bit rustic. I think from memory it was a bread box Not exactly fine furniture.

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