I am a hobbyist woodworker. There is apparently no category on the Forum for questions to which the most likely response is “let me google that for you.”
But I have done that without success so far. So here goes:
I am planning to build four closed tool cabinets on the wall facing my workbench. I’m thinking to use vertical tambour doors rather than hinged doors to avoid interference with open doors while working at the bench.
Most of the videos I have seen for tambour doors involve cutting uniform slats and glueing them to canvas with slats touching. The backing is flexed before the glue fully sets to fracture whatever attachment had occurred between adjacent slats to permit free motion in the curves of a slot.
I wonder if anyone has kerfed a single board to produce this slat arrangement, much as one would kerf a board to bend it around a curve. In this case, the kerf could be almost full depth. Since the kerfed board would be glued to a canvas then bent to to confirm flexibility before the glue sets it seems like this approach might work.
I have four 18” x 30” tambour doors to make. If this is a feasible alternative to cutting and managing multiple slats individually, I would like to try. However, I don’t know a quick, accurate way to cut multiple, identically space kerfed slots in a board using a table saw without repeated measuring.
This may be way simple and well-known. I just just don’t see how to do it.
Whatever advice you can offer will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Russ
Replies
My first thought was that guing the solid face to the canvas will limit the flexibility of the tambour and your doors will not run smoothly. When you want to try something you can't find data on to solve an issue of your own, go for it! Test it to see how it works and refine it or abandon it. You'll learn a bit either way.
I have made some with individual slats glues to a vinyl tissue backing using contact cement on a flat surface and letting it dry overnight without flexing it, I don’t see that there is a simpler method.
First, I suggest that you consider having each cabinet have a pair of 9" doors, which don't stick out much but greatly increase the storage area of the cabinets. Anything thin can go on the doors: chisels, squares, rules, spokeshaves, etc.
I would recommend gluing the backing on before kerfing, as you will be able to cut closer to the backing (deeper) than if you need to leave a structural amount of wood behind.
To rip even rips, make a spacer block whose width is the desired strip width plus the width of your saw kerf. For the first rip, set your fence using the block, with the edge of the block at the far side of the blade. Next cut, stop the saw and put the board over the saw blade in the most recent kerf. Move the fence out of the way, put the spacer block against the board (even with the saw blade so the board doesn't twist), and move the fence up against the block. Rip and repeat.
Of course, even with a thin rip blade, you will have 3/32" spaces (kerfs) between the slats, instead of them being snug together. And you will need to test this idea on scrap to make sure you can rip high enough to have the result adequately flexible.
Here’s a great step by step on the whole process:
Reviving the Tambour Door
Mid-century favorite goes where other doors can’t
By Scott Ernst #235–Sept/Oct 2013 Issue
https://www.finewoodworking.com/2013/08/01/reviving-the-tambour-door
Thanks to elmaduro for reference to the FWW article which I had seen. This is a great tutorial showing the standard way of building tambour doors using individual slats.
Jhaveryb’s suggested method for spacing the kerfs in a sold board approach is very helpful and one I hadn’t considered. I will use it on this project and others in the future.
Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and advice. I’m going to give it a try on a test piece and let you know how it works.
Russ
Just remember that kerfing a single board
may cause it to split with repetitive use,
making it bend back and forth every time you open it.
Especially with a tight radius.