Dual Tambour Door Track Layout

[Sean Moore]

Does anyone have any insight on how to layout the track for dual tambour doors, similar to the attached photo? From all my research tambour door tracks are open at the back so the door can exit the back of the cabinet when it is opened. How would this work with two doors that are opened at the same time?

Do the doors just roll back up into the cabinet sides? Or should one door exit the cabinet and one door have a track that loops back around?

Screen Shot 2023-02-23 at 9.22.44 AM.jpg

[Kevin Jenness]

If you want to be able to repair/replace the doors in future the tracks should have an opening at the back or the case top or bottom should be removeable. In a typical cabinet with the tracks inside the outer case sides, with grooves exiting at the back the handles need to come off, not so with a loose top. In this instance where the tambours serve as the case end panels either method should work. The inner case could rest on a platform inside the base frame with the top screwed on from inside.

A mockup is a good idea to ensure the tambour will slide smoothly around the curves.

What is the source for the design?

[Jamie Buxton]

The track goes back along the cabinet sides, and makes another bend, so the opened door goes partly behind the cabinet back you see in the pics.

For a cabinet of the dimensions in the pics, you can end the tracks a few inches into the back, and when you want to remove a door, you just pull it toward the middle of the cabinet, and it just slides off the end of the track.

[Sean Moore]

This design is from Poritz and Studio.

If you want to be able to repair/replace the doors in future the tracks should have an opening at the back or the case top or bottom should be removeable. In a typical cabinet with the tracks inside the outer case sides, with grooves exiting at the back the handles need to come off, not so with a loose top. In this instance where the tambours serve as the case end panels either method should work. The inner case could rest on a platform inside the base frame with the top screwed on from inside.

A mockup is a good idea to ensure the tambour will slide smoothly around the curves.

What is the source for the design?

[Sean Moore]

Jamie, im not sure I follow? The cabinet I want to make is only 40" wide. If I have two tambour doors that meet in the center and wrap around the back, they would end up bumping into each other in the back.

[Paul F Franklin]

When the doors are fully closed, do they still wrap around the sides? That's the only way they would bump in the back when opened. But if the doors just cover the front and a little of the sides when closed, they won't bump in the back and you should be able to leave a gap in the tracks wide enough to allow the doors to be removed.

If they do wrap around the sides when closed, then you can offset the tracks in the back so one door slides past (in front of or behind) the other. You'd still be able to remove both doors by first removing one door, and then sliding the other all the way around the cabinet and out.

[Kevin Jenness]

Jamie, im not sure I follow? The cabinet I want to make is only 40" wide. If I have two tambour doors that meet in the center and wrap around the back, they would end up bumping into each other in the back.

When both doors are fully open they should meet in the center at the back, just as they do at the front when closed. That assumes that they wrap around the back corner just to the end of the curve.

The design, which fans out the tambour at the corners, will show more of the backing if the slats are spaced apart to allow a recurve for entering the groove at the back. I would build it with a removeable top.

[Eugene Dixon]

Check out an old Hoosier cabinet. If I understand what the OP is asking, the Hoosier design has been around quite awhile. Looking across the room now, I see one in need of a bit of repair.

[Mick Simon]

Hi Sean. I made the cabinet seen below based on Poritz' design, without the benefit of ever seeing his in person.
My tambours run on a slightly elevated (⅜") piece of 3mm PVC edge banding, top and bottom, rather than the traditional grooved track. There's a slot cut across the end width of each tambour that the PVC fits into. The track overlaps itself in the back so that the tambours can open fully while still covering the sides fully when closed. It's a little hard to see in the picture, but maybe the overhead view CAD sketch will help.. Both tambours are installed via the left track side. The right side tambour goes in first, followed by the left side. When fully opened, the back edge of the right tambour goes slightly inside of the track for the left tambour.
Not the way Poritz does it, but it works.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CgKopmupR5g/

IMG_37292.jpg
Screenshot 2023-02-24 at 8.08.31 AM4.jpg
IMG_35961.jpg

Here's an early mockup that might help -

IMG_35971.jpg

[Sean Moore]

Thank you Mick! This is exactly what I was thinking.

Hi Sean. I made the cabinet seen below based on Poritz' design, without the benefit of ever seeing his in person.
My tambours run on a slightly elevated (⅜") piece of 3mm PVC edge banding, top and bottom, rather than the traditional grooved track. There's a slot cut across the end width of each tambour that the PVC fits into. The track overlaps itself in the back so that the tambours can open fully while still covering the sides fully when closed. It's a little hard to see in the picture, but maybe the overhead view CAD sketch will help.. Both tambours are installed via the left track side. The right side tambour goes in first, followed by the left side. When fully opened, the back edge of the right tambour goes slightly inside of the track for the left tambour.
Not the way Poritz does it, but it works.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CgKopmupR5g/

IMG_37292.jpg
Screenshot 2023-02-24 at 8.08.31 AM4.jpg
IMG_35961.jpg

Here's an early mockup that might help -

IMG_35971.jpg