Mark's Teardrop with Roof Top Tent; can sleep four

[_Ryan_]

Ah yes good point. 1/2" to 3/4" thick is the standard for most. However I found some 3/4" diameter ones that I used for my slider doors in the galley on my build. My doors are 1/8" thick and they work great.

[markhusbands]

Another option that might look a bit silly is to put two pulls on each tambour equally spaced. I only have the maybe contact problem right at the tambour center because of my vertical hatch ribs (oops, should have thought of that!). Offset from center I have closer to 2" of space for a knob or pull. So what would look sillier, a pair of knobs on a 2' wide tambour, a single knob or pull offset from the center, or a real small shallow pull of some kind on center.

[KCStudly]

Those tambour shutters are "The Bomb"! Sick.

As for the pulls, how about a nice short strap of leather fastened on the inside or bottom edge of the lower slat, and just leave it hanging out loose, or perhaps with a small loop or ring attached? Give it that old time leather topped desk theme tie in, simple, and flexible so no need to worry about the ribs hitting.

[markhusbands]

hmmm, a little leather tab would be very lo-pro and subtle. I think the ideal would be a wee little oak pull, but if I can't find ones to fit the little tab idea is superior to an odd asymmetrical solutions. Thanks.

[pchast]

Tambours... I've repaired 3 of them for desks. They seemed to break when they got stuck in
their grooves.

I would avoid any offset pull. A single pull of any kind provides little leverage to keep the unit
straight. I recommend wax to people with desks in a home. But, I wonder how much the dust of
travel will affect your units gliding open.


They do look nice in your design.

[markhusbands]

Yeah, on the one hand they seem like a potentially fragile design in a camper. For that reason I've made sure I have a way to remove the tambours from inside the sleeper.

On the other hand, compared to an appliance garage or an often used desk, a weekend camper cupboard shouldn't see too many cycles. I am going to wax them, and the arc is not as tight as many rolltops, AND it goes straight back in a continuous 2'10" arc; there is no tight radius at the back where the tambour parks. But in any case, this is one of those things I decided to do regardless of some practical concerns. I just thought of it and wanted to make it.

[Melven]

Coming along nice.

[mezmo]

Hi Mark,

Just curious as to how you built the tambour doors,
[they look fabulous BTW], especially what you used
for the grooves/guide they run in and what kind of
backing you used to hold the slats together in place.

If you want a simple handle you could use a piece of
1/4 - 3/8 inch wide by 3/8 - 3/4 inch high by 3-4 inch
long [final measurements depend on the attachment
point, obviously] wood, maybe beveling the ends for
'design's' sake, for each handle. You could glue them
and screw them in from the back of the bottom rail/
attachment piece. That is basically what the handle
was on an old roll-top desk we used to have.

Happy building...

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

[markhusbands]

I didn't build the tambour itself. I bought a premade 4-ft wide tambour and cut it in half and to size. People make them I guess, but it must be incredibly time consuming and if you failed to get them very square you could have a big problem with the fit. Mine has a thick denim type backing. I saw an youtube video where a guy made a box jig to square up all the pieces and glued the strips to denim with contact cement. I know there are also real cool looking and somewhat pricey router bit sets that make tambours that have no fabric backing, just interlocking joints.

I made the tracks with a router mounted on a swingarm - just a piece of pine board that I screwed onto a piece of stainable 3/4" plywood sheet. With a couple mounting positions I was able to do the cutout and the groove with the same swingarm, I did the hatch ribs in a similar manner - with swingarm and router. The center divider was the trickiest since I needed both the track and the bottom angle to match the side tracks and the bottom cabinet, respectively. All of it is made from pieces of 3/4" red oak plywood, with an iron on laminate on the exposed edges. Up close you can tell the edge grain doesn't quite match but stained and a few feet off it looks pretty good. I'm an amateur learning as I go, so I have plenty of little boo-boos if you get too close.

And I do have some pieces of matching oak I could make some strip handles from. I have one cove bit and one roundover bit, too. Maybe I'll tinker with that idea.

[pchast]

Mark

It seems you considered all the possibilities. They should work fine. The ones I worked on were of heavy canvas backing. One had been spilled on and deteriorated. The other two just fractured and jammed in their groves, Or jammed first. I never found out.

The gentler turns should make a big difference.

Pete

Yeah, on the one hand they seem like a potentially fragile design in a camper. For that reason I've made sure I have a way to remove the tambours from inside the sleeper.

On the other hand, compared to an appliance garage or an often used desk, a weekend camper cupboard shouldn't see too many cycles. I am going to wax them, and the arc is not as tight as many rolltops, AND it goes straight back in a continuous 2'10" arc; there is no tight radius at the back where the tambour parks. But in any case, this is one of those things I decided to do regardless of some practical concerns. I just thought of it and wanted to make it.

[markhusbands]

After looking around at various options on the web, I think I might actually go with the leather pulls and handles. I saw some pictures of old chests and trunks like that and they looked pretty cool. I think if I buy a couple narrow brown leather belts and some antique bronze panhead screws I could make a bunch of matching handles and pulls very cheaply.

[KCStudly]

You may find that new leather belts are too thick and stiff to work the way you want.

If so, I would either work the heck out of it to soften it up, then polish it back up with Kiwi; or seek out some used leather from a thrift store, some old used gloves, shoes, or even a belt, and spiff it up again with Kiwi polish.

Just some thoughts. Glad you liked the idea enough to use it (he said as he chalked up another ego point).

[Desert-rat]

beautiful!!

never knew the proper name for roll up cabinet doors. now i do, learn something new every day... at least I try to

will be following your build!

[markhusbands]

Yeah, I saw a couple of examples of people that did DIY leather tabs and handles. A couple used belts. They looked like they were on the narrower side and one looked really good with a stitched edge. Other people just screwed flat leather strips on. The edges didn't look too tough or tidy. So my thought is 1) make sure it (belt) is on the thinner, narrower side, and 2) flatten the folds you want to bolt through in a clamp for a few days. I'll buy two belts and if cutting up the first one goes nowhere, I'll return the second. How's that for a cheapo experiment?

[KCStudly]

Whatever works. I t sounds like it will come out great to my.

Keep up the great work!