Gluing veneer to a curved surface is a bit more challenging than a flat panel as the clamping pressure needs to be distributed evenly over the curve, and often, that clamping pressure also might act to deform the shape. In this post, I share a few tips and tricks - and include photos and examples of my own work - on how to overcome these challenges.

If you are making a tambour door - think roll-top desk - there are some critical relationships between the size of the slats, the size of the tenon, and the minimum radius that can be supported as the door slides around corners and contours. The rules-of-thumb and anecdotal experiences I found online did not tell the complete story which led to a brief panic in my project. With some pen & paper, I was able to translate an understanding of the geometry to a quick adjustment, and to a concrete equation which provides some guidelines for anyone building their own tambour door.

Though typically labor and shop time is a bigger factor in driving the cost of hardwood products, its still helpful to understand the relative cost of different materials so you can make an informed tradeoff on appearance and cost. This blog provides some data points for the retail cost of about twenty-five different domestic and foreign hardwoods, as well as identifying a few other considerations of how a different material selection can significantly change the cost of a project.