Tambour Door Template and Shelf question

[Matt Wolboldt]

Hey guys. I'm making an entertainment center with horizontal tambour doors. The question I have is in making the supports for the shelves. As you can see from the picture, which is a top view of the routing template, the two outer vertical partitions are shorter than the center ones. This was done to accommodate the required radius on the tambour doors. My concern is that if I make the shelves almost match the width of the wider partition it would be unbalanced, am I correct in thinking this? Or can I go ahead and make the shelf close to 16.5 inches. The respective dimesions are 10.75" and 16.5". Thanks for your help.

Edit: The outside of the template is where the tambour groove will be. Thanks

[Matt Wolboldt]

Just to give this a little bump. Any help please?

[Scott Rollins]

What do you plan to put on the shelf? If it is the normal components which make up a entertainment center (like a Blue ray, reciever, etc) 16.5" may not be deep enough. Once you place these rather heavy items on the shelf they should balance just fine I would think. Also I could not really tell what was going on in the drawing because the dimension and feature lines look the same. I was unable to zoom in and really see what was going on. That may be why you did not get any responses.
Also are you making the tamboor door? I just recently started a roll top desk...the canvas and wood is ready. I just have to glue it up. ?Just wondering if you had any tips.?

[Matt Wolboldt]

Hey Scott,

I'm actually using Lonnie Bird's Tambour door bit set. I figured I wanted something seemingly more durable, but I digress. Thanks for the advice.
Matt