Tambour doors?

[Jamie Buxton]

Anybody have experience to share about building tambour doors? I'm building a roll-top desk out of jarrah. I've found three methods to make the roll-up door. One is to glue the slats to a cloth backing. Another is to string the slats on aircraft cable. A third is to put a joint on the edge of each slat that looks kinda like a ball-and-socket joint extended the whole length of the slat.
The cloth backing seems easiest, but the rear side looks ugly. The aircraft cable approach looks better on the back, and may well be the way to go. The ball-and-socket joinery scheme seems very elegant, but does seem like a lot of work, and I'm not sure how strong it will be. Has anybody out there tried any of these --- or any others?

[Alan Schaffter]

I used the canvas back method and it works fine. When the tambor is open it is hidden by the inside casework so you can't see the canvas back. The cable method would be my second choice. The interlocking slat method sounds like too much work and too difficult. I've never seen one.