(Well at least I spelled tambour correctly this time.) After digging through several boxes I found the FW article on making all wooden tambours. It is in issue # 79 from Decemebr 1989. The author used 4 different router bits plus a dado cutter to make the slats. He would make two slats from each double wide piece to speed up the process and - in his words- " to give you a substantial piece of wood to work with, thus keeping your fingers away from the cutters". The ball and socket joints do not look that difficult to reproduce and I'm certain if I searched the router bit selection at my local WW store I could find a set that would accomplish this task with less steps (8) than he did back in the day. I do not have any means to post these plans yet but I can scan them next week at work and I'd be happy to send them out to anyone who wants to view them. Contact me here at the REC. or email me directly at snipped-for-privacy@qis.net.
Marc