Wood choice for camera building

[Drew Bedo]

Quite a number of the Zone VI Classic cameras were done in Cherry.

[Alan Gales]

Yes, it might be but most barns were built of cheap wood. We can be certain, however, that the planks would be settled, done warping. What an interesting idea, regardless.
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I've seen flooring, wainscoting, kitchen cabinet doors etc. made from sanded and sealed barn wood. It can be quite beautiful.

On another note a friend of mine owned a log cabin. When he finished his basement he installed a bathroom. For the outside of the bathroom, instead of drywall he used unfinished barn wood. He even made a door with a half moon cut out. He would have friends over to shoot pool, drink beer and use the outhouse.

[Willie]

If you are photographing in Texas, Mesquite or Pecan might be good choices.
East Coast, Maple and Oak hardwoods?
West Coast, Redwood is kind of soft, but how about Eucalyptus in SoCal? Monterey pine in NoCal and who knows in Oregon or Washington?

Haven't seen a sod camera from Kansas yet.

[Fr. Mark]

I could make a sod camera so long as it didn't have to be portable. Camera obscura.

[Fr. Mark]

I like 1/4 sawn oak for furniture well enough but cameras... I dunno. In PA there are lots of interesting native woods (Penn's sylvania = Penn's Forest after all).

Aircraft or NASA Al: right. I was thinking more in terms of extrusions found at big box stores or finding someone who enjoys machine work and has the tools and trying to barter.

[Drew Wiley]

Aluminum vibrates, is a poor thermal insulator, hard to fabricate. I have customers who do incredibly intricate, incredibly expensive "origami"-style commissioned sculptures using honeycomb aircraft panel - wonderfully stiff and lightweight. Not at the moment - the correct aluminum saw blades are in short supply. Glad I bought the last one for myself! But the custom carbide houses can step in to fill temporary gaps like this, albeit at much higher prices. Helpful to have kevlar gloves too! Damn edges are sharp, just like glass. Aluminum fabrication also requires careful dust control. The biggest dust explosion I remember in this neighborhood was at an aluminum fabrication plant - it shattered windows fifty miles away at the San Jose airport! Maybe someone could experiment with a
lightweight core aluminum panel like Dibond, which is far easier to cut and assemble.

[Jac@stafford.net]

[...] Haven't seen a sod camera from Kansas yet.

Ach! Now my brain is in fire! Good image, Willie!
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[Fr. Mark]

Wood vibrates too---think musical instruments. The Sapele parts to my bow saws could've been xylophone bars. Nice tone. Anyway, I'm not sure that's an overarching concern.
I will have to learn more about Al composite.
Another approach could be fiberglass or other fibers (Kevlar, carbon fiber) and epoxy or other resin by itself over wood or thin plywood or over ??? like some kayak construction. Soft light wood could be used and if not too heavy handed with fiber or resin/epoxy a lite structure could result.

[Ron (Netherlands)]

IMHO most sturdy and beautiful cameras were built from teak.
1. it is very weather, moisture (tropics) and shock resistent (hard durable wood)
2. old fine teak is very costly and nowadays quite rare to find (fast growing teak from which garden furniture nowadays is made won't be suitable);
3. it is quite heavy;
4. hard to cut - it will easily blunt your saws
So it is not the easy way to go.....

[Steven Tribe]

And, of course, Ron has even got teak plate holders!

One thing I have found with both cherry and Euroasian Walnut is that there is considerable variation between general appearance of finished timbers. This not just a question of growing conditions but seems more genetic for individual trees. Even walnut cameras made in the early 20th century (esp. France) have so much variation between wood parts that someone might think they used a variety of different woods.