Building a view camera. Which wood you choose? ..

[Andrew M]

Almond sounds like a good idea, but remember the heart wood will be less than the 50cm. I would have thought that olive was a bit too irregular in grain and "mottled" in colouration to be easy to work or attractive in finish. But perhaps I am influenced by the turned products I saw on sale on Mallorca a week ago!

Seeing the mention of fruit and nut orchid trees and then the olive reminded me of when I made turned products out of them..afer curing for a year or three, cut pieces covered in synthetic type of wax that lets the timber slowly breathe and cure to avoid cracking etc

The almond and other fruit trees ,apricot etc all worked nicely as expected, they all had their own look but the Olive! wow! that looked much nicer imo but was weird to work with, it obviously needed more years to cure because on the lathe spinning it while cutting it was spraying out moisture all over me, it was easy to work with still, cut like timber still, not like green wood but retained its moisture content..as such, bowls etc once turned and then only thin material (instead of a chunk of wood) warped out of shape, in my case that added 'charm' to the bowls that were now very cool 'art'


I would agree on using timber from old furniture as well..some Tasmanian huon pine accents might look nice, although i suspect it would be fine for the whole (light weight) camera .A beautiful very bright yellow to orange, durable timber that has been used to make everything from furniture to boats in years gone by.

[Robert Hughes]

Tasmanian huon pine accents? I'd be scared to take it outside, much less tromp up the side of a muddy embankment with it. I'd never use it, but put it behind a glass-faced case and admire it from afar every now and then.

Remember visiting grandma, and how guilty and uncomfortable you felt when she quickly swiped your juice cup off the bare dining room table, clucking under her breath while placing a doily in front of you for said cup? That's just the way I'd feel with an overly precious jewelry box that somehow started life as a photographic instrument. Eek! Gimme a beat up old press camera any day.

[Andrew M]

LOL, yeah, well ordinarily that might be so with Huon Pine but it was on my mind. Because just the other day, out the back of an 'antique' shop, that sold mostly broken old phones, pots and pans etc etc (bric a brac really) and also some old broken furniture, there was this Huon pine wardrobe , pretty ratty to be considered much good as usable wardrobe again but plenty of good usable timber in it, the sides, sections of the front were HP, the centre door (also HP) was pulled off and nailed inside for a makeshift shelf...it was only about $65-$75, too much to pay as a wardrobe but great timber value, possibly enough for a dozen cameras it didn't really occur to me at the time!

[GSX4]

My vote goes to Bolivian Rosewood. It's a rare wood and not too eco friendly, but it makes wonderful cameras and parts... Here are a few examples I made..... a 4x5 pinhole camera and a wet plate back for my Chamonix 45-N camera.

[thart2009]

I'm not a camera maker or woodworker (yet) but I copied the parts from a Bender and used a number of different woods. Most of which was scrap given to me by a friend. I used jatoba, ebony, sapele, wenge, cherry & leopardwood. Ebony is so smooth and hard. If finished properly (I am still working on that) it is beautiful. I would like to build a complete camera from Ebony and use a red bellows. It's a little hard to work though, and the dust from sanding is very fine and gets in everything. My favorite though is leopardwood. A little grainy but very unique looking. And not too expensive.

[Lachlan 717]

Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata)

Get Fair Dinkum.

[Rick A]

I cobbled up a nice little 4x5 field camera out of mahogany. All the joinery is hand cut dovetails. It has a fixed back with swings, tilt, shift , and rise and fall front. Used a Rodenstock lens and shutter pulled from a Polaroid 110B. It was my first foray into LF(well, second if you count my 4x5 pinhole-made the same way).

[goamules]

I'd go for walnut. The link shows a nice custom gunstock made from a choice piece. Gunstocks have traditionally been walnut and it wears very nice for something that may get knocked around. For something you are going to "shoot" with, it can't be beat.

[eduardtoader]

Could someone describe here the field camera focus system? Photos, drawings - all would be welcome..

It does exist some shop or factory could provide me a milimetric rack and the other metal pieces?

I only worked with monorail cameras but I would like to build a 8x10 field camera or something bigger.

Thank you all.

[Mark Sawyer]

Perhaps an 8x10 made from a dead Jeffrey Pine, grown atop Sentinel Dome in Yosemite?