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

[rdenney]

Precisely. In order for the camera to work as a machine should, the tolerances/clearances must not change. Wood is problematic in that it can be fairly stable in one dimension, and not so stable in others. Old growth naturally seasoned woods are necessary, and unfortunately very hard to find. Build a flatbed field camera with nice tight rails, and when the weather changes, those rails might either jam or become loose using easily available kiln dried wood. And how will it work in 50 years or so?

Of course, the original thread involved a collaboration with a wood craftsman who was particularly interested in doing interesting wood work, including the chosen material. Not really my interest.

Buf if I was building a wood camera, I would use the stuff at Woodcraft that is made for tool beds. It's birch plywood built in very thin veneers with no voids, and sometimes with a phenolic resin coating. That's probably about as stable as it gets. It machines and works nicely, but it is plywood and will look like it on uncovered edges.

Rick "a form follows function kind of guy" Denney

[Steven Scanner]

I'd like to bring this thread back to life after 2+ years. After pages of exotic hardwood, the last pages mention birch plywood. Birch plywood is lightweight, strong and easy to cut and shape. Downside is, thin sheets bend and warp, but only parallel to the grain.
I've made an adult size bicycle a couple of years ago with layers of 3mm birch plywood. I also own a poplar plywood bicycle I've made myself. Both bikes don't warp at all. (no nails or screws, all is glued with construction glue)

You can make the design in a way the "grain" of the plywood comes out. I've got some surplus plywood laying around from both bicycles. I'm going to make a LF scanner camera with this wood. As long as you can use the way the material works to your advantage, you can make anything with any type of material.