How thick are popsicle sticks?

[Alan Townsend]

I'm buiding a 4x5 camera back and need some wood material 1/16 inch thick. I need pieces only about 3/4" wide and 6" long, was thinking the larger craft sticks, or popsicle sticks could work if they were close to 1/16". I've looked for model airplane plywood 1/16" thick, had to return some from Amazon and a local craft store for being wrong thickness. Popsicle sticks don't show thickness, but could work

I need this for spacers on the back, where the film holder meets the camera, to provide the shallow notch to mate with the holder ridge on the end of the holder the slide is on. I would rather laminate this with wood material, since I have no accurate way to cut the groove. Also need on the ground glass spacer to provide the needed 3/16" space for the ground glass to mimick the distance the film is from the front edge of the film holder. I have 1/8" material need the extra thickness. I do not have a way to mill the thicness of material other than a hand planer. too crude for such thin material.

Any suggestions?

[Larry Gebhardt]

An old school hand plane, not powered, can take a few thousandths of an inch on each pass. If you want I can thickness a scrap of cherry down to what you need for the cost of postage.

[BrianShaw]

The problem I've had with using popsicle sticks for anything more than shims or epoxy mixing is a horrendous lack of uniformity and warpage. Tongue depressers are much more uniform and seem to have less warpage. And what about paint stirrers; you can always sand them down to the necessary thickness.

[Tin Can]

I use hobby wood strips
Bought a pile years ago

Some are perfectly within spec

[Tin Can]

Wrong ?

T is critical and varies vastly by film size

[dvanmet]

Woodcraft stores carry 1/8” and 1/16” exotic and domestic, good quality woods and you can order online.
https://www.woodcraft.com/

[Drew Bedo]

i DCAN'T FIND THE ansi/.iso standard for popsicle sticks.

Perhaps there is a more formal nomenclature.

[bashful]

I can buy 'fat' popsicle sticks from the crafting aisle of one or other dollar store which are 1/16th-ish" thick, 0.7" wide (doesn't measure out to a neat fraction) and 5 7/8" long. Checking a couple with a digital calliper suggests that each one is reasonably consistent in itself, but some are 1/16" and some are 7/128". (Disclaimer - I am neither an engineer nor a camera builder.)

[BrianShaw]

https://www.google.com/search?q=pops...e-gws-wiz-serp

[Alan Townsend]

Wow, thanks everyone for the great feedback. Tin Can, here is what I have on film holder dimensions:"The author explains that the ANSI standard for film holder depth is .197". Most film is .007" thick. In order to have the ground glass in exactly the same plane as the film, the back of the film holder should be at .190"." This is from a post on this forum. Since 3/16" = .1875 this is only 1.5 mils shy of the spec. A sheet of paper or other shim material would make up the difference. Yes, a light sanding may be needed. My drillpress bed is very flat. A sheet of very find sandpaper taped to it word work for that.

Larry G thanks so much for the offer. The Woodcraft link is appreciated. I see 1/16 aircraft birch plywood there, which is what I was looking for. They say dimensions are to within 1/8 in. on all material, but thats alot for 1/16 plywood.

I will call woodcraft and ask.