building camera questions..

hi, i'm new to the forum, and somewhat new to photography. i'm a fine wood worker and thought it would be an interesting project to build a camera for use with tin type photography. i would like to build two camera's, one that could fit 4"x5", and another that would take an 11"x17". i realize the size of the camera for the 11x17 will be quite large. i'm looking for someone that i could chat with about building camera's either on the telephone or via e-mail. i'm also looking for any advice, or pointers to documents on the internet.

thanks!

Welcome to APUG, why not have the discussion right here so everyone can learn and multiple people can contribute to the discussion?

I've built one based on photos on the web. Check out my signature.
There are seversl threads here and the lf forum you should check out.

That's a good link Dan.

OP could also acquaint himself with Alan Greene's book "Primitive Photography" as well.

There are a few wetplate camera How-To books out there. The simplest would be Otto Dippold's on eBay and then Ty Guillory has a couple books that illustrate building a finer camera.

I can probably help if you are considering making your own bellows. Tedious, but worth it to say it was DIY (at least the first time around).

IIRC, this was a pretty decent page on building an 8x20 from scratch.