What is the best material to use when making illusions? What kind of wood/plastic/metal...???
Thank You
Grand Illusions

Wow! That's like asking "what's the best card trick?"

There are so many variables to consider.

Cost?
Size?
Weight?
Durability?
Portability?
Amount of tooling?
Your workshop capability?
How much stress/weight must the illusion support?
How much transporting/handling help do you have?

So many tradeoffs....so many questions...so few specifics...in the end, only you can decide what's "best".

Generally speaking, most illusion cabinets are made from 1/4" - 1/2" birch plywood. The bottom of a cabinet is often made from 3/4" plywood. Special bases are usually made with with a 2x2 or 2x3 framework with an appropriate thickness of playwood covering the frame. Sheet aluminum, steel and even fiberglass are sometimes used for bases.

Plastic and aluminum are used for boxes, as well. Legs are often made from aluminum alloy angle or can be made of wood. Like DoctorAmazo stated, you would have to indicate a lot of parameters and what illusion you are building to determine the best materials.

Decide what illusion you are building, get a good set of plans and talk to people who have built illusions before. (I was lucky. I know the owner of a major illusion-building business. He advised me many times!)

Michael

Dick Gustafson put out a book about this.
Check Osborne's books.

It all comes to what are you building. Certain effects are best built from wood, some from metal.

We have buit bases from weatherproof ply, 30 mm (a bit more than an inch) thick. Aluminum for legframes. We have made boxes and such from hardwood, ply and even plastic. Right now I am involved in a thing that is built all aluminum, all the way.

You need to look at each illusion separately and each part of the illusion separately as well. Different parts of an illusion take different loads, like the base needs to be a lot sturdier than the cabinet on top of it. Also do you want the prop to break down or not?

There unfortunately is no simple answer to your question.If I listed all materials we have used, that list would be pages long, even if I listed only materials we have found to be good.