Science Olympiad Student Center

Re: Tower Help [TBC]
Posted By: dholdgreve

It appears that the bottom half of the tower is "Z" braced insteal of "X braced. This creates disproportional nodes and distances between nodes. Have you considered X-bracing at least the lower half of the tower with 1/16" x 1/16" balsa? Yes, this doubles the length of lower bracing, but it cuts in half the distance between nodes, allowing for much lighter columns (1/8" x 1/8"). The "Z" bracing may work for the upper portion, or you may want to X-brace that as well, and do away with the horizontal struts, so you really would not be adding much weight, just balancing out the distance between nodes. It appears that the leg to leg dimension is about 155 mm, which works well when positioned at 45 degrees to the test opening. I've seen towers utilize the X-type bracing all the way up and still weight less than 7 grams carry the full weight of 15 Kg.

Reason: