tower tips for a first timer

[tcm1234]

i need help from someone who has done towers before! its my first time

[Schrodingerscat]

I have never done towers (and it is very likely that I never will), but I would suggest that you start by reading the other threads about towers in this forum. You can also read last year's tower forum and the wiki, but be sure to read it with a grain of salt as to new rule changes that might apply (As of this post, the last update for the wiki was before the release of this years rules). My final suggestion is that after you read all of this material, you return and ask specific questions. You will be far more likely to get help from other people if you ask a question about something in particular, rather than the general event.

[SirBobo]

I would
1. Find out the lightest and strongest wood there is.
2. Look at other works to get an idea
3. Plan your tower
4. Make your tower
5. Test your tower
6. Find the flaws
7. Remake and retest
8. Repeat step 7 until satisfied
9. Good Luck
ITS ALWAYS HARD THE FIRST FEW TIMES!

[jjnv]

Our students built their first tower for an invitational this weekend. The tower is not perfectly level. Therefore the chain might be touching the base of the chimney. Will they get disqualified for "9. Clearance to fit Loading Block and chain"?

Thanks a lot for clarification.

[sj]

If the chain is obviously leaning on the tower I believe that this will result in a disqualification though it has never happend to me personally....

[Balsa Man]

Our students built their first tower for an invitational this weekend. The tower is not perfectly level. Therefore the chain might be touching the base of the chimney. Will they get disqualified for "9. Clearance to fit Loading Block and chain"?

Thanks a lot for clarification.

There is nothing in the rules that says contact of chain to tower either gets you (before testing) put in something other than Tier 1, or (during testing) says you have to stop loading. There was in the past (had to stop loading. Now, that doesn't mean every Event Supervisor will go with the rules as written.

More importantly, if you have enough lean - if the tower is not "true"/ is asymmetrical enough that you're getting the touch you describe, you have major problems and are not going to do very well; if the tower is strong enough to carry any significant load with enough lean to get the chain touching, it will be uncompetitively heavy; if it is at a competitive weight, it will carry very little load with that amount of lean. There is lots of good discussion in past posts on a) the importance of precise construction, and b) how to get the precision you need; worth your time to review.

[sciencegeek8]

Me and my amazing partner are new at tower building. We are not sure what degree angle our tower should be at in the 30 cm base section that connects to the top "chimmney". Does anyone have any pointers?
Example of response: 45 degrees is stronger than 60 degrees... anything like that.

[sciencegeek8]

Is it detrimental to the tower if we turn it 90 degrees above the tower base hole thing. Would it focus all the weight onto those four points, making it collapse more easily?

[sciencegeek8]

If we were to have a 15 cm "chimmney", would 5 cross sectional supports be too much and would 3 cross sectional supports not be enough? PLEASE HELP US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! or what you know

[lucwilder42]

First, read the towers wiki page, then look through the image gallery. If that doesn't provide what you're looking for, read through the towers threads on the forum.

[Balsa Man]

Me and my amazing partner are new at tower building. We are not sure what degree angle our tower should be at in the 30 cm base section that connects to the top "chimmney". Does anyone have any pointers?
Example of response: 45 degrees is stronger than 60 degrees... anything like that.

1) As lucwilder42 says, do yourself a favor; read and learn. That will answer many of your questions, including some you haven't thought of yet.
2) The more angle (from the vertical) to the legs, the more force they see (for a given load). Therefore, you want to minimize the angle. The rules define the minimum angle you can get away with.
The bottoms of the legs have to span the 10cm square hole in the test base- for a square, 4-legger, that means a little more than 10cm between the inside faces of the pairs of legs that are across from each other (so they sit at, and just outside of, the midpoints of the sides of the test base hole). We align the bottom leg ends 3mm out from the hole edge on each side
The tops have to fit inside the 8cm circle; to minimize the lean-in angle, that means just fit inside the circle. We allow 1mm clearance.
With those clearances, the leg angle works out to about 12.5 degrees (to the vertical)