Science Olympiad Tower
This tower was 24 inches tall, 6 inches wide at the base, tapering to a 1 & 1/2 inch square at the middle. This tower weighed 7.0 grams, and held 11kg for 2nd place at the 2005 GA Science Olympiad State Finals.
I am in the middle of building a tower for my Science Olympiad competition this Saturday. In fact, I am truly in the middle. I am in the process of joining the two halves of my tower together, the bottom and top parts.I was asked
recently about the best way to go about this. I responded that I wasn’t quite sure. I have heard of people making jigs, but I can’t think of how to make a jig for this.
However, I think I have a way that at least works. After thinking about it for a while, I decided that you must build a tower on a level spot. Here is my setup:
On my desk (which isn’t level), I have a sheet of graph paper. On it I have 5 dots. 4 of the dots mark the outside points of the base of my tower. The 5th dot is the dead center of those other dots.
Because my desk isn’t level, I put a strip of wood under two legs of my tower to make it level. Only one dimension of my desk wasn’t level, so I fixed that by adding a piece of wood under two legs. And yes, I did use a small level to make sure that it was now perfect.
Now I know that the bottom the base of my tower is level. Now I need to make sure that the top of the base is level. So I placed my loading block (one I bought from Pitsco) on top of the base to see if it was already level. It wasn’t.
So I began sanding. A little bit here, and a little bit there. I didn’t just so this randomly, but using the level I tried to see what leg was making the tower un-level and sand that one. I ended up sanding a little too much, so I had to sand another leg. Finally, I have the base of my tower perfectly level. Now the trick is the actual connection of the top part, and making sure the top is level.
One of these days I will take pictures of this setup to connect the two parts to a Science Olympiad tower. If you know of a better way, please enlighten the rest of us.
this is my first year doing towers, is 1cm by 1cm legs overkill?
Yes.
which type of truss should use in making tower stronger?
were the legs made out of bass?
or balsa?
Wow, it must be a long time ago that I built this tower, because I cannot remember the answer to this question either. I know that I used bass for the legs in some towers, but I was also experimenting with balsa legs during this time. I don’t know for sure.
Hey I am new to this but I would like a little help getting started. Can someone post some pictures of drawing a design? I have to draw it out for my teacher before I actually make the bridge. Can someone help me?
Hey.Im VERY new to this too, and well im kinda like Terry i need some help getting started can someone help me by at least putting some drawings out there….PLEASE!!!!!!
How/Where did your tower break?
James, I honestly do not remember.
Do you remember how high was the base of the tower was? =P
Hey Garret:
This is a really nice design; I noticed that the base/main part (I’m not sure what to call it) is thicker than the members/trusses/bracing.
What different sizes wood did you use? Thanks!
Sam, I think the 4 main legs were 3/32″ square sticks. The X bracing I cut by hand, and it was 1/32″ x 1/16″. The horizontal bracing was 1/16″ x 1/16″ low density Balsa.
Did you bend the wood or is it two separate parts (bottom and top)?
The tower is in two separate parts.
Is it better to build in two parts or just curve?
Two parts is better.
Hey could you put up some pics of all of the steps.I’m building one and I am a little confused on how to build it. Could you help?
Garrett –
did you use balsa or bass wood for this tower? i am a first timer with towers so any help would be great!
Lily, I only used Balsa wood for this particular tower.
what year did you make the towers cause now were doing bridges? That is a truely amazing designe. Have you tryed the bridges yet? I have done both and the bridges are easier. Well i hopee you placed well with this tower.
This might help me a lot for my science fair project thanks
GB i would not mind writing it if you just sent me some tips i could neaten it up in my writing classes at school as extra credit and i could find some info for you it would be fun.
FT, thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely look into writing a tower ebook. It probably won’t be any time soon, however. I am staying pretty busy in school right now. It might be a Christmas break project.
Hey BG
i am thinking about making one of these just for the fun of it i had a blast building my bridge and i was wondering if you could make a ’5 steps to building a bridge tower version’