All Building Articles

25 Bridge Building Tips

1. Humidity affects the weight of your bridge. Keep your bridge in a closed container with a few grains of rice. or some silica gel packets. 2. Go easy with the glue bottle. As a general rule of thumb, if you can see it then you are using too much. 3. Keep your hands clean! Oils and grease from your skin can ruin your glue joints. 4. Perfect practice makes perfect. The more bridges you build, the better your construction […]

5 Steps to Building a Model Bridge

This ebook, 5 Steps to Building a Model Bridge, answers the most common questions people have about building bridges. In the ebook I outline the steps of building a model bridge, and then walk people through the actual construction of a bridge. The ebook contains many photos and illustrations, as well as 25 bonus tips.

Beautiful New Gram Scale

I am very excited to show off this new digital gram scale I ordered off Ebay. This digital scale measures to 0.01 grams, which is a major improvement over the team scale, which only measures to 0.1 grams.The best part is that it only cost $20, shipping included. A hot deal if you ask me. It seems to be very good quality and is accurate. I compared it using several bridges lying around with the team scale, and it was […]

Bending Wood

I have developed a system for bending wood for my arch bridges, and though I do not claim it is the best way, it works well. It does require some materials and equipment that hopefully you will already own and not need to get. I have a pot, or basin rather, that is about 18″ long and 12″ deep. I fill it with about two cups of water (I have found that more water just takes longer to start boiling, […]

Bridge Joints

The type of joint you use on your bridge can drastically change its strength. There are three basic types of joints, the Lap Joint, End Joint, and Notched Joint. To increase the strength of an end or notched joint you can add a Gusset. Learn about each type of joint and when to use it on a model bridge in this article.

Bridge Terms

Hey everybody once again it’s me, First Timer. I thought the one thing that would make this website even better would be some vocabulary on the parts of bridges. Here are a few terms that might help if you ever need to describe different aspects of a truss or bridge. Let’s start with “Arch”…

Cargo Bridge Building Game

This is a free bridge builder game that I found and it is pretty neat. Construct a bridge and test your building skills. Help your people gather items located on the other side of valley.

Classic ‘K-Truss’ Bridge Design (Balsa Wood)

For this balsa wood bridge, I used a ‘K-Truss’ design with seven vertical members and 6 ‘K-Trusses’ per side. The K’s were the most challenging part of the build, because I had to calculate each ones length, and the approximate measure of the angle I had to cut into each one. All in all, the bridge took around 10 hours of work over a three-day weekend (plus glue-drying time, of course). This website is where I originally found the ‘K-Truss’ […]

Craft Stick Bending

A revolutionary way to bend wood when building arched model bridges. This method is so simple it will blow your mind, but it really works.

Cutting Strips of Balsa

There are several reasons you should cut your own strips of wood: It saves money It saves time Helps you get familiar with the wood Increases your skills as a builder Video Tutorial Video is about 4 minutes long. DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible for any injury caused by someone using this technique. I recommend that students cut strips of wood only under adult supervision. The Tools Here is a list of the tools you will need: Table Cutting board […]