Cutting weight

[M017]

Last week I built a two piece that got 1428 and weighed 7.7g. Our plan is to use the same design but cut some weight. All the balsa that I have is extremely light ( like .35g 3/32×36in). My fear is that this is too light and will not hold as much, therefore getting a worse score. So should I use that design and make it about 6g but only hold about 4kg with the chance of a good score, or go for a 10g tower that could hold about 10kg and we know will get an okay score?

[Unome]

That depends on what your goal is. If you're borderline qualifying, I'd say go with the safer bet.

[M017]

That depends on what your goal is. If you're borderline qualifying, I'd say go with the safer bet.

We are most likely going to win towers by a few hundred points, and we are favored to win state by a large margin, so more in prep for nationals.

[Unome]

That depends on what your goal is. If you're borderline qualifying, I'd say go with the safer bet.

We are most likely going to win towers by a few hundred points, and we are favored to win state by a large margin, so more in prep for nationals.

I'd say take the safe bet at state and prepare the more risky design for Nationals.

[scioly2345]

Last week I built a two piece that got 1428 and weighed 7.7g. Our plan is to use the same design but cut some weight. All the balsa that I have is extremely light ( like .35g 3/32×36in). My fear is that this is too light and will not hold as much, therefore getting a worse score. So should I use that design and make it about 6g but only hold about 4kg with the chance of a good score, or go for a 10g tower that could hold about 10kg and we know will get an okay score?

My tip, personally, is take a risk. My bracings are 1/16 and i only use .2 g bracings that are 36 inches long, with .5g main supports, so for an entire tower i need about 7 sticks. My towers usually come out to 4 grams. I know, 4 grams pretty light tower. However if you are going for bonus, efficiency is key and with a 4g tower thar gets the bonus, the amount of sand it needs to hold in order to get a really good and competitive efficiency is not too much. Going from 7.7g to 4g might be too much of a jump, so id try for 4.5-6g. Remember, all the numbers in an efficiency divide out, so smaller divisor, bigger quotient. I definitely would not go to a 10g tower that holds the whole load, because the more efficient tower tend to weigh a lot less.

[M017]

Last week I built a two piece that got 1428 and weighed 7.7g. Our plan is to use the same design but cut some weight. All the balsa that I have is extremely light ( like .35g 3/32×36in). My fear is that this is too light and will not hold as much, therefore getting a worse score. So should I use that design and make it about 6g but only hold about 4kg with the chance of a good score, or go for a 10g tower that could hold about 10kg and we know will get an okay score?

My tip, personally, is take a risk. My bracings are 1/16 and i only use .2 g bracings that are 36 inches long, with .5g main supports, so for an entire tower i need about 7 sticks. My towers usually come out to 4 grams. I know, 4 grams pretty light tower. However if you are going for bonus, efficiency is key and with a 4g tower thar gets the bonus, the amount of sand it needs to hold in order to get a really good and competitive efficiency is not too much. Going from 7.7g to 4g might be too much of a jump, so id try for 4.5-6g. Remember, all the numbers in an efficiency divide out, so smaller divisor, bigger quotient. I definitely would not go to a 10g tower that holds the whole load, because the more efficient tower tend to weigh a lot less.

To add to that, so I should go as light as i can on the trusses, but on our 1/8 frame pieces, should I go for something like BS/weight, to figure out which pieces will deform the least but weigh the least at the same time? With the balsa that I have, I could probably cut to 6g.

[dholdgreve]

Last week I built a two piece that got 1428 and weighed 7.7g. Our plan is to use the same design but cut some weight. All the balsa that I have is extremely light ( like .35g 3/32×36in). My fear is that this is too light and will not hold as much, therefore getting a worse score. So should I use that design and make it about 6g but only hold about 4kg with the chance of a good score, or go for a 10g tower that could hold about 10kg and we know will get an okay score?

"Different strokes for different folks," but I'll share with your our findings... Every design is different. We have been using a similar design for the past 4 competitions (times 3 teams)... so we've had 12 towers to analyze and assess... Yes, you can get too light... With each build, we reduced the column weights... Our scores continually climbed (1400... 1700... 1900... 2100...), but we all knew that there would be an apex to that score curve... We finally found it at the last invitational competition. We reduced the tower mass to just under 6 grams by going to super light 1/8" columns, but it did not pay off... The reduction in load held fell dramatically. We ended up back down in the 1300 and 1400's... We went back to the drawing board and went back to heavier columns, fine tuned a few braces, and score our season's best with a 2632 score at regionals... Tower did collect bonus and weighed 7.40 grams. The whole key is to find where that perfect mix is of column density and bracing tiers..

[M017]

Last week I built a two piece that got 1428 and weighed 7.7g. Our plan is to use the same design but cut some weight. All the balsa that I have is extremely light ( like .35g 3/32×36in). My fear is that this is too light and will not hold as much, therefore getting a worse score. So should I use that design and make it about 6g but only hold about 4kg with the chance of a good score, or go for a 10g tower that could hold about 10kg and we know will get an okay score?

"Different strokes for different folks," but I'll share with your our findings... Every design is different. We have been using a similar design for the past 4 competitions (times 3 teams)... so we've had 12 towers to analyze and assess... Yes, you can get too light... With each build, we reduced the column weights... Our scores continually climbed (1400... 1700... 1900... 2100...), but we all knew that there would be an apex to that score curve... We finally found it at the last invitational competition. We reduced the tower mass to just under 6 grams by going to super light 1/8" columns, but it did not pay off... The reduction in load held fell dramatically. We ended up back down in the 1300 and 1400's... We went back to the drawing board and went back to heavier columns, fine tuned a few braces, and score our season's best with a 2632 score at regionals... Tower did collect bonus and weighed 7.40 grams. The whole key is to find where that perfect mix is of column density and bracing tiers..

So should I find my 1/8 columns that have the greatest BS/g score and use those and use my .4g bracings? Because wouldn't taking the BS, using SFPD divided by the mass, find the best column with the highest buckling strength but without as much cost to your weight?

[M017]

Would .4g 3/32nd bracings work as well as or better than .4g 1/16th bracings in terms of weight held not efficiency?

[waffletree]

Try different density wood - the weight really depends on the wood density