How to build a balsa wood tower

[geneautry342]

I'm trying to build a balsa wood tower. The shortest it can be is 8 inches. It can only weigh 20 grams. We can't double the wood to make it stronger. Also we can't coat it with anything. When it comes to making the joints we can't have more than 5 pieces coming together to make a joint. I was wondering what the best way would be to make one with these stipulations.

[MadCow2357]

I'm going to save the other forum members some time...

Read through the Towers forums!!!

I don't want to sound harsh, but basically every question you may have has already been answered in detail. I "wood" start (pun intended) by reading through the main topic (Towers B/C). The Towers forum is basically a gold mine of information that can be exploited by everyone.

Hate to break it to ya bud, but you will most likely not be medaling at your next competition if you are just starting Towers right now...

[geneautry342]

This is just a class project, not a competition!

[MadCow2357]

Sorry... I assumed that you were doing this for competition...
But you should still read through the Towers forum.

[hippo9]

Yeah the towers forum pretty much has all you would need to know.

[Crtomir]

I'm trying to build a balsa wood tower. The shortest it can be is 8 inches. It can only weigh 15 grams. We can't double the wood to make it stronger. Also we can't coat it with anything. When it comes to making the joints we can't have more than 5 pieces coming together to make a joint. I was wondering what the best way would be to make one with these stipulations.

What are the other constraints? How wide does the tower have to be at the base? How wide does it have to be at the top? How much weight do you have to hold? How is the tower going to be tested? Do you get a better score if you keep the weight of your tower down to a minimum? Is there a copy of the "rules" you can share?

[geneautry342]

Those are all the only rules that we have. The tower that holds the most weight wins, and gets an A+

[Cow481]

How are you going to test the tower, the design of the tower has to corespondent with the testing equipment.

[geneautry342]

we get 4 pieces of 1/8 inch by 24 inches. We don't get to test.

[Cow481]

I would use 4 pieces of 8.5 wood as a square tower (like a chimney) and add 3 or more pieces of wood in between the 4 legs depending on how much wood you have left over. Make the legs be as be as close together as possible to use less wood and to make the tower more stable and stronger.