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Tower/Boomilever

I did Towers Freshman and Sophomore year after that the program switched over to Boomilever and I did that junior and senior year. I was initially a little intimidated by the boomilver competition but it ended up being a lot easier and more fun so if you happen to be comping in that then congrats. But this is not to say that towers is not do able and both projects are very similar and as far am I can tell the same ideas apply to each. This is why I will show the different devices from each year and explain what to look for in each but not get specific on which year it is from.

This is the first tower I built for regional 2017

Don't Build it heavy

If the guide lines match those of my years then you don't want to over build your device. You would commonly think that you don't want it to break because in real life that could be catastrophic. But in this event the opposite is true because if it breaks then ideally then it did not weigh any more than absolutely necessary. In a perfect world you want it to break just after you add the last grain of sand. It also appears to be better to use smaller pieces and more bracing to make a piece than on thick one. Unless the glue required to glue all the supports is heavier than the solid piece.

State Towers 2017

This is the tower that I then built for State because the other one was too heavy. This one was much lighter but we still used hot glue which is very dense and heavy( I don't suggest this glue in most cases). It also is still built out of wood dowel rods and these are much heavier than balsa wood. Even though balsa is much more inconsistent and has random weak spots I still suggest it over down rods if you want to have a better chance at placing. All you have to do is check each stick before you use it by flexing it and feeling its weight relative to the others. the Heavier stiffer ones are the ones you want to use in areas of compression the lighter flexible one you use last and in places of tension.

Towers 2018

This tower did much better. It is constructed with balsa and hot glue. I used hot glue because of the flexing that I thought the tower would experience. The hot glue can flex and continue to hold when super glue may not. I don't know if this actually helped but we earned 2nd at Regional.

Building 2018 Tower

The rules specific the distance from the center the supporting beams could be this is why at the bottom it is so large then less than half way up it gets very narrow. We built this guide so that we could draw the bottom size on the board then secure it to the board so the ends don't move. Then at the height specified I made a cardboard piece that had a hole for the dowl rod to pass through

Boomilever 2019

Boomilever 2020

Boomilever Analysis

Here are the basic ideas that I followed in the design of my tower and lever.

Main Supports

2019 I made the square support out of flat pieces of balsa. But it did not lose much weight because the glue added about as much as the hollow inside subtracted. That is why in 2020 I made the beams a triangle to loose additional weight with one less balsa strip and less glue because of one less corner. I was pleased with the results. I did cut small triangles of balsa to act as guides to glue to that are on the inside of the beam that you cant see in the image.

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