Activity: FRAME This week’s focus was on framing. Week 2 In this week’s activity, we had to construct the tallest tower possible, using balsa wood, that were cut into 40 long pieces, and glue to hold it together. Unfortunately we had only 33, but ultimately we didn’t use up all the balsa wood. Based on the readings, we used trusses, which is a structural frame in the shape of a triangle that can be subjected to axial tension or compression (Ching, 2008). The panel points, which are the joining parts of the balsa wood, was connected using glue. We initially had a lot of trouble using the glues provided, but later figured that only a small amount of the glue should be used. We decided on using a triangular shape for the base and slowly taper the joints to the centre of the triangle as we got higher and higher. The triangles then would become smaller and smaller till we could get it as high as possible. We connected the two long strips of balsa wood together to give it height, which was the purpose of the activity; to compose the tallest tower that we could with only using these pieces of balsa wood and glue to connect. The frame became a triangular prism at the bottom half of the tower, like we wanted it to be. Unfortunately due to time and the patience that was required for the glue to dry sometimes, we weren’t able to construct it any taller than two triangular prims high.
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Activity: FRAME
This week’s focus was on framing.
Week 2
In this week’s activity, we had to construct the tallest tower possible, using balsa wood, that were cut into 40 long pieces, and glue to hold it together. Unfortunately we had only 33, but ultimately we didn’t use up all the balsa wood.
Based on the readings, we used trusses, which is a structural frame in the shape of a triangle that can be subjected to axial tension or compression (Ching, 2008). The panel points, which are the joining parts of the balsa wood, was connected using glue. We initially had a lot of trouble using the glues provided, but later figured that only a small amount of the glue should be used. We decided on using a triangular shape for the base and slowly taper the joints to the centre of the triangle as we got higher and higher. The triangles then would become smaller and smaller till we could get it as high as possible.
We connected the two long strips of balsa wood together to give it height, which was the purpose of the activity; to compose the tallest tower that we could with only using these pieces of balsa wood and glue to connect. The frame became a triangular prism at the bottom half of the tower, like we wanted it to be. Unfortunately due to time and the patience that was required for the glue to dry sometimes, we weren’t able to construct it any taller than two triangular prims high.
Truss -‐ A structure composed of a combinationof members (such as chords, 1, diagonals, and web members), usually in some triangular arrangement so as to constitute a rigid frame-‐ work
Harris, C. 2006. Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. 4th ed. McGraw-‐Hill, p. 1019.
REFERECNE: Ching, F. 2008, Building construction illustrated / Francis D.K. Ching, Hoboken, N.J. : John Wiley & Sons, c2008; 4th ed.
The tower became slightly wobbly and we wanted to strengthen its stability by gluing smaller parts to each corner of the standing end to the frame of the triangle. But as mentioned before, the time it took for the glue to dry was very time consuming and required a lot of patience, as it would sometimes fail.
Another group we used a similar idea to ours, was able to make it taller. We decided to join ours and theirs together, but the structure could not stand on its own without our support of holding it.
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