Documenting Your Work
Most think that being able to build a great structure is the key to doing well in the structure challenge. While this is definitely important there is one thing that is much more important than being able to build a great structure. And that is being able to build a great structure twice. The best design in the world does you no good if you can't repeat it.
While building your structure document every step of the construction process. What is your design? What wood are you using? What glues are you using? How much does it weigh? Keeping good records allows you to build the same structure again.
Record keeping
- Keep a notebook to record your designs and make notes.
- Label your structures and design so you can refer back to them. Record how much weight a particular structure held.
- Take digital photos of your structures and put with your design
Part of your record keeping should be to analyze the broken structure to determine what failed and what might be changed to improve the structure.
Analyzing the structure
One reason it is difficult to analyze a broken structure is that the failure is often catastrophic with lots of pieces flying all over the place. One way to control this is to adapt the structure tester. After the structure is set and the pressure board is in place (but before any weights are placed) add shims made from hardboard and sheet metal to the top of every safety corner post so that the maximum the pressure board will fall when the structure fails is 1/8" to 1/16" or less. The shims should be cut to approximately the same size as the safety posts (3-1/2" x 3-1/2"). If the pressure board only falls 1/16" when the structure fails it may be easier to isolate the initial failure.
As you modify the design of your structure to improve its performance don't change too many variables at once. If you change too many things you may not be able to determine which design changes worked and which didn't. Consider changing only one variable at a time. This may require you to build more structures initially but it will pay off in being able to isolate the changes that improve the structures performance and those that do not.
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