Build Techniques

[lllazar]

50 cm? Well i'm new to the safe transportation of build it's (i can't believe i actually won state when i carried my bridge by hand, no box nothing) and i was wodering what is the safest way to package a tower(s). Would a large cardboard box with packing peanuts be good, maybe a plastic box even?

[Paradox21]

Our team has used various cardboard and plastic boxes to transport structures. You should add some kind of padding and possibly a dessicant to prevent your structure from gaining extra moisture and mass.

If that doesn't work, you can always build a treasure chest. http://gallery.scioly.org/details.php?image_id=2487

[nejanimb]

I would strongly recommend not using a cardboard box with just packing peanuts. It's risky, and doesn't help protect your structure as much as you need to. All it takes is one six grader running around to step on your box and destroy your device, and your chances.

The treasure box, on the other hand, is awesome. It's made from solid pieces of wood on all sides, and you can step on it (or even jump on it, though it's not recommended) and the structure inside will be fine. The treasure-chest stylings are just for decoration. As you can see from the next picture in that gallery, there were actually two different boxes that would come to competition, with the primary structure in one and a backup structure in the other box (the treasure box was actually the backup box), and, when possible, they would travel to competition on separate vehicles.

The boxes were filled with packing peanuts and many, many desiccant packets, as well as the sign you see in that photo gallery. Having a super dry box is important to regulate humidity and even bring down your mass a bit before competitions.

The coolest box I've ever seen for a structure, by far, was what Wichita Collegiate brought to nationals this year, which was a seemingly custom-fitted mini-suitcase that had slots to fit the bridge into. I'm guessing the builder made it herself also specifically for that design, which was extremely awesome.

[dragonfly]

I would strongly recommend not using a cardboard box with just packing peanuts. It's risky, and doesn't help protect your structure as much as you need to. All it takes is one six grader running around to step on your box and destroy your device, and your chances.

The treasure box, on the other hand, is awesome. It's made from solid pieces of wood on all sides, and you can step on it (or even jump on it, though it's not recommended) and the structure inside will be fine. The treasure-chest stylings are just for decoration. As you can see from the next picture in that gallery, there were actually two different boxes that would come to competition, with the primary structure in one and a backup structure in the other box (the treasure box was actually the backup box), and, when possible, they would travel to competition on separate vehicles.

If you also notice, on the primary bridge box there is a latch, but on the treasure chest box there isn't. Even if you have some kind of locking mechanism, I highly recommend wrapping your box(es) up with packing or duct tape, just as an extra precaution (you can see on the treasure box the tape hanging off).

Also, when packing up your structure, put in a layer of peanuts, or whatever other padding, first, and then another layer on top, since with the uncertainties of transport, if you have your structure just laying on top of padding, there's nothing that says it can't get damaged from the other side.

The boxes were filled with packing peanuts and many, many desiccant packets, as well as the sign you see in that photo gallery. Having a super dry box is important to regulate humidity and even bring down your mass a bit before competitions.

If you're wondering where to get desiccant packets, we just told our whole team to try and collect them (they come in shoeboxes, some new toys, etc.) year-round. Doing this, we've never had to purposely search out a place to buy them.

The coolest box I've ever seen for a structure, by far, was what Wichita Collegiate brought to nationals this year, which was a seemingly custom-fitted mini-suitcase that had slots to fit the bridge into. I'm guessing the builder made it herself also specifically for that design, which was extremely awesome.

If you do want to make a fitted box like that though, it should probably only be used to carry for shorter distances/whenever you personally are able to take care of it (such as, to the event on competition day), since you'll likely need more padding when putting your structure on a bus, for example. Or, you can just carry it around to look really cool (but that doesn't seem as practical).

[Paradox21]

Our team did not have the foresight to collect silica packets for the year previous, so in addition to packing peanuts we loaded the box with a bunch of rice. Rice is a crude natural desiccant that likely doesn't work as well as silica. However it is very abundant and you can get it the day before a competition if necessary, so it is probably a good plan B if you can't get desiccant packets.

[lllazar]

So these dessicant packets...do you empty them into the box? Or keep them in the individual packets.

And thanks for all the info, it seems like my bridge gained a .1 grams on the day of the state comp -_-

[dragonfly]

No no! Do not empty them! They do their job just as fine as they had been in their previous packaging.

And to Paradox's comment on rice; since you now know, there's no need!

[NamG]

I definitely made a "treasure chest" box when I was competing. However, I never felt good about the concept of building a box to hide the structure. That was never my intent, although it seemed to be assumed by the majority of other teams, and even sometimes the ES. I thought about installing some plexi-glass in my box to avoid this issue altogether. But I never got around to it.

Perhaps this fits better under a thread "Protection Techniques."

[Littleboy]

how tall is the upper part for div. B?

[tigerman0828]

how tall is the upper part for div. B?

between 30 and 50cm.