Ongoing Contest(Scores)

[iwonder]

Good luck!

[Balsa Man]

Good luck, indeed. Looking forward to a report.

[dholdgreve]

Ah, I wish it were easy to post a sketch. No magic, just Muggle Geometry.
Draw it out from this, and I think you'll see:
The overall configuration is parallel (horizontal) compression tube, with the t-member angling in from the top. Tube diameter- vertical height- is 11/16ths
With C- geometry, 40.1cm back from the eye bolt center (at the wall), the t-member is a bit less than 16cm above the bottom side of the tube (it is attached on top of the bolt). It enters the top of the tube on a line that intersects the bottom of the tube immediately inboard of the bolt hole. What that means is the point it enters the top of the tube is more than 2.5cm inboard from the center of the eyebolt hole. (with B-dimensions/angle, its closer, but still doesn't run into the block) The block sits on top of the tube. The tube extends a little over a cm past the eye bolt hole- so the inboard half of the block sits on the tube up to the bolt hole, and about 1cm beyond the bolt hole sits on top of the tube, and the last cm+ of the block just hangs over the end.

Aha! The lamp is now lit! and I comprehend! Thanks Len... Great explanation!... As usual!

[noobforce]

Today was NJ States..

I got 6th and held only 5.5 kg. It weighed 11.3 grams.

It broke because on my compression member bracings(Z Bracings), one bracing wasn't glued properly, as in it was sticking off of the compression member.. Otherwise it could have held like 10kg lol.

[Balsa Man]

6th is nothing to be ashamed of.
I'm curious, did you not see the problem before you checked in and ran it?

[UQOnyx]

WOO HOO
3rd Place!
I swear we could have gotten 1st place. Our final score was 702 which was 50 points worse than our regionals. Our highest score ever was 962. -_-.
We identified 2-4 problems with our boom.
1) It was raining and though the boom was in a box, but the humidity might have affected it.

2) The boom didn't sit against the wall properly when no weight was added. We knew this was an issue but we had tested with evn worse angle/alignment issues and nothing happened so we though nothing of it. It also might have been since I used my lightest bass instead of medium for tension.

3) Yesterday, I was sanding the base with my Dremel tool and it slipped. It went into the general direction of the tension and touched something NEAR the tension. I was not surewhat it was, but it could have nicked the tension and though it didn't look or feel like it after inspection, I might have missed a spot.

4) We might not have had enough/strong enough bracing. We used 1/16 square balsa, and though people used it before, maybe we needed more.

Over all though I think it doesn't matter and I am being too critical and after all, third place is not bad ! I would like to thank everyone on this forum for helping us and we sincerely could have not done it without you guys! Good luck to everyone at their contests and thank you for such a great season!

Also, we got 4th place in Shock Value and 6th place in Forestry!

Oh yeah and also one more thing.. I also met Fanjiatian at States, and he was pretty cool lol. I forgot what his placement was, but he did very well too, so kudos to him! I didn't get to meet Noobforce because I didn't know what school he went to but congrats to him too!

[fanjiatian]

Yay, 4th place at States! Congrats to UQOnyx and Noobforce

Winning score for B-division was around 1100 and C-division was around 1000
Sorry for not giving exact numbers, but the supervisors were adamant about doing so

Many thanks to Balsa Man, iwonder, dholdgreve and countless others for being so helpful

[UQOnyx]

ARRGGHH. Okay I might have lied about trying not to be critical. I COULD HAVE BEATEN THAT! THAT SUX ARGH

[noobforce]

Still annoyed about 6th place..

That one joint!!!! And then the entire boomilever buckled...

[inthewoods]

Northern Colorado Regionals
B-Div
1228.5- 12.21gr, carrying 15kg
276
249
227
The rest were below 200

C-Div
1083.7- 9.5gr carrying a little over 10kg
1075.3- 13.95 carrying 15kg
835.8
823.2- 12.39 carrying 10.2kg
557
519
287

The B-Div winner was a tube w/ single tension member.
C-Div winner was a 3-legged "tower in its side" design w/ 2 small tension members- 2nd thru 4th were tubes w/single tension member.
We were 2nd and 4th in C-. Our 4th place one had been tested to 12.5kg; we expected it to go full load; a little error in bolt hookup alignment way over-stressed the bolt connection.

Wow! Hard to imagine that much "space" between 1st and second... Glad to see someone is pushing the envelope with a very respectable score. At some point in time, I'm hoping to see a pic of one of these tube designs. I've been to several Boom competitions here in Ohio, and no one has used it yet.

Thank you for your post Balsa Man! Unfortunately we don't have the privilege of know the stats from Southern region. But our B Div took 3rd and C Div 2nd with mid range scores. Hope to be more competitive at State. See you then and Good Luck!