Boomilever B/C

[sciolyperson1]

Does anyone know where a hook could be bought for the 2020 Boomilever?

Any home improvement store should have them, including lowes and home depot. You could find one on amazon as well.

[knightmoves]

Does anyone know where a hook could be bought for the 2020 Boomilever?

Any home improvement store should have them, including lowes and home depot. You could find one on amazon as well.

When I looked last year, the local hardware stores didn't carry the right hook. The rules explicitly call out N232-892, which you will find on amazon (other merchants are available). Amusingly, amazon shows this as "frequently bought" with a couple of different packages of balsa.

[lunatix123]

hey y'all, am kinda new in this area of the boomilevers, anybody has some useful advice?

[MadCow2357]

hey y'all, am kinda new in this area of the boomilevers, anybody has some useful advice?

Hi and welcome to the forums! If you haven't read the rules, do that now. I'd start by reading the wiki, then through this year's and last year's forum. Balsa Man passed away over a year ago, but if you look back at his posts you will find a treasure trove of useful information (boomilever was run during 2013-2014).

After you understand enough about the event, draw up a prototype blueprint, and just start building. Don't worry if your first boom is trash because it probably will be. My first balsa structures of the season are always terrible, even though this my 3rd year in this type of event. The idea is to build, test, build, test, build some more, and build some more. With each build, you gain experience, and with each test, you get information on how to improve.

If you have questions, feel free to ask on this forum, or PM me. I'll try to help if I can, but there are certainly much more accomplished and better builders on this forum: DarthBuilder, TheChiScientist, sciolyperson1, waffletree, just to name a few . Make sure you get advice from them, and once again welcome!

Two tips off the top of my head:
- Don't forget that holding max weight doesn't mean anything if you have a mega-heavy structure, because Boomilever is all about weight to load efficiency.
- Don't worry about looking stupid, because we were all noobs once. You shoulda seen my first few posts on scioly.org

[TheChiScientist]

hey y'all, am kinda new in this area of the boomilevers, anybody has some useful advice?

Hi and welcome to the forums! If you haven't read the rules, do that now. I'd start by reading the wiki, then through this year's and last year's forum. Balsa Man passed away over a year ago, but if you look back at his posts you will find a treasure trove of useful information (boomilever was run during 2013-2014).

After you understand enough about the event, draw up a prototype blueprint, and just start building. Don't worry if your first boom is trash because it probably will be. My first balsa structures of the season are always terrible, even though this my 3rd year in this type of event. The idea is to build, test, build, test, build some more, and build some more. With each build, you gain experience, and with each test, you get information on how to improve.

If you have questions, feel free to ask on this forum, or PM me. I'll try to help if I can, but there are certainly much more accomplished and better builders on this forum: DarthBuilder, TheChiScientist, sciolyperson1, waffletree, just to name a few . Make sure you get advice from them, and once again welcome!

Two tips off the top of my head:
- Don't forget that holding max weight doesn't mean anything if you have a mega-heavy structure, because Boomilever is all about weight to load efficiency.
- Don't worry about looking stupid, because we were all noobs once. You shoulda seen my first few posts on scioly.org

Huh. So I'm a master builder now? Nice. Anyways just ask build questions when you get them and then just wait for us gods to respond. (Waffletree is a Demigod though... )

[xiangyu]

Just wondering, how many of you notch your wood during building? (In other words, create little dents in your members to create a better joint?) Does it actually help? It takes me so long to notch them so I want to make sure that it's actually worth it.

[MadCow2357]

Just wondering, how many of you notch your wood during building? (In other words, create little dents in your members to create a better joint?) Does it actually help? It takes me so long to notch them so I want to make sure that it's actually worth it.

I don't make notches for anything that is subject to buckling, or in other words, anything related to compression. I also avoid notching my main tension members. However, I do carve out small indentations in order to make the perfect "base sandwiches". I wouldn't recommend notching anything else, and boomilever takes enough time as it is.

[Tendan]

hey y'all, am kinda new in this area of the boomilevers, anybody has some useful advice?

To add to what MadCow said, don't be afraid to try something new, no matter how crazy it might seem, that could be where find you're greatest breakthrough. Also, if you go to an invitational, watch throughout the day to see what other teams are doing, and if you see something good, try it yourself. A few years ago, my first tower broke from the force of grabbing it, so don't worry about your first few builds, just learn from them and improve. Also, don't wait until a competition shows up, build and test over the course of the whole year. I can tell you from experience, building in the hotel is not fun.

In terms of building the boomilever:
- Try to make some sort of jig to build the boomilever on (do this when you are confident in your design and it won't change much)
- Use super glue to assemble the pieces. Bob-Smith Industries is probably the most common in use, just look for the blue bottle or purple bottle (blue is thinner and soaks into the wood better, but is harder to work with). I think there's a link somewhere in this thread.
- Make a sketch before you start building to be sure the design makes sense

If you come up with any other questions, feel free to ask.

[sciolyperson1]

Just wondering, how many of you notch your wood during building? (In other words, create little dents in your members to create a better joint?) Does it actually help? It takes me so long to notch them so I want to make sure that it's actually worth it.

I don't believe that is a common practice when building boomis, it damages the wood structure and gives no significant, if any gains as opposed to gluing a piece of wood right on the other.

[DarthBuilder]

im sure someone has answered this before but how significant is the strength between 1/16 x 1/16 and 1/32 x 1/16?