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SONinjaGuy wrote:Anyone have tips for making a square-base tower jig. Last year, I wasn't the senior tower builder so it didn't matter if I was good or not, but now I am and I don't want to be making towers without a jig anymore, as they are never very successful.

Did you go back and read that post from last year that jma referred to a couple of posts ago?
It's described in the context of a 3-leg tower, but applicable to a 4-legger. There are lots of ways to approach.
The.....very, very basics, in terms of "tips"?
Read back through this year's posts and last year's. That will bring your level of understanding WAY up.

You're locating 4 legs in 3-D space.
You need to dimensionally define where you need the ends of the legs to be-for lower/base portion, and for upper chimney portion.
You need those dimensions, pretty darn precisely, from the theoretical, vertical centerline of the tower
You need to build something solid that holds the legs in your "design configuration". That probably means 2 jigs- une for the upper/one for the lower
It needs to be strong enough to hold the legs so they can't move while you attach your bracing between the legs.
You need to be able to lift the tower (or section) off the jig when you've added the bracing (i.e., not glue the tower to the jig while you're glueing bracing to the legs)
The more precisely you can build the jig, so the legs are positioned symmetrically around the centerline, the better you will do.

Balsa Man wrote:

SONinjaGuy wrote:Anyone have tips for making a square-base tower jig. Last year, I wasn't the senior tower builder so it didn't matter if I was good or not, but now I am and I don't want to be making towers without a jig anymore, as they are never very successful.

Did you go back and read that post from last year that jma referred to a couple of posts ago?
It's described in the context of a 3-leg tower, but applicable to a 4-legger. There are lots of ways to approach.
The.....very, very basics, in terms of "tips"?
Read back through this year's posts and last year's. That will bring your level of understanding WAY up.

I'm sorry, I had not yet read that post, thank you for pointing it out, as it was very helpful and gave me an idea for how to build it. I am very sorry if I wasted any of your time.

Hi guys, I'm not sure if the test base's hole is going to be a square hole with board surrounding it or if it's going to be just two tables with a 20.0 gap with no sides... Without this info, it's nearly impossible to start the tower, because I don't know whether to make the base a rectangle or to make it a square with 17 cm. long sides

Do you think an optimal height of a tower is about 55-65? Thats what my partner and I think.

silverheart7 wrote:Do you think an optimal height of a tower is about 55-65? Thats what my partner and I think.

I don't think so. What is the reasoning behind your assertion?

Kdacks wrote:Hi guys, I'm not sure if the test base's hole is going to be a square hole with board surrounding it or if it's going to be just two tables with a 20.0 gap with no sides... Without this info, it's nearly impossible to start the tower, because I don't know whether to make the base a rectangle or to make it a square with 17 cm. long sides

It is going to be a square hole with board surrounding it.

Thanks, that will definitely change how to build the tower

SLM wrote:

Kdacks wrote:Hi guys, I'm not sure if the test base's hole is going to be a square hole with board surrounding it or if it's going to be just two tables with a 20.0 gap with no sides... Without this info, it's nearly impossible to start the tower, because I don't know whether to make the base a rectangle or to make it a square with 17 cm. long sides

It is going to be a square hole with board surrounding it.

SONinjaGuy wrote: I'm sorry, I had not yet read that post, thank you for pointing it out, as it was very helpful and gave me an idea for how to build it. I am very sorry if I wasted any of your time.

No prob at all- glad it was helpful

SLM wrote:

silverheart7 wrote:Do you think an optimal height of a tower is about 55-65? Thats what my partner and I think.

I don't think so. What is the reasoning behind your assertion?

Our idea is that we want the height bonus for our tower, but we feel that if we build it too tall, we might run into a balence or structural problem. Are we wrong? We'll test our first tower which is like 40 cm tall on Tuesday. I admit how short it is is my fault!

silverheart7 wrote:

SLM wrote:

silverheart7 wrote:Do you think an optimal height of a tower is about 55-65? Thats what my partner and I think.

I don't think so. What is the reasoning behind your assertion?

Our idea is that we want the height bonus for our tower, but we feel that if we build it too tall, we might run into a balence or structural problem. Are we wrong? We'll test our first tower which is like 40 cm tall on Tuesday. I admit how short it is is my fault!

well it simply depends on your particular design. If your current idea doesn't work with that height, by all means go lower. But by the end, at least my goal, is a 70 cm tower
(currently at 65 cm, 70 is a work in progress)