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Hi this is my first year in science Olympiad (or first semester since I started in December) and it's been really helpful to read all of the questions and answers here onthis forum. (So thanks!)
I have a few questions about finalizing my design. I've been testing with cereal box cardboard and now I'd like to put into basswood. Is there any way to steam it without special equipment?
Also are there any other ways to bend the wood?

Any details on steaming wood equipment and process would be great, thanks!

c0gentf0rce wrote:Hi this is my first year in science Olympiad (or first semester since I started in December) and it's been really helpful to read all of the questions and answers here onthis forum. (So thanks!)
I have a few questions about finalizing my design. I've been testing with cereal box cardboard and now I'd like to put into basswood. Is there any way to steam it without special equipment?
Also are there any other ways to bend the wood?

Any details on steaming wood equipment and process would be great, thanks!

Steaming isn't that complicated. After cutting the blade into the right shape, I find a cylinder like a pot, a glass, or a stovepipe, and use rubber bands to attach the blade to the cylinder so that it curves the way I want it. The steaming is just holding your blade over a pot of boiling water for about 10 minutes, and then letting it dry.

ichaelm wrote:

c0gentf0rce wrote:Hi this is my first year in science Olympiad (or first semester since I started in December) and it's been really helpful to read all of the questions and answers here onthis forum. (So thanks!)
I have a few questions about finalizing my design. I've been testing with cereal box cardboard and now I'd like to put into basswood. Is there any way to steam it without special equipment?
Also are there any other ways to bend the wood?

Any details on steaming wood equipment and process would be great, thanks!

Steaming isn't that complicated. After cutting the blade into the right shape, I find a cylinder like a pot, a glass, or a stovepipe, and use rubber bands to attach the blade to the cylinder so that it curves the way I want it. The steaming is just holding your blade over a pot of boiling water for about 10 minutes, and then letting it dry.

For 1/8" and 1/16" thickness balsa, soaking also works well. Takes longer, but you don't need a stove.

So I was able to hook up my testing device to get 6.6 ohms of resistance. My blade generated over 700 (I'm assuming millivolts because I am using a standard volt meter)

ichaelm wrote:

kv1296 wrote:Alright so I just want to make sure we're getting our scoring right. Based on what I could understand, with a low power of .29 volts and a high of .39, our total raw score for part 1 would be 47.24 wouldn't it?

Your low and high powers are not measured in volts. They are in watts. If somehow you got volts then you did the calculation wrong. You're using a resistor right?
However, if you were actually talking about your low and high speed voltages, and you used a resistance of 5 ohms, then yes, that would be your raw score for part 1. In watts.

It's not watts. It's milliwatts, isn't it? 47.24 milliwatts.

Primate wrote:

ichaelm wrote:

c0gentf0rce wrote:Hi this is my first year in science Olympiad (or first semester since I started in December) and it's been really helpful to read all of the questions and answers here onthis forum. (So thanks!)
I have a few questions about finalizing my design. I've been testing with cereal box cardboard and now I'd like to put into basswood. Is there any way to steam it without special equipment?
Also are there any other ways to bend the wood?

Any details on steaming wood equipment and process would be great, thanks!

Steaming isn't that complicated. After cutting the blade into the right shape, I find a cylinder like a pot, a glass, or a stovepipe, and use rubber bands to attach the blade to the cylinder so that it curves the way I want it. The steaming is just holding your blade over a pot of boiling water for about 10 minutes, and then letting it dry.

For 1/8" and 1/16" thickness balsa, soaking also works well. Takes longer, but you don't need a stove.

Thanks for the help. I ended up soaking the blades because steaming didn't work (the wood was 1/16" thick originally but I had sanded it so I thought I would try steaming first).

After lots of sanding, modifying the curve of the blade, and cutting the cd down my assembly ended up producing 140 mV less than my cardboard model . I guess I just need practice making it in balsa wood.

Has anyone been able to get a speed above 700mV with any type of wood? Ive only achieved that voltage with cardboard so far using a 6.8 ohm resistor.

Mr. Cool wrote:So I was able to hook up my testing device to get 6.6 ohms of resistance. My blade generated over 700 (I'm assuming millivolts because I am using a standard volt meter)

I was using a different more powerful box fan at someone else's house. Here are my official numbers from testing on my box fan at home.

High Power: 0.65 volts = 64.01 milliwatts

Low Power: 0.41 volts = 25.47 milliwatts

Total: 89.48 milliwatts

c0gentf0rce wrote:Thanks for the help. I ended up soaking the blades because steaming didn't work (the wood was 1/16" thick originally but I had sanded it so I thought I would try steaming first).

After lots of sanding, modifying the curve of the blade, and cutting the cd down my assembly ended up producing 140 mV less than my cardboard model . I guess I just need practice making it in balsa wood.

Has anyone been able to get a speed above 700mV with any type of wood? Ive only achieved that voltage with cardboard so far using a 6.8 ohm resistor.

Well the powers of box fans varies, so at someone's house I got over 700mV with a balsa fan and 6.6 ohms resistance. Although upon further testing at home I got 650mV, I'm assuming because the box fan I have is a little less powerful. Before adding resistance, the high was about 1.8 volts.

The first windmill we built was with PVC but it was too heavy. What should we use? Balsa or cardboard? We've heard positives about both materials and were just wondering which would be more suitable for maximum power generation.

opticswizard wrote:The first windmill we built was with PVC but it was too heavy. What should we use? Balsa or cardboard? We've heard positives about both materials and were just wondering which would be more suitable for maximum power generation.

They both vary depending upon your design, and your skills. I definitely would suggest to try both and see for yourself. Especially since both of them are pretty cheap materials.