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I was just being curious but I was wondering why most teams just don't laser cut their Boomilever, or if anyone ever tried and it just doesn't work for any reason, since you can keep the same consistency with a Boomilever (with the exception of exact grain of wood) Thanks for you thoughts!

MoMoney$$$;)0) wrote: ↑February 18th, 2020, 4:17 pm I was just being curious but I was wondering why most teams just don't laser cut their Boomilever, or if anyone ever tried and it just doesn't work for any reason, since you can keep the same consistency with a Boomilever (with the exception of exact grain of wood) Thanks for you thoughts!

Although the cuts would be precise, there is no way to overcome the issue of direction of the grains. The grains need to run parallel with the cut of the wood- it won't hold much if they do not.

Basically, it won't work (we tried with a face of "Towers" when it was an event).

MoMoney$$$;)0) wrote: ↑February 18th, 2020, 4:17 pm I was just being curious but I was wondering why most teams just don't laser cut their Boomilever, or if anyone ever tried and it just doesn't work for any reason, since you can keep the same consistency with a Boomilever (with the exception of exact grain of wood) Thanks for you thoughts!

I've seen a few teams try this, but I have never seen anyone be successful with this. They usually will split down the middle due to grain direction. The most I have seen any carry is in the 5 kg range.

JonB wrote: ↑February 18th, 2020, 5:33 pm

MoMoney$$$;)0) wrote: ↑February 18th, 2020, 4:17 pm I was just being curious but I was wondering why most teams just don't laser cut their Boomilever, or if anyone ever tried and it just doesn't work for any reason, since you can keep the same consistency with a Boomilever (with the exception of exact grain of wood) Thanks for you thoughts!

Although the cuts would be precise, there is no way to overcome the issue of direction of the grains. The grains need to run parallel with the cut of the wood- it won't hold much if they do not.

Basically, it won't work (we tried with a face of "Towers" when it was an event).

Can you please explain us what do you mean by grains need to run parallel with the cut of wood?

If you imagine a sheet of balsa as a bunch of fibers running parallel to each other and you cut a thin slice across these fibers that thin piece will have as many fibers as the main board, except they will be very short. This is cutting 'against the grain' and will result in a thin slice that will not be able to support much load because it's structure will be provided more by the material between the fibers and not by the fibers themselves. On the other hand, if you cut a long thin slice between the fibers, your pieces will only have a couple of them, but the structure will be provided by their superior strength. Thus you would always want a stick in your boomi to run parallel to the fibers/grain because the structural support they provide is vastly superior to a stick that was cut at an angle to the grain. If you were to laser cut the base of the boomi, most of not ask the lines will be running at some angle to the grains/fibers, greatly reducing strength when compared to a conventionally built boomi.

Also, to clarify my earlier statements, our team does incorporate some laser cut pieces. However, they are all just pieces of the whole that are then hand assembled. There are many pieces on the structure that are completely hand cut.