Cross bracing in a Balsa Tower..

[Turtle]

Well.. I'm back after, um, 3 weeks.

 

Right now my plan is to have a 4-legged (three is too hard for me :( ) tower with cross bracings that lie on the same plane, connected together with cross halved joints instead of bending the balsa around (finally countered it :) )

 

Now I'm taking on a new challenge.. I'm not sure what they're called, but for now I'll call them internal bracings for now. They're basically braces inside the tower, stretching from one bottom corner inside the structure, to the top corner diagonally opposite to it. And for obvious reasons, I can only have two of them. For a better idea I've got pictures (yay).

 

But of course, I'm wondering if this is actually useful for the structure. Can anybody help with this?

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

Nice work on the joinery selection! :) :)

On the bracing as in your new diagram, I fear that 2 diagonal braces is not enough and that you need all 4 possible diagonals braced. As you have it, the tower is only strengthened along one axis of the base but weak on the axis 90º to the braced one.

 

To get around the crossing problem with 4, maybe try a hub of some kind and make each diagonal of 2 pieces? Possibly a small styrofoam ball or wooden bead with shallow holes drilled to receive the braces?

 

Thanks for the update and good luck.