About 2 months ago a competition email was sent around Golder, this is it:
Drew (A work colleague) came to me and asked if i’d be interested in taking part, well bearing in mind that the final outcome was going to consist of destruction, I was in!
Drew went and bought a couple of packets of Popsicle sticks, for a dollar each from a dollar store, we started staying late after work and making a mess in one of the free cubicles here in the office.
I traveled to Mississauga for a week during our build, nothing stopped, I just made a mess in the Golder house there instead!
We worked for about 20 hours each we thing on this project. during this time we made a hell of a mess, which even is still at work..
Pictures – To Be Added
At work we have what is called a UCS (Unconfined Compressive Strength) test machine, it is a machine for testing the strength of concrete cylinder (have a read here if you’re that interested), it is capable of applying 45KN, which is a enough, 4.5 tons similar a few cars bearing down on the subject. Our popsicle stick test pieces didn’t stand a chance. Though I did guess at a figure of 3KN breaking force, and check out the results.
We finally got it built and went for the competition, we were envisaging the frame breaking at about 600lbs. The dowel broke at only 275lbs, very very disappointing. Drew got a better dowel, now an inch in diameter and of better wood, we also spent another few hours repairing damage caused by the dowel breaking the legs a little in two places. We returned to the university where the competition is held last week on the 19th April and had a re-try:
This time we reached 737lbs, far better! But still we want to see the frame smashed. One of the guys there had what is called an ironwood dowel, this ironwood is not as I hoped, a tree is made from iron, it is just wood which is strong. In actual fact it even a particular wood, it’s just a name for a number of very hard woods.. Link here to wikipeeeedia
We are going to repair the damage once again caused by the dowel breaking, when we get the dowel we’ll fit and return once again to see if we can smash the headframe good and proper!
In other news:
We are off to a maple syrup festival tomorrow! It is just south of North Bay, about a two and half hour drive away.
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