Examples: Balsa/Basswood Bridges

2004 Science Olympiad Bridge

This bridge won the 2004 GA State Science Olympiad Bridge Building competition. It weighed 9.47 grams, spanned 35cm, and held 15kg without breaking. The efficiency score was 1584. This bridge…

Balsa and Basswood Arch Bridge

This is an older bridge I came across when browsing through my old Science Olympiad photos. I used both Balsa and Basswood to build this bridge. This bridge was part of my design process which ended up with my SO winning bridge in 2004

Balsa Stiffness

Advanced Technique: Calculating the stiffness of your wood, most commonly balsa wood. The tips in this article will help you go to the next level in choosing good wood for your model bridges. Not only will you know how to choose good wood, you can pick wood with different qualities to fit different applications.

Balsa Tower

Balsa wood tower with four sides and zig zag bracing

This balsa tower was 12 inches tall, 8 inches wide at the base, and tapered to a 2 inch square at the top. I only have about forty pounds of…

Balsa Wood

Balsa wood is unique from all other woods. Its properties make it valuable to bridge builders, wood carvers, surfers, and many others. Bridge builders have to be careful, however, when using Balsa. You can’t simply pick up two pieces of Balsa with the same dimensions and expect them to perform the same.

Balsa Wood Bridge Statics Project

I like this video because it is very systematic and well documented. The video shows a Balsa wood bridge built for a statics project. The bridge ended up with an efficiency score of 514.

Balsa Wood K Truss Bridge

Here is a bridge using the K truss design made from Balsa wood. This bridges uses a combination of end and lap joints. You can see that where the slanted…

Bates Tech Balsa Wood Bridge Competition 2011

Here are the video results from the Bates Tech Balsa Wood Bridge Competition 2011. This simple video footage of the competition makes for a good learning opportunity. This video includes a variety of designs that are interesting to observe if you are looking to build a balsa wood bridge.

Bending Wood

I have developed a system for bending wood for my arch bridges, and though I do not claim it is the best way, it works well. It does require some…

Booth’s Bridge

Yes, this is one of the coolest bridges I have ever seen. Built by J.C. Booth Middle for the Science Olympiad Georgia State Finals in 2003, it placed 3rd. For…

Chamblee’s Bridge

Chamblee has always done well in Bridge Building. In 2001, they won the State finals in this event. This bridge is from the 2003 GA State Tournament, the same tournament…

Concept Alpha Bridge

I was never able to fully develop and use this bridge. I got this idea from talking with a Science Olympiad coach in Ohio. Now I wish I had gone…

Cutting Strips of Balsa

There are several reasons you should cut your own strips of wood: Video Tutorial Video is about 4 minutes long. I am not responsible for any injury caused by someone…

Dombiggers 1st bridge

A very nice looking Balsa wood bridge sent in from one of my readers. This bridge uses gussets and pin joints and spans 18 inches.

Fernbank Project: Strongest Bridge Design

I built this bridge for the 2005 Fernbank Science Center bridge design event. The bridge spanned 16 inches, weighed 37 grams, and held 346 pounds. That puts its efficiency over 4200! One commenter said, “So if this bridge weighed one pound, it could have held up my car.”

First Timer’s First Bridge Design

Hello everybody my name is First Timer and I had to make a balsa wood bridge with theses specs: 40.5 cm long, 11-12 cm wide 13-25 cm high, must have a span of 26 cm, peek of the span must be at least 9 cm, and this bridge could weigh no more than 16 grams

First Timer’s Second Bridge Design!

Hey guys it’s me again, First Timer. Taking the critiques you guys gave, I rebuilt the bridge. This was going to a county Science Fair which I think is pretty cool considering I started learning about bridges about 2 months ago. The specs of the bridge are

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