G'day people Time to show me if Instructables lives up to its name I need to come up with a very easy and fast way to build a minituare truss (picture of truss attached). It basically consists of two aluminum face sheets, that sandwich a network of drinking straws. The drinking straws are arranged in such a way that they form little pyramids (take a look at the picture for it to be clearer). My issue is that I'm working with very tight dimensional restrictions. The 2nd picture shows the dimensions of the top and bottom face sheets. The drinking straws are 3mm in diameter. The edges of the "pyramids"  must form an angle of 30, 45 or 60 degrees with the horizontal plane. The current method I'm using to make these trusses takes about 5 - 6 hours.  I need something that could take less than an hour. Also, the straws are glued to the face sheets with a small glue gun, but this leaves a lot of "glue residue" around the straws. If you have any better ideas.... what say you?!! edit: I forgot to mention that money is not really much of an issue, so if you suggest I need some equipment or something of the sort that would be rather expensive, I will seriosuly consider it!

I'm doing a science fair prototype bridge but I don't know how many popsicles sticks to build a truss bridge

Need to design and build a log truss to span 25 ft using logs with 14inch buts 12in tips snow load for se minnasota with 8  12 pitch white pine logs thanks alot

 I'm trying to adjust the truss rod on an acoustic guitar, but the bolt isn't on the headstock, so it must be inside the guitar. But the only thing I feel on the inside of the guitar is a small hole the size of a small screw, please help.

Hi my name is leith and im introducing myself and my design . i am very motivated and really need to work if anyone is interested in a collaboration or another project please contact me . thanks

 I was in this other forum about the Mythbusters' "Archimedes' Death Ray" thing. Our discussion went off topic, so I made another topic! According to Google, a laser is a device that produces monochromatic, coherent beam of light. We have established the coherent part of it by focusing the Sun's energy on point which has a mirror so theoretically, that focused part of the beam should reflect off the mirror. Our design(s) is/are based on multiple parabolas (or Fresnel lenses) to collect and focus light. The light is in turn reflected off mirrors to be combined on a mirror (or lens) which will be used to aim the light to the target. Unfortunately, I forgot the "monochromatic" part of the laser, but that's not a problem. All we have to do is put filters on our parabolas. That should be a cool enough part to filter the light without melting the filter(s) itself / themselves. What would be an idiotic thing to do is put the filter right in front of the last mirror, because it would melt it (unless off course, that filter was a pane of glass).   Any suggestions/comments/design ideas please put them up here. If your idea is just downright stupid (sorry, I don't know what else to use (other than idiotic, or crazy, actually crazy's better than stupid (back to topic))). If it is stupid, I will not use offensive words against you (unless you were swearing on my face); you will, instead, be facing the following words: "Sorry, your (insert suggestion/comment/idea) is not feasible. Please try again". I know it's a bit funny; part of it is for your entertainment, part of it is for your knowing. Again, please post any suggestion, comment, or ideas. By the way, if it's only a bit stupid, you won't be needing to face the words... Have a nice day!

I'll lost the location of the excellant write up on physical robot chassis construction techniques. It included examples of making truss type chassis construction and the bolting (with slots) of flat planel of aluminum together to assemble a robot chassis.

How can we construct the truss structure and the hinges, mainly the hinges, using only the sticks, thin (1 mm cross section) cotton strings and glue? can u please suggest ideas for the design of the same?? We would also appreciate if you'd give us suggestions for the construction of the open-close mechanism, which incidentally, what a Bascule Bridge is all about!

My well-meaning parents bought me a half-size acoustic guitar as I was adding to my collection. Bad news is, it's useless. It not only has no adjustable truss rod but, as far as I can tell, no neck reinforcement whatsoever, so it's slowly turning itself into a slide guitar. The intonation is so far out that, despite all the useful guides, I despair of bringing it anywhere near something playable, even if I knew what key it was intended to be tuned to (it feels close at a G or an A, but it's still so far out it's crazy). Even if I could fix all of the above, the keys are so loose that three seconds of playing loosens the string anyway. Help! What can I use an unplayable guitar for? :D Should I strip it for parts? Should I turn that lovely sound box into a drum? Turn it into a table? I need inspiration! I'm the kinda gal whose favourite guitar was rescued from a sidewalk, so I don't want it to die; but despite its shape, it's not a guitar. :(

Soft LED display is our Patent product(Chinese National Patent), as is shown that the screen can be folded, curved and transformed, it can be applied any shape, like circle, arch, or even right-angle. Most importantly, it is light-weighted and easy installation, one square meter just weight about 5 kgs, and the whole system can be hung on the truss or on the building. And it can be expanded through connecting several pieces of soft LED display together to make a larger screen as you want. Through one and a half years developing, we make immense improvement and solve all important problem. We use the cloth processed specially, so it is waterproof completely, fire retardant and strong enough. (although the both sides is all waterproof, we sign it IP44, because we do not recommend our customer to use the screen in the open air all the time.) We develop this kind of product mainly applying to stage, TV studio, concert, night bar and disco hall. Attached a small video and some picture, please check it, through video and picture you can find the characteristic of our soft LED screen. We are eagerly hoping that we can cooperate with your distinguished coperation,and hope that our product can satisfy you with its light-weight, easy installation,foldability and flexibility, I think it is your best choice.Contact info: Fisher(sales manager) Beijing Huasun Optoelectronic Science Co., Ltd Add: Yongshun Town, Tongzhou District, Beijing, P.R.China Tel:+86 10 89512349 Fax: +86 10-89512339 mobile : 0086+13146411249 http://www.huasun-tech.com E-mail: sales@huasun-tech.com MSN:soft-led@live.cn skype: fisher201223

Dear Sir / Madam, Have a nice day. This is Kallen from China. I would like to take this Chance to introduce our soft LED display to you. Our Soft LED display have all the characteristics as the traditional, but we make improvement. It is our new patent product,and it have theUnique characteristic as below: 1)      It can be rolling ,curved, folded and transformed into different shape,   2)      Light weight and small volume, packed by flightcase, easy transportation.       3)      Hung on the truss, easy installation, which will save you much installation fee, which is very good for rental use.   4)    After connect with the computer, it can display anything that can display on the computer       Text, word file All picture（BMP/JPG/GIF/PCX...), All video（MPG/MPEG/MPV/MPA/AVI/VCD/DVD/SWF/RM/RA/RMJ/ASF/MOV...)   5) Waterproof, against fire, durable, against dirty and without extension, which can beapplied in outdoor and indoor;       6)      Easy maintainance, it is four LED in one module, if one broken just use a new one and remove the damage one. 7)      If you install a TV card in your computer, you can connect our LED curtain with a vidicon; Applying situation: outdoor and indoor character and image display, media advertising display, entertainment evening, stage background,exhibition and rental. If you have any questions about our soft LED display, please feel free to wirte to me.  With my best regards Yours sincerely, Kallen Beijing Huasun Optoelectronic Science Co., Ltd  Add：No 1093，luyuan south Street，Yongshun Town， Tongzhou District，Beijing，P.R.China Tel: + 86-10-89512339           Fax: + 86-10-89512339(ext 808) Mobile:13001976861 Skype: kallen1987    ICQ: 556662740       MSN:  huasun-tech@hotmail.com E-mail：kallen@huasun-tech.com Website：www.huasun-tech.com Video address: http://vimeo.com/4073254 Yahoo Messenger:kallenguo@yahoo.com     LED display soft LED display Stage video wall LED board LED sign LED lighting Soft LED Screen stage background lighting Entertainment lighting LED display manufacture Event lighting Concert lighting