5/27/2018 Ask MAKE: How do trusses work?

Ask MAKE: How do trusses work?

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Ask MAKE is a weekly column where

we answer reader questions, like
yours. Write them in to mattm@makezine.comor drop us a line on Twitter.
We can’t wait to tackle your conundrums!

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5/27/2018 Ask MAKE: How do trusses work?

Barbara writes:

As a female who LOVES browsing the make.com materials, and who is

courageous but sometimes missing some of the physics, I would love a
basic (but thorough) explanation about the physics of trusses and how
they distribute the load of the roof.

Great question! We were actually wondering this as well,

so we turned to an expert to get some help. Here is what
Dr. Drang (one of our readers) had to say in response:

Trusses, like all structures, are devices for transferring

loads from where you don’t want them to where you do. A
roof truss takes the weight of the roof–and the snow on the roof if you live in
that kind of climate–and transfers it out into the load-bearing walls of your
house. A bridge truss takes the weight of the cars and trucks passing over it
and transfers it to the piers. What makes a truss different from other
structures–rafters, say, for a roof, or arches for a bridge–is the clever and
e cient way it carries the load. Trusses tend to be very lightweight because
they take advantage of geometry and the laws of statics. Let’s look at each
of these…

Geometry
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Imagine you have a set of at sticks, like popsicle sticks or tongue

depressors, and you drill holes at the ends of every stick so you can connect
them with little bolts. If you connect three sticks together in a triangle, you
get a structure that stays rigid even if you don’t tighten the bolts much.

If, on the other hand, you make a square with four sticks, it will be almost
impossible to keep the structure from turning into a rhombus when you push
on it, no matter how much tightening you do.

Unlike the triangle, the rigidity of this structure depends on the rigidity of the
connections. To really keep a square rigid, you need to add a diagonal brace
to create two triangles within the square.

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This inherent rigidity of triangles is a geometric property. The triangle is the

only polygon whose internal angles–and, therefore, shape–are uniquely
de ned by the lengths of its sides. There’s nothing like the side-side-side
congruence postulate or the law of cosines for higher order polygons.

So if you want to make a structure that’s rigid regardless of the rigidity of its
connections, you start with a triangle and build onto it by adding sticks to
make more triangles. That, in a nutshell, is a truss.

Laws of statics
An ideal truss is like our assembly of popsicle sticks: a set of straight
members or elements, pinned together at their ends, with forces applied only
at the joints. (We’ll get to the relation between real trusses and ideal ones in a
bit.) Under these conditions, each member in a truss is loaded only at its
ends. Some of the loads may be coming from the externally applied forces,
and others will be coming from the members to which it’s connected, but
whatever their source, the loads are acting exclusively at the ends.

Applying the equations of statics, we can show that if a body is loaded at

two points only, the resultant forces at those points

1. are equal in magnitude;

2. are opposite in direction; and
3. act along the line between the two points.

For our truss members, this means that forces on the members are axial
(that is, they act along the axis of the member), putting them in either pure
tension or pure compression.

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In trusses loaded by downward forces, the members along the top (the “top
chord”) are in compression and the members along the bottom (the “bottom
chord”) are in tension. The members connecting the top and bottom chords
(the “web members”) may be tension or compression, depending on their
angles and the distribution of the loads.

The forces in the members can be calculated in several ways. The traditional
“by hand” methods are the method of joints and the method of sections. For
truss analysis via computer, the nite element method is the standard
technique.

E ciency
The fact that the forces on each truss member are axial is the key to a truss’s
e ciency. In an axially-loaded member, the force is carried equally by every
part of the member–no part is wasted.

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Contrast this to a beam. When you load a beam at the center, the stresses
are much higher there than anywhere else. The material away from the center
just isn’t doing as much work, lowering the e ciency of the structure.

You have, by the way, an instinctive understanding of this. If someone hands

you a pencil and asks you to break it, you put your thumbs against the center
and bend it. You’d never consider grabbing the two ends and pulling or
pushing. You couldn’t even break a toothpick that way.

By sizing the members of a truss just right, you can tune it to carry huge
loads while using very little material. This is how people win balsa wood
bridge competitions. Real-world trusses can’t be optimized the way a balsa
wood bridge can, because real-world trusses have to carry many different
combinations of load, and a truss optimized for one set of loads won’t be
optimal for another set. Still, even when they can’t be fully optimized, trusses
are usually much lighter than alternative structures.

Theory and reality

Speaking of real-world trusses, remember how we de ned our ideal truss?
Straight members, pinned connections at either end, and loaded only at the
joints. Only the rst of those conditions is met in a real roof truss. The top
and bottom chord members are often continuous though the joints, and the
web members are connected through connector plates, not pins.

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Furthermore, the top chord is loaded by the roof sheathing along its entire
length, not just at the joints.

These deviations from the ideal do, in fact, generate additional stresses by
imposing bending loads on the truss members. Fortunately, these additional
stresses–structural engineers call them “secondary stresses”–don’t alter the
truss’s behavior much and can be ignored in most cases. In trusses, the
difference between theory and practice is small.

Uses
So if trusses are strong and stiff and e cient, why aren’t they used for every
roof? Three reasons come to mind immediately:

1. They take up space in your attic. Although the total volume of lumber
used by roof trusses is less than the total volume used by a set of rafters

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and ceiling joists, the web members of the truss cut the attic up and make
it less usable.
2. They’re harder to adapt to some roof plans. If your roof has lots of valleys
and hips, it’s easier to frame with rafters than with trusses.
3. They require extra equipment to put in place. A truss has to be pre-
assembled and then lifted as a complete unit up onto the framing. This is
no big deal if you’re building an entire subdivision and can hire a crane to
do several houses a day. But if you’re just doing a single house, the cost of
renting a crane can be prohibitive. Rafters can be put in place by a small
crew of framing carpenters.

But trusses are used in lots of roofs, both in residential and commercial
construction. Warehouses and warehouse-style stores are almost always use
steel trusses because they’re the cheapest way to hold up big, open
expanses of roof. Next time you’re in a Costco or Sam’s Club, take a look up.

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By Matt Mets

June 10, 2010, 8:03 am PDT

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Weekend Watch: The Maker

Monster Invades YouTube

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We try to cover up and coming video makers with the Weekend Watch
column, but we’ve never covered anyone as new to the game as The Maker
Monster. This beastly builder only has one video to date, posted only ten
days ago, but it has already gotten over 5,000 views. He’s also already signed
up over 600 subscribers to his nascent channel. Apparently, being a monster
who’s also a maker carries a certain appeal.

How to make a lamp out of bread

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In The Maker Monster’s rst video, he

turns a baguette into a kitchen mood More Maker Monsters to
Watch:
light. No, seriously. How long do you
Weekend Watch: The
think it’ll be before someone slices Clever, Crazy World of
into this loaf while the light is not on? Maker Graz
I don’t think I would want to face a Weekend Watch: Explore
Maker Monster after I’d tried to eat the Miniature World of
Landvaettr's Lair
his attention-getting rst project.
Weekend Watch: Blitz City
DIY

By Gareth Branwyn
 @garethb2

11 hours ago

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Tips of the Week: Captain

Obvious Edition

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Tips of the Week is our weekly peek at some of the best making tips, tricks,
and recommendations we’ve discovered in our travels. Check in every Friday
to see what we’ve discovered. And we want to hear from you. Please share
your tips, shortcuts, best practices, and tall shop tales in the comments
below and we might use your tip in a future column.
***
In my forthcoming book, Tips and Tales from the Workshop, I recount a
conversation with toy inventor Bob Knetzger at Maker Faire Bay Area last
year where I asked him for some tip suggestions. His response was: “Close
your eyes when you’re blowing sawdust out of a hole.” This is the kind of
safety reminder that may seem painfully obvious on its face, but it’s also
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worth being reminded of such things from time to time. I spend a lot of time
trying to collect those glittering gems of “ah-ha!” tips, it’s nice to not neglect a
few of the “duh-ha!” tips, too. I asked my Facebook friends to share some of
their best Captain Obvious tips. Here are some of my faves. You can read the
entire thread here.

No Machining Alone. -Lenore Edman

Change your sanding pad twice as often as you think you should. -Kaden
Harris
Never try and catch a falling tool. -Barry Devenney
Always exercise caution, as if the circuit is live, even if you’re sure it isn’t. -
Andrew Lewis, Jon Singer
Motors are stronger than muscle. If a tool starts to pull away, let it go, and
hit the stop button. – Andrew Lewis
If you’re cutting more than 3, make a jig. -Andrew Lewis
You need more light! -Andrew Lewis
Don’t use your damn teeth! -Robin Moore
Close your mouth when you’re working on something above your head. -
Rafe Needleman
You need more clamps – Lenore Edman
If you’re using a roll of tape, cut a few pieces off and stick them to the
edge of the table. Otherwise, it’s impossible to tear off a piece of tape
while holding your project with both hands. -Bob Parks
Sharpen. -Michael Colombo
Never put your nose over an open bottle to smell the contents of it. wave
your hand over it to blow a bit to your nose and smell the vapors. -Miguel
Valenzuela

Pre-Order My Tips Book!

My latest book, Tips and Tales from the Workshop, will be released by the
rst of next month. You can pre-order it on Amazon. Here are a few of the
early reactions: “Gareth Branwyn is the Tip Master,” Kevin Kelly, Cool Tools.
“Gareth has essentially created a magic book for makers,” Donald Bell, Maker
Project Labs. “It’s “ah-ha” moment overload!,” Becky Stern, Instructables.

By Gareth Branwyn
 @garethb2

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May 25, 2018, 2:54 pm PDT

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