Better to be safe than sorry, but looking at the photo, what are you planning to put on these bracing shelves ? ? 1000 lb. locomotives or are you planning to actually walk along on top once the track is laid, I would think this may be a case of over-building by a factor 0f 400.
Reread my post, please.
I said equilateral - ie. 60, 60, 60. You seem to have mislaid half of it.
Chuck
Now I bet u guys wished you stayed awake in those math and physics classes!!
I like the taller brace, but I suspect if you were to tap that benchwork anywhere, it would ripple and flex like a weighty Christmas ribbon. It needs a diagonal brace in the plane of the vertical upright members, and another in the horizontal plane coincident with at least one of the layout decks. Rigid decking would fit the latter bill, or an alternative would be diagonal bracing under the deck structure.
Okay, my apologies, I stand corrected, you did say an equilateral triangle. But just what is it the strongest for? If you are trying to support a vertical member how are you going to use it?
In every application you have to decide what you are trying to do, how rigid do you need it, how tall, wide, thick can it be, what’s the material, et al. Unfortunately this bulletin board is hardly the place for going into detailed truss design.
Are you wanting “the strongest” bracing, or a strong structure? That might be two different things. I am not real fond of this whatever design, “if” it is supposed to be freestanding. I think the angled braces would be a lot stronger if they ran from under the outer edge of the ‘shelf’ to the back of the foot, catching the vertical member on the way, because you are going to have a heck of a bending moment on that vertical span of what looks like 2" by 2". Also, there ought to be angled braces from the toe of one footer where a brace ties in to the next one. Or, I would fasten it to the floor.
If it is going to be tied to a wall at either the front or back it ought to be fine as is.