Mini Truss Testers

Updated: 1/26/26

While teaching Engineering Mechanics (Statics and Strength of Materials) and collaborating with a colleague in the Welding program, I developed a set of compact “mini-truss” testers for hands-on truss design, analysis, and optimization.

These testers give students a tactile way to explore how member layout and material distribution affect stiffness and failure behavior. By iterating on truss geometry and observing the response under load, students connect the math to real structure behavior instead of treating trusses as a purely paper exercise.

Individual trusses are so small that they can be printed in a matter of a few minutes each on even introductory-level 3D printers like the Bambu A1 Mini.