It takes one person about 6.5 hours to cut the following assortment of strips:

 2 36
 3 28
 4 24
 5  8
 6 27
 7  4
 8 32
10  9
12 11


This includes pulling the plastic coat of the foam board, laying out each cut, cutting the strips, and labeling each strip.

In a class of 11 students, with each team of 2-3 students making their own beams, about 40 strips were actually needed. The remaining 75% of the strips went unused. The dominant usage was of the little strips: 2, 3, and 4 units wide, and only a couple of the larger sizes were needed. However, because each class' usage will vary, we recommend having a large assortment available.

Remember, each beam must be 24 units in cross-sectional area, and on a given lamination, the smallest strip must be 2 units wide (for stability and ease of assembly).