World of Pageantry

Hello all. Excuse my weird inquiry, however, I am fairly new to instructing color guard, and there are some things I simply cannot find information on. My latest has me stumped...

What do people use to store and transport their ID Unit Shields?

When I was in high school, I vaguely remember we had some wort of slotted box on casters. Each shield fit into a slot.

I am going to be re-furbishing our letters, and I want to find a way to store them that is easy to use, and accessible. We have big, bulky, wooden boxes, lined with foam. They are cumbersome, and not very convenient for every day use and storage.

I would like something like a rack that they could be hung on, or something akin to the Flag and Rifle racks I have seen for sale online. I am even considering building something, but I am at a loss as to a design that isn't 8 feet wide, or 8 feet tall, etc.. I picture of something might help, but I haven't seen a single thing that would work.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Our shields magically fit on a bakers rack. It's great because it doesn't take up as much floor space as the old boxes. And it has wheels.

for the longest time atwater stored theirs in bulky boxes that were just cardboard... this wasn't good at all seems how they got smooshed in transport to hawaii the first year

after that a parent built a wooden box with shelves ... the shelves have padding and have a velvety lining to them so as not to scratch. the bottom box has whells and you can stack the two together or take them apart as needed.

Is there a good place in Northern CA to have shields made?

Thanks for the ideas everyone. I am looking at building a box (heavy and bulky) or something out of PVC pipe akin to a Clothes rack, with lined dividers so the shields can hang from hooks and not knock against each other. Lots of ideas formulating in my brain.

As to having shields made, I know of 2 places, but I think only one is in CA. Neither in Northern CA.

One is Peacock's Marching World

http://www.marchingworld.com/shields.htm

The other is Aztec Shields (In CA)

http://www.aztecshields.net

The Color Guard instructor at Lincoln High School in Stockton mentioned that they are having theirs made at Harbor Signs in Stockton, but the owners daughter is on the squad, so I am not sure if it is something they would consider doing for another school.

incidentally, a lot of the people I have spoken to recently are having Sign shops make their shields. I have been asking around, and looking at materials, and it seems that they can be made at a fairly low cost. My only concern is how they will hold up to the spinning and sharp movements.

I am considering making our own for next year. I found 7075 Aluminum (Aircraft Aluminum) sheets for about $25.00 each, which I would have cut to shape. I could then attach the bar and handles, and use a facing to hide the flush screws on the front. Injection molded letters are about $20.00 each, if you like the 3 dimensional look (otherwise they could be stenciled on). I would have to make one to see how it holds up and I am hoping it works. I could literally save my school a few thousand dollars and we could buy more pants.

atwater had theirs made out of the airplane metal you are speaking of.... we had a sign company make them and they were friends with the director. The letters came out okay... the guy who did them however sand blasted them to get the pain to adhear and well... it warped the sheilds.... also the letter itself was stuck with a plastic piece which seemed to break off of several if I remember correctly.... we even marched through several competitions with duct taped letters lol

tara8301 wrote:atwater had theirs made out of the airplane metal you are speaking of.... we had a sign company make them and they were friends with the director. The letters came out okay... the guy who did them however sand blasted them to get the pain to adhear and well... it warped the sheilds.... also the letter itself was stuck with a plastic piece which seemed to break off of several if I remember correctly.... we even marched through several competitions with duct taped letters lol

Oh my! Sounds like painting may not be the way to go if it is going to warp them. I did find some rather large rolls of metalized vinyl, self adhesive. I am going to be using it on our current shields (instead of painting) for a parade in April. I am hoping the adhesive is strong enough not to peel off in the weather.

Something I noticed on our current shields, which are made of that aircraft aluminum, is that there are support beams(?) welded on the horizontal and vertical planes of the shield so they won't warp (at least I am assuming as much). They haven't warped yet, but it's limiting some moves because they scrape the tops of your hand on occasion. I hope I can figure out a way to make a shield without those, but that doesn't warp. I am looking at smaller shields in any case, because several of my girls can literally hide behind the current ones

Sounds to me like it may be a trial and error thing. I'll probably end up making 50 shields before I find one that works.

I was actually a part of a small group that build the box that is used at the school I work with. Basically, we made a box out of plywood. The box is slightly taller than the sign and perhaps twice as wide. We used spay glue to hold a coat of dense foam to the inside of the box, then we glued a layer of lighter foam to the inside of the dense foam. This provides very good cushion. We screwed 6 small casters to the underside; it's a long box so there are 2 on each of the two ends and 2 more in the middle. The casters on each of the ends are able to swivel and the ones in the middle are fixed. We then screwed several handles to the outside of the box.