Plastic Shield Cores

Orrin said someone on here was wondering about high density plastic for shields, like I use for Dreadwood company shields. So you know what and how I do it...


I make the shields out of 1/8" High density plastic. The 1/8" alone will taco, but we use 2 strips of 3/8" high density plastic 2" wide vertically bolted to our shields and it almost completely stops the flex. These strips are about 80% the height of the shield. I have never needed to put horizontal bracing as well.

These plastics come on 4x8' sheets. I bought some 1/8" today for $43.13.


I have locations for you guys to, there is one near you. The address and number is;


N KANSAS CITY, MO 64116
1500 BURLINGTON
816-471-6390
800-444-6390
816-221-5822 fax

Here is the website.

http://www.regalplastic.com

This plastic is relatively cheap and near indestructible. Water proof and just flexible enough not to break.

Starting chapter and college student here. We'll stick with our sleds....


*Cries* I want shield.

We're actually going dumpster diving here on the university for plywood.

Plywood is a god standard. Tub lids can also work really well for cheap, and for bucklers, lids from plastic pickle barrels and the like work gread.

We just found a plastic box thing/shelf that would make a great tower shield. Fantastic find considering the trash companies just picked up university trash. It's great. Dumpster diving at 1AM.

seriously, pool your cash, do you realize how many medium shields can be made with 4ft by 8ft of this stuff? I just bought one.. or rather paid eldrin to by it... for down here. I will have me one awesome shield come Gates!

4 people 12bucks a peice, not bad at all.

Tha'ts not a terrible price, however for poor college student it can still be a bit much.

Yeah, especially for those people who don't care for shields. At least not big ones.

$43 is two weeks budget for me. Only $20 is allocated for Dagorhir each week, otherwise I don't get laundry and essentials like that done.

However, we went to Wal-Mart last night on a material run. We found these hard plastic sleds. We took a night to make a shield out of one and it worked great! $4.00 plastic sled shields. Mmm.

Would the improvement be worth the money for buying some of this plastic Eldrin or should we just stick to the plastic sleds for now?

well if it works keep it. personally, i love my plywood tower shield, but then again i did get the wood for free, and it took about three rolls of foam to cover

Octavious wrote:

Would the improvement be worth the money for buying some of this plastic Eldrin or should we just stick to the plastic sleds for now?

Well, it really depends on you. I have a sled shield that has lasted really well and I'll vouch for the strength and efficacy of sled shields.

Why use HD plastic?? Well, all I can say is that sleds only really come in some basic sizes and shapes. If you want a special shield design(Like our Dreadwood Company Shields) or you want a shield that is of larger size, I would advise trying to use HD plastic from regal. Whatever works though.

Though, you need to make your shield out of 1/8" plastic and reinforce it with 3/8" 1" strips. Doing this can get a little bit more expensive(especially if they don't have scraps you can buy like here in Joplin), but you should never have to replace your shield core.

Anyways, any more questions? Did I miss someones? I have worked with this plastic quite a bit so I know its properties pretty well and I'm willing to give any advice on it!

Sadly, I cut my current shield out so long ago I did it with a chainsaw.... But I'm building a new one!

Octavious, would you mind e-mailing me? My e-mail is,

Timmy_page44@yahoo.com

Sometimes I have scrap plastic and materials that a college budgeted person might be interested in. Perhaps not, but I like to trade goods and services and generally help other Dag fighters. Shoot me and e-mail!

Yeah, I posted about this on the main boards with some results. But I'm glad you know where to get it Eldrin! Otherwise I'd be in a pickle (literally). I've worked with the stuff before and absolutely loved it, but it was curved (pickle barrel) and I'm more into the non-curved shields.

Thanks a ton for the info! I shall definitely be getting some of this when I go back up to KC. ^.^

Yeah, Orrin said you posted it on the boards, but he didn't say the national ones! So I came here a looked around for you thread and I was like, WTF!!!

So I just posted this. I don't even hardly look at the national boards most times, they annoy me more than anything.

My bad... but you figured it out.

Eldrin wrote:

So I just posted this. I don't even hardly look at the national boards most times, they annoy me more than anything.

I rarely, rarely get on them myself. Seems like too many people have bad attitudes on there, and I'm not sure why. ;.;

Me either! Oh well, they are useful for some things and I have learned a lot of things off of them, so I can't complain to much, really.

What are peoples ideas on rubber maid tub lids and the like?

Eh, they work. But they're still kinda awkward compared your regular plywood shield or HDPE shield.

Well, I sorta agree with Iohn, except that, I am brutal to every piece of equipment I own. I make everything super durable. I smash those lids in half as quick as vulcan's temper, I do.

This plastic is uber tough. I even had some trouble with plywood because it would weaken when it got wet and it would crack over time. I think the use life of HD plastic is much longer than many other mats for shield cores. And, even if a person thinks it is light and cheesy, they can get as thick and heavy as they want, even heavier than plywood with less thickness!

Anyways, tub lids are pretty good for bucklers though!

yeah, I like tub lids for bucklers or punch shields (I've had the same punch for 4 years with no repairs needed) But for straps yeah, they can be flimsy, though if you can find a thicker one you're good.

Sounds good. Lots of different combinations. Thanks Eldrin for answering my question, I also sent out an e-mail to you regarding the materials.