Big Cardboard Expandable Shield

Hello! In today's Instructables I am going to teach you how to make an expandable cardboard shield. This is not automatic and is made up of stuff that is really easy to find around the house. The shield will be about 24 inches in diameter or 60.96 centimeters. It is roughly large in size and the size can be changed based on how you want it. But in this Instructable we are making a 24-inch size.

Also, I will be using inches and feet throughout this Instructable but feel free to translate it to centimeters and millimeters if you wish. Also please make sure to give me feedback on mg Instructables. This is my first one so I am a little nervous! So without further ado let's get started!!

So for this Instructable, you are going to need:

1. Hot glue gun + hot glue sticks
2. Cardboard - the size depends on how big you're making the shield
3. String
4. Skewer
5. Pencil
6. Scissors/ Box Cutter
7. Paints/spray paint (Optional)
8. Marker
9. Ruler
10. Tape
11. Velcro/command strip (not pictured)

So we want to cut a 24 -inch circle so we need a 12 - inch radius. This is where we need to grab our string, scissors, marker, ruler, cardboard, and pencil.

Now line your string up against the ruler (like the picture shows) with a little bit of string after the 12 inch mark and then mark the 12 inch line with a marker and cut an inch or so after the 12 inch mark. Then you can tie or tape your mechanical pencil to the string but ONLY UP TO THE TWELVE INCH MARK!!! If you place it before the 12 - inch mark then your shield will not be 24 - inches in diameter. I had to try a couple of times to get it right but eventually I got it.

After you cut the string and attach it to your pencil, tape the string down in the center of the cardboard. Next, extend your string outward and draw a circle. By doing this it helps give us a nice even circle so we can cut it into equal pieces later.

You might have to go around a couple of times to get the right shape but that is ok just make sure you have a clear mark on where to cut.

First, we need to remove our tape from the center of the circle. Next, we take our box cutter and we CAREFULLY cut our circle out. If you don't have a box cutter scissors will work but I prefer to use a box cutter because it hurts my hands less. The circle should be fairly large and we want to edges to be as round as possible. If you make a mistake it is OK, just start again from Step 1.

Now you can continue on and paint the shield in Step 3 or you can not paint it and skip down to Step 4 and start dividing up the circle. I am choosing to paint mine so my process on dividing and cutting will be a bit different than if you choose not to paint it but it will still be pretty similar.

So the reason I am painting the shield now is so that all the pieces fit together and it looks nice. I was contemplating what colors to do for a while and I finally settled on a silver shield. I used spray paint and just did a solid silver but you guys could also acrylic paint it too or do something else. The end result turned out really sharp I thought and will look even better when we go through and add a bunch of details at the end.

These are the colors I used but feel free to use other colors too. This could be a Captain America shield, a Batman shield, Percy Jackson, or Iron Man, the point is that it is not just one thing.

So I could not really think of a good name for this step but basically, we are going to now be cutting and dividing the circle into eighths so we can make it foldable. So for this step, you are going to need a straight edge ( e.i, a ruler, yardstick, book, piece of wood, etc,) a pencil (I used a black marker so it showed up better in the photos), and a pair of scissors or a box cutter.

If you chose to spray paint your circle (like I did) then do this next step on the side that is not spraypainted, (the side that is just plain cardboard) and for those of us who did not spray paint it then you can do it on whatever side you want.

Now we are going to draw a line (with or pencil) cutting our circle in half, and then in half again, (it should be divided into fourths.)

Then we need to split our fourths in half. So now we are going to do this is turn our shield so that instead of going up and down the lines are going diagonal and form an X. (look at the pictures if you need a little help) then we need to draw a straight line down the middle of our fourths. We need to do this to both of our fourths. When you are done drawing your shield should look like this. (look at the pictures.)

Then we are just going to cut along all of our pencil lines so that our circle is now a bunch of what looks like slices of pie. Next, we are going to start actually assembling it.

So now we need scissors, the hot glue gun, a pencil, a skewer, and the pieces that we just cut up. So now we need to stack all of the pieces that we just cut up into a tower. All of the pieces should be facing the same way. It is ok if they are not all the same size. Mine are not perfect either so it’s fine

First, we need to plug in our hot glue gun. So all of the pieces need to be facing (brown side if you spraypainted) up. Next, we need to get our pencil/marker and mark a dot near the tip of the first piece. Look at the photos first so you can see where it needs to go.

Then we need to get our pencil and our skewer and using those two items we need to try and poke a hole through that dot. If it succeeds stick your skewer hrough the hole. Then repeat this process on all the other pieces of cardboard. When your done check the pictures to make sure you did it right.

Next, let's cut out a 6-inch circle and a 4-inch circle. Then hot glue them together. Next, apply hot glue to the bottom of the 6-inch circle and slide it on the skewer (yes we are supposed to poke a hole in them as we slide it on but if it didn’t work you can poke one in them prior to hot gluing.) We want to hot glue this to the spray-painted side.

Next, we need cardboard, scissors, and our hot glue gun.

Now we need to grab a long strip of cardboard, like a flap off of an amazon box or a target box or something. Then from the length of our elbow to the length of our hand closed into a fist (look at pictures to see what I mean) then we need to grab some more cardboard and cut 2 long strips that we can comfortably slide our arm in and out of while still maintaining a solid grip.

We can also roll our strips and bend them so that they are a little bit more flexible. Then we are going to go to the end of our strips and about a half an inch to an inch in we are going to fold it there so it bends in like so. Then do the same on the others side. Do this to both strips. When done they should look like this. Then on the outer edges of the fold apply hot glue and then glue about an inch or so from the top and bottom of the larger strip that we cut.

We do not want to attach this to our shield just yet because we might have to make some adjustments so it can fit just right.

So now we need the hot glue gun, our shield, string, and scissors. We then need to expand our shield so that all of the pieces of cardboard are touching each but that is still makes it all the way around.

Now we want to expand our shield so that it looks like a full circle. Then take the start of the string and on the first piece (should be the piece that has the circles attached to it) at the end of the piece hot glue the start of the string. Then make a dot of hot glue at the start of the second piece and pulling our string right we want to hot glue the string there. Then cut the string. Now on the second piece at the end of it (the side that was not hot glued) take the string and hot glue the start of it here and then hot glue it to the farthest side of the third one (follow pictures for understanding.) Then repeat the same process that we did with the first and second one throughout the entire shield but stop when you are about to do it to the last piece and the first piece.

Then grab your Velcro strips (you want 1 soft side and 1 scratchy side) and carefully hot glue one to the end of the first piece on backd side and hot glue one to the end of the spraypainted side on the last piece. You may have to cut the Velcro strips so that they are shorter.

Then on the back piece hot glue on the handle you made. Slide it under the string. DO NOT PUT ON TOP OF STRING!!! After you have done that, VOILA!!!! Your done.

HOORAY!!! You did it!! Good job everybody. I hope that you enjoyed this Instructable if not I apologize. I would appreciate if you guys could give me feedback on what I did wrong and what I could have done better. But that’s all for today. See you guys on the next Instructable!!!!