coastiemeg Posted August 21, 2007 Share Posted August 21, 2007 (edited) JBro: I am from Kentucky. I didn't know that I could be identified by how I weight my flag poles.. HAHA.. Fiberglass? UGH! Too heavy... I like my poles light, with just enough of a bolt in them to not get blown away in the wind. Out here in the MidWest (or Southeast, depending on where you look at it) we tend to use metal poles. Although, there are few groups here in Kentucky that use wooden poles (7/8".. brings back memories from winter guard). In high school, in addition to weighting our 5 1/2' aluminum poles with bolts, we'd roll up newspaper and weight the entire pole with it. Those suckers were HEAVY! For some reason, though, we didn't weight our 6' aluminum poles like that. We were notorious for using heavy equipment, though. We'd soak our new rifles in a bathtub of water overnight to make them heavier, too. Edited August 21, 2007 by coastiemeg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quegrawks Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 www.boltdepot.comhttp://www.boltdepot.com/product.aspx?cc=8...p;selected=2816 OOOH!!! Cool! I had another site I used, but these prices look a little better! Home Depot and Lowe's really jack the prices up on these things! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 So. my guard went out last weekend and it was rather windy. I've got a one inch bolt in the top and bottom of my poles. Would a 3" bolt in the top and 1" in the bottom be better?? Somone please advise.. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LegalEagle50 Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 So. my guard went out last weekend and it was rather windy. I've got a one inch bolt in the top and bottom of my poles. Would a 3" bolt in the top and 1" in the bottom be better?? Somone please advise.. Thanks! that's what i use, with washers attached to the bolts. i find using the same length at each end really doesn't change anything. the weight is just heavier all round, not a difference at either end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBro Posted September 17, 2007 Share Posted September 17, 2007 Hahaha I've marched with people from LOTS of places.. I've seen ALL kinds of weighting. BTW... NEW fiberlgass poles are FAR FAR different than they used to be.. if anything.. they're LIGHTER than metal poles now.. and they don't splinter because its pressed different than it used to be. I LOVE them because they don't get cold or hot (it gets COLD in the NW by the time the marching season is over. Plus I use tape marks and white tape on a while pole doesn't show ;o) But OMG to the post about using a 5.5 inch weight!!!!!!!! LIke WOAH.. heaviest flag EVER..... ;o) I changed my bolt to a 2 inch bolt for the fiber glass pole cause I changed the shape of my flag a bit... It spins JUST right.. no pulse.. but no slowing down in the middle of a toss.. Plus.. the whole thing is just light enough... you don't have to struggle through! I like writing work from the bottom tip.. and a heavy pole makes that CRAZY hard... We used 6ft fiberglass poles at BD and used pretty much the same weight as I do.. either a 1.5 or 2 inch carriage bolt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N Murphy Posted September 18, 2007 Share Posted September 18, 2007 Maybe it's because I"m used to a 5.5" at the top and a 2.5" at the bottom, but I really don't think they are heavy. I've never done it any other way. Have you tried it? I've never tried smaller bolts, and I'm not exactly sure how I'd do it. The same at each end? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neholgate Posted September 18, 2007 Share Posted September 18, 2007 What do you do with those clear poles? We didn't have them "back in the day" and I'm going to march again and am experimenting. Has anyone used them? How would you weight them? I'm going to be using nice digital silks with it. Nancy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N Murphy Posted September 18, 2007 Share Posted September 18, 2007 I would imagine for the clear poles you could get those weight inserts that look like a cylinder and are shorter, they may hide behind the stopper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted September 18, 2007 Share Posted September 18, 2007 I'd be afraid the clear poles would break if you put bolts in them. they are pretty flimsy. I wouldn't recommend using them at all... one of the schools I teach used them one of the years I was gone, when I came back they wanted to use them again and they couldn't withstand large amounts of work. They could do well in a ballad perhaps.... Just my two cents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiamiNight Posted September 18, 2007 Share Posted September 18, 2007 I'll just through this out there - when I marched drum corps in 2006, we weighted our 6' poles with 8" and 6". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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