One of the groups I'll be working with this year is performing Key Poulan's ";In The Shadow of Dragons"; and one of the required instruments is a marching machine.  I've seen it in UpFront but I have to ask... does anyone have any good directions for building one?  How big should it be?

Chris, the guy you've seen on forums called floatdude has that company that makes stands and other such stuff.  I know he has them for sale on his site.

http://www.2coolpercussion.com/index_008.htm

Scroll down and you'll see it... [b]$70[/b]

Chris,

We did a show two years ago that used two marching machines. We had a zealous band dad build both of them with directions we found on the internet. I'm sure you can google it and find what you need.

After watching Brian Mason build a couple, I determined that I'd never buy one.

ER

Mason is pretty talented at building things like that...

If you don't mind doing a little drilling, buy a few 1x1 posts and cut them to the same length (6"; or so).  Take some 2-3"; PVP pipe with 90 degree elbows and fashion a box for the blocks.  Drill holes for each row in the matrix in the pipe, and then for each block drill a hole completely through, and then another perpindicular to that hole about 3/4"; below it.  You can now shoelace-weave rope through the pipe rows in one length of string.  I think the one I made had a 6x6 matrix of blocks, and measured about 16";x16";. Definitely cheaper than buying.

Were you looking over my shoulder?  I just drew that design a few minutes ago...

About how big were your dimensions? 

Hehe--like I said, I think it measured about 16";x16";.  Really you're only limited by the size of your blocks and the spacing you're after.  Start there--pick your block size, a relative spacing unit, and the size of your rows.  Add that up for an interior perimeter, and then figure about 2-6"; extra inches a side for the frame.