New Target Stand Takes Shape

I have had a fantastic day in the workshop.

Last week, I finished creating a stand for steel targets. After I tried the targets, I got so excited, I ordered more of them. Today I bought steel and started making a second stand, using a different design.

My first stand was all square tubing. I made two steel A-frames with short pieces of square tubing across the tops, and I ran a long piece of tubing from one A-frame to the other. It works great, but it took too long to fabricate. My second stand is simpler. It’s easier to show you than explain. The main crossmember will be round, not square, and the end supports are just inverted-Y shapes made from square tubing.

Fabricating these supports is easier than fabricating the other kind. Also, they’re lighter, and they use less steel.

One part of the job was time-consuming. I was too tight to buy drawn-over-mandrel round tubing, which has no weld seam inside it. I bought the cheap kind. Because the main horizontal tube has to go into the short pieces on top of the supports, I need the short pieces to be unobstructed. I could have just jammed the crossmember in over the welds, but I wanted to do a good job, so I put the short pieces on the lathe, bored them, and sanded the insides. Must have killed 90 minutes.

The targets will hang from pieces of the same tubing, slipped over the horizontal crossmember. I bored and sanded those, too. My first stand has square tubing which is a loose fit inside the round tubing attached to the targets, so the weld seams aren’t a problem. When you put one round tube inside another, everything is closer together, so one tube can gouge the other.

I used the lathe, the mill, the buffer, two angle grinders, one welder, the welding table, my phenomenal new welding helmet, and a 1/2-13 tap today. Lots of fun.

Tomorrow I have to make the rest of the stand. It will be easy. I got the tedious lathe work behind me today, and I learned how to put this particular type of stand support together for welding. Doing a second support will be easier.

The targets should arrive Friday. After that, Katie bar the door.

I also bought 6 lengths of 3/8″ rebar and 6 3″ squares of 1/8″ steel. I’m going to weld the squares on top of the rebar, pound it into the ground, and put things like soda cans on them. I could also put bowling pins on them.

I know what you’re thinking. It would be easier to build a single long platform. If I did that, every time I shot one object, the motion would travel down the platform and knock others over. Also, I would be limited in how I could place the objects.

It’s great to have the workshop up and running. I missed having tools more than I can say.

Hope everyone is enjoying life in spite of the big scary pandemic. Just because the world has gone crazy doesn’t mean you have to.