Building a plate rack or two.

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MCMXI

MCMXI

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I have a bunch of static steel targets on my pistol "range" which is basically outside my back door and was looking at plate racks online. My first thought was dang they're expensive for what they are with some being $1,300 to $1,500. There's a DIY kit available but that's still expensive given that I would need to supply a fair amount of steel and other parts. My second thought was I'll design and build my own.

So has anyone here designed and/or built their own plate rack?
 
Cool ... hopefully he'll be along to give me some ideas. It's a simple device but I'd like to get it right the first time. It's getting cold up here now so I don't want to spend hours out in the garage doing things twice. I know I want it to be modular so that I can break it down and take it somewhere if necessary. I'm thinking 8 plates of different sizes and not equispaced because bad guys aren't all the same size and don't run around with a tape measure.
 
I used some strap hinges to mount some air gun silhouette targets up in my backyard air rifle range. Maybe scaled up would work for a plate rack made out of a saw horse bracket kit.
 
It's fairly easy to make your own "spinners".
Take your 8" plate and bolt it to a piece of black iron gas pipe, 10-12" long. Take a "T" and screw it to the pipe on the back of the target. Put piece of steel rebar through the "T" and put the ends of the rebar either on top of a notched 2x4" or drill a hole through the board and stick the rebar through it. At the bottom of the 2x4, bolt another piece of rebar a few inches up with an "L" at the top and at least 6" below the board. Use your foot on the "L" to drive the spike into the ground and start shooting !
 
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I made several 8” six plate racks for practice on my backyard range. When you put the hinge on, weld the bolt heads to the back of the plates and bolt the hinges on. If you weld the hinges on the back side they will fracture off, bolt heads are easier to put back on. Put a section of angle iron on the front so the plates lean slightly forward when standing, the splatter goes down and the angle protects the hinge. You can mount a long horizontal ] bar on a L or a T at the rear with a bolt on each end for a hinge, attach a rope over the support with a pulley and you can pull the plates back up. Do not allow the plates to go down past about 45 degrees so you can pull them back up easily. I used 1/2 inch T1 plate to take repetitive major loads. The major load in a 45 is like beating the working parts with a sledge hammer over and over so use a hot rod and get good welds.
 
We should have an entire thread dedicated to reactive target builds, I've seen some pretty clever improvised targets here, it would be nice to have them all compiled in one place along with possible instructions. You can save a considerable amount of money with a simple trip to the hardware store or building supply....
 
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