Hi,

I may not shoot very well, but I'm even worse at welding...

I have some club smallbore targets needing leg/base repair. When welding targets, do folks make a jig for consistent positioning, or do you just eyeball each one and clamp the base perpendicular to the target?

All tips/techniques welcome.

Thanks,
-Steve

If your Smallbore targets are the cast ones of old( the ones that have the casting spru on the back)
You may find it difficult to weld that would last any length of time.Usually guarantee on cast is 50/50,
50 feet,50 seconds.
Ni- rod works on some cast,not too pretty of a weld,also preheating the pieces with a torch helps some.
Bevel the broken edges with a grinder,and remove paint in area to be repaired.
Clamping in a vice would be my jig suggestion,if these are homemade targets or cast.
There maybe new technology weld rod available.Preformed by an expert.
I have not seen the new targets available break.
Good luck,

If they are cast, just throw them away. If you really want to try, use a high nickel rod and pre heat before you weld.

If they are cut out of plate you need to grind off the old weld then weld them back with 60XX rod or equivalent wire in their old position. If you do TS weld like I do you need to grind the weld so it doesn't look so bad. Be sure to use a magnetic square to keep them perpendicular.

2 part epoxys are pretty strong these days. Has anyone tried to epoxy one back together?

It depends, I will only repair the ones cut of out plate and I use a jig if the feet are uniform, they are good to go. However, some of them are not uniform in size and I just line them up best as I can using the same jig with shims if needed, to compensate for extra large feet. maybe I should just cut the feet down on those with the extra large feet.

thanks for replies

Our targets are cut from plate steel (unknown alloy). I'll try to repair using a Millermatic 211 MIG

Please share pics of any jigs used for repeatable alignment.

Thanks

Be sure to grind down to clean bare metal for good ground contact.
In the past just getting the paint off has resulted in poor ground and poor penetration for me.
It seems like a scale or slime coating develops under the multiple layers of paint and it looks like bare metal but it is not.

If castings are not very weldable, has anyone considered drilling at tapping from the base for grade 8 bolts? Probably not worth the trouble, but might get a little more life out of a set of targets that way.