Low Cost All Purpose Target Board

I recently decided to take up knife throwing, and of course that meant I needed a target, so, of course, I built on. It was very cheap, extremely easy to make and best of all free because it was made from scraps we had lying around.

Step 1: Materials and Tools

Material

Compressed cardboard

3 Plywood strips 6ft x 6in

Several 2x4's about 4ft long

Door hinge

Tools

Drill

Screws

Step 2: Construction

So the main part of this target is the board itself. I happened to have a few sheets of compressed cardboard lying around, so I tested it for a target and it worked beautifully. It's very soft so that almost anything can stick in it, but also strong enough not to break or fall apart. The board were roughly 3 ft by 1.5 ft. so since I wanted my target to be roughly 3 ft by 4 ft, stacking three worked perfectly.

Once you have your size, flip the boards over and screw the two plywood planks to the boards so that the length from the bottom of the plank to the top of the board is roughly 6 ft. Then, take the two 2x4's and screw them to the plywood planks, on on top and one on bottom. This will prevent the boards from taking all the pressure.

Next, find the center of the top 2x4 and screw the hinge to it, then screw the third plywood plank to the other side of the hinge so that the board becomes an easel. Also, the third leg must be longer than the other two so that when it is sticking out the target board is more vertical.

Step 3: Use

As I said before, this material is great for target practice because of how soft yet strong it is. This makes it very versatile, so it can be used for all sorts of target practice such as archery, knife throwing, blow darts, and normal darts. The pictures above show two different knifes, the first are tiny kunai knives and the second is a heavy homemade cold steel throwing knife. Both knives held extremely well into the board.

Step 4: Le Fin

Well, that's all. This is a great project for anyone wanting to practice ranged weapons, or just looking to have fun. Also, if any of the boards should happen to break for any reason, they are very cheap and easy to replace with just a few screws, making it very convenient, unlike other boards I've seen which would require complete disassembly. Let me know if you have any questions or comments, as they are always greatly appreciated.

Thank you and God Bless!

Comments

[charlietophat]

Do you think plywood would work in place for compressed cardboard? I don't plan on using anything high velocity

[gaieb]

what is compressed cardboard, never heard of it before?

[knutknackebröd]

great project, but i dont think it'll be safe with higher velocity projectiles( bow & arrow / crossbow) firstly because shooting into anything hard destroys your arrows and secondly because if the projectile gets in between the boards theres a big chance it'll go straight through.

[Whisper219]

You could just replace the compressed cardboard with large sheets of regular cardboard or craft foam. That way, the material won't destroy the arrowheads and it's very cheap to replace it.

[knutknackebröd]

multiple layers of cardboard would work, the point I was trying to make is with the target made in this ible an arrow might find its way in between the panels, thus meeting less resistance. If the arrows have too little resistance from the panels there's a chance you could hit something behind.

[BarakP]

Maybe you could use a regular cardboad from the recycling spot. instead of scewing it to the wood you can make something like a holder so it won't fall after getting hit by high velocity projectiles. then you'll be able to add more sheild or replace when it becomes useless.

Great project, now i just need to make a blow gun...

[EvolvedAwesome]

This is an excellent use of resources. When I first saw it I thought it looked a bit like an Easel. Maybe you could use it for painting with paper...

[lwhite30]

the grooves where they stack would be a bit prohibitive maybe one sheet of MDF or something