Our indoor club has been using Throom large and small pepper poppers as trigger targets for swingers, drop turners. After about a year of use, the polyurethane foam in the stiffening ribs are shot out and the poppers are too "limp" to reliably operate. So, I experimented with a refurbishment attempt that appears to have some promise to extend the useful life of these expensive props.

I used an electrician's "flexi-bit" to drill out and break up the expanding foam fill in the poppers and replaced it with wood. For the large poppers, I used a 3/4" bit and replaced with 3/4" dowels I cut to extend 1" above the end of the angle channel at the head of the target. I soaped the dowels to assist hammering them in, and then patched some of the severely distressed or shot out areas of of urethane target with clear Butyl rubber RTV.

I am preparing to do the same with the 24" mini poppers, but drilling out the 1/2"x3/4" channel with a 1/2" flexi-bit (multiple passes), and a custom cut 1/2" x 3/4" wood strip to replace the foam in the rib.

I will update later how the repairs have held up. The large popper performed well in our first mini-match, we will see if we can effectively extend use and future repair-ability.