Homemade power rack - picture and plans

Hi All,

I'm not a regular poster here but do lurk alot. This year I decided to trash the gym membership and build a home gym in the basement. A power rack was in order but cash was tight so I built my own. I use AutoCAD daily for my job so I drew up a plan and thought it may be helpful for some of you here. While I have not officially "tested" the rack by purposely dropping a huge ass weight on it, I have no doubts the frame will take a serious beating...it's alot of lumber! It's more solid than some steel cages I've seen.

Everything to build this cost me $115 in materials you can buy at Lowes or Home Depot. It's mostly 2x6 boards with some 3/4" diameter plumbing pipe and fittings used for the rack pins and spotter bars. Word of advice: buy the better grade lumber for the vertical legs at the very minimum...sorting thru the cheap **** to find 8 decently straight board may take all day. Also the job does require some power tools. You will need a powerful corded drill with a spade or auger bit and ideally a bench mounted table saw for straight cuts. The holes to cut in the vertical legs is the most time consuming part of the project. Here's where you need the big corded drill as it will tear a cordless drill up in no time using the big spade bits. Overall expect about 3-6 hours of time depending on your construction skills. If you got any questions let me know, I'll be happy to help.

Below is a link to the plans as high resolution JPGS, this site won't let me post files big enough to read. The drawings are to scale if you print the page at full size of 11x17

[url]http://www.pbase.com/gipper51/image/106127565/original[/url]

[url]http://www.pbase.com/gipper51/image/106127573[/url]

wow pretty impressive. thing looks like its solid with the thick wood.

what no chin bar!? J/k I'd squat in that mofo

Very nice work!

[QUOTE=deseee;247865871]what no chin bar!? J/k I'd squat in that mofo[/QUOTE]

LOL. Actually the plan I drew has holes drilled in the top wood bars for sliding a chinning bar thru it. But since I'm still a wuss and can't do many pullups I didn't do it on mine. May drill the holes later when I need it.

[QUOTE=swimmer32;247867551]Very nice work![/QUOTE]

Thanks. I'm very pleased with it so far.

Very impressive.

Home made power racks ftw, I love mine, made it from scaffold!

God damn i want one!!!! How much does it cost in material?

Very impressive piece of work there.

Also did any else laugh when you opened the picture and saw the monster of a cage with a standard bar?

That's the best looking wooden power rack I've seen. The ones that have been posted on here in the past have wooden safety rods and look like a bar would start chopping away at everything with some regular use.

OP that is the best post I have ever seen on a website.

Ever.

I've been meaning to get round to building a rack for a while now and you have really made my day.

Cheers for sharing bro, that is really cool of you.

[QUOTE=fitmember;247914961]God damn i want one!!!! How much does it cost in material?[/QUOTE]

About $110-130 depending on where you shop. I bought all my stuff from Home Depot in the St. Louis area and it cost $115 with tax.

[QUOTE=Lehner;247923231]Very impressive piece of work there.

Also did any else laugh when you opened the picture and saw the monster of a cage with a standard bar?[/QUOTE]

LOL, yeah my free weights are embarassing. I'm just getting into this seriously and I'm saving my pennies for an Olympic set. Figured I'd start with the rack as it's going to be the core piece of my gym and then add from there.

[QUOTE=mentalmorph;247955771]I've been meaning to get round to building a rack for a while now and you have really made my day.

Cheers for sharing bro, that is really cool of you.[/QUOTE]

No problem. Glad I could help.

[QUOTE=gipper51;247982421]LOL, yeah my free weights are embarassing. I'm just getting into this seriously and I'm saving my pennies for an Olympic set. Figured I'd start with the rack as it's going to be the core piece of my gym and then add from there.[/QUOTE]

Smart and trust me Craigslist will have weight sets cheap for you.

very generous of you to share. great work. reps.

Awesome Rack! Very inspiring.

I too have standard weights in my power rack. I had standard 6' bar and weights, and decided against selling and upgrading to Olympic. Then I DID buy Olympic (Pendlay) and bumpers for outside the power rack! The only complaint with the standard bar is the small (25mm) diameter. It starts to cut into the hands and be uncomfortable above around 200 lbs. But weights are weights. You'll enjoy some fine gains with that set up. Plus the pride of craftmanship will keep you coming back for a long time!

Sorry...I love building things...But that is a waste of time and money...The price for lumber is high. By the time you build that, you could have went and bought a decent rack.

[QUOTE=mikieson;248026261]Sorry...I love building things...But that is a waste of time and money...The price for lumber is high. By the time you build that, you could have went and bought a decent rack.[/QUOTE]

Well it's definately not for everyone :) I could have cut the price to under $100 by going with the non-wolmanized boards but sifting through the cheap stack to find good boards was futile. I watched Craigs list for a while trying to find a rack but found nothing near what I paid for this. A few popped up for about $200 but were located an hour away. Gas money for the truck to go get it would have been double what this cost me. I'm too impatient to wait for the deal in my own back yard to pop up.

Plus I like the satisfaction of knowing I built something that works...but again, it's not for everyone. One nice thing I like about the wood rack is it doesn't make as much noise as a metal one. I often work out after my wife and baby go to bed, the less metal I have clanking around the better.

[QUOTE=mikieson;248026261]Sorry...I love building things...But that is a waste of time and money...The price for lumber is high. By the time you build that, you could have went and bought a decent rack.[/QUOTE]

Did you actually read his post? He built it for $115.00. I wouldn't consider that a waste of money with what he can do with that rack. And time, we'll if one has more time than money, who are you to judge what's a waste of "his" time?

The guy did an awesome job, no need to crap on him with your opinion ... which in this case was a waste of your time.

[QUOTE=gipper51;247828471]Hi All,

I'm not a regular poster here but do lurk alot. This year I decided to trash the gym membership and build a home gym in the basement. A power rack was in order but cash was tight so I built my own. I use AutoCAD daily for my job so I drew up a plan and thought it may be helpful for some of you here. While I have not officially "tested" the rack by purposely dropping a huge ass weight on it, I have no doubts the frame will take a serious beating...it's alot of lumber! It's more solid than some steel cages I've seen.

Everything to build this cost me $115 in materials you can buy at Lowes or Home Depot. It's mostly 2x6 boards with some 3/4" diameter plumbing pipe and fittings used for the rack pins and spotter bars. Word of advice: buy the better grade lumber for the vertical legs at the very minimum...sorting thru the cheap **** to find 8 decently straight board may take all day. Also the job does require some power tools. You will need a powerful corded drill with a spade or auger bit and ideally a bench mounted table saw for straight cuts. The holes to cut in the vertical legs is the most time consuming part of the project. Here's where you need the big corded drill as it will tear a cordless drill up in no time using the big spade bits. Overall expect about 3-6 hours of time depending on your construction skills. If you got any questions let me know, I'll be happy to help.

Below is a link to the plans as high resolution JPGS, this site won't let me post files big enough to read. The drawings are to scale if you print the page at full size of 11x17

[url]http://www.pbase.com/gipper51/image/106127565/original[/url]

[url]http://www.pbase.com/gipper51/image/106127573[/url][/QUOTE]


Repped for good info and outstanding rack! Great job!

That is badass OP!

Awesome job. Did you use lag bolts to bolt together the wood?

Get another piece of pipe and put a pullup bar on top !

[QUOTE=Skidmarx;248162371]Awesome job. Did you use lag bolts to bolt together the wood?

Get another piece of pipe and put a pullup bar on top ![/QUOTE]

Most of the frame is held together with 3" long heavy duty #14 wood screws. The rear board on the floor to hold the sides together has big lag bolts in it to keep the frame straight. I screwed the double 2x6s for the legs together with 2.5" course thread drywall screws. Use the 2.5" here and not 3" or the screw tips will poke thru the back side. The plans I posted have a screw assembly diagram that shows what I used where if you need more info.

[QUOTE=mikieson;248026261]Sorry...I love building things...But that is a waste of time and money...The price for lumber is high. By the time you build that, you could have went and bought a decent rack.[/QUOTE]

It is a (very) decent rack and a lot cheaper than one out of a shop.

[QUOTE=gipper51;248205221]Most of the frame is held together with 3" long heavy duty #14 wood screws. The rear board on the floor to hold the sides together has big lag bolts in it to keep the frame straight. I screwed the double 2x6s for the legs together with 2.5" course thread drywall screws. Use the 2.5" here and not 3" or the screw tips will poke thru the back side. The plans I posted have a screw assembly diagram that shows what I used where if you need more info.[/QUOTE]

LOL

I have been studying the plans very closely which I quickly saved on my computer just incase you decided all the idiot types that frequent this site didn't deserve them!

You must be an engineer right?

[QUOTE=C5VetteLS1;248031571]Did you actually read his post? He built it for $115.00. I wouldn't consider that a waste of money with what he can do with that rack. And time, we'll if one has more time than money, who are you to judge what's a waste of "his" time?

The guy did an awesome job, no need to crap on him with your opinion ... which in this case was a waste of your time.[/QUOTE]

+1.

This sounds like something I'd do too. CADD and all. I love building stuff and probably would have build a rack but I got a smith machine on craigslist instead. Check on craigslist for your weights as well. So far my home gym consists of a bench, 300 lbs of weights, a smith machine and a curl bar and I think i've collected it all off craigslist for about $120. We're in the process of painting that room so it's kind of a mess.
[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e3/gixxer06g/homegym.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=mikieson;248026261]Sorry...I love building things...But that is a waste of time and money...The price for lumber is high. By the time you build that, you could have went and bought a decent rack.[/QUOTE]

You're an idiot. The price of lumber is actually going down. And if you're looking at material prices, matal has skyrocketed so I don't think you're going to find anything cheaper than what he built that for. Haha, I've been wanting to use this pic for a while now...Negged for dick head post
[IMG]http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e3/gixxer06g/negdumptruck.jpg[/IMG]