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
http://www.pbase.com/gipper51/image/106127565/original
http://www.pbase.com/gipper51/image/106127573
|
-
11-19-2008, 01:14 PM #1
Homemade power rack - picture and plans
-
11-19-2008, 01:31 PM #2
-
11-19-2008, 02:21 PM #3
- Join Date: Oct 2008
- Location: Paw Paw, Michigan, United States
- Age: 42
- Posts: 1,782
- Rep Power: 931
what no chin bar!? J/k I'd squat in that mofo
Shouldn't you be lifting something heavy instead of reading this?
[]---[] Equipment Crew Member No. 8
Workout Equipment Crew: We do it on Power Racks
Bashing the Bowflex since 2008 for DiamondDelts
Bulldozer feeds upon the weaker as they fall. Bulldozer crushes all! - Machine Head
Owes me a case of beer: dolson27
-
11-19-2008, 02:23 PM #4
Very nice work!
STAND TALL AND SHAKE THE HEAVENS!!
"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own." - 1 Corinthians 6:19
▪█─-─█▪ Equipment Crew #71 ▪█─-─█▪
[]---[] York Barbell Club #32 []---[]
[]---[] Ivanko Barbell Crew #66 []---[]
||---|| Rogue Barbell Club #6 ||---||
-
-
11-19-2008, 02:38 PM #5
-
11-19-2008, 02:44 PM #6
-
11-19-2008, 03:52 PM #7
-
11-19-2008, 03:54 PM #8
-
-
11-19-2008, 04:10 PM #9
-
11-19-2008, 04:17 PM #10
-
11-19-2008, 04:28 PM #11
-
11-19-2008, 05:13 PM #12
-
-
11-19-2008, 06:01 PM #13
-
11-19-2008, 06:05 PM #14
-
11-19-2008, 06:06 PM #15
-
11-19-2008, 06:06 PM #16
-
-
11-19-2008, 07:11 PM #17
-
11-19-2008, 07:17 PM #18
- Join Date: Jan 2008
- Location: Seattle, Washington, United States
- Age: 53
- Posts: 491
- Rep Power: 583
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!
-
11-19-2008, 07:29 PM #19
-
11-19-2008, 07:42 PM #20
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.Last edited by gipper51; 11-19-2008 at 07:45 PM.
-
-
11-19-2008, 07:44 PM #21
- Join Date: Feb 2008
- Location: Big Bear City, California, United States
- Age: 67
- Posts: 1,198
- Rep Power: 3539
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.
-
11-19-2008, 10:22 PM #22
-
11-20-2008, 12:33 AM #23
-
11-20-2008, 02:31 AM #24
-
-
11-20-2008, 06:57 AM #25
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.
-
11-20-2008, 07:25 AM #26
-
11-20-2008, 07:29 AM #27
-
11-20-2008, 07:47 AM #28
-
-
11-20-2008, 07:49 AM #29
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.
Toxic Masculinity
-
11-20-2008, 07:55 AM #30
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
Toxic Masculinity
Bookmarks