Cheap Standard/Olympic adapter

[GripPower]

Looking for a cheap yet reliable adapter so I can use my Olympic plates on a bunch of wacky grip stuff that for some stupid reason doesn't come in Olympic. Are any of the plastic adapters sturdy enough to warrant a purchase and the proper size to take Olympic plates? Getting metal adapters for everything I'd eventually like to get would cost more than rubber coated standard plates.

What is the sturdiest adapter? I'm thinking about getting some Heavy Handles (heavyhandle.com), putting a solid adapter on it and it to make a plate loaded 2" grip kettlebell. I'm assuming my Ivanko collars that supposedly hold 300 pounds without slipping will be more than enough to handle kettlebell work.

[ProtienandIron]

For the weights you are using on those thing, would it not just be better to just buy a few standard plates specifically for those items?

[Cleveland33]

I know a lot of plate trees are made for standard and have Oly sleeves placed over them. You might be able to find them as spare parts somewhere.

What type of wacky grip stuff are we talking about?

[KBKB]

I hadn't heard of the Heavy Handles before, but I took a look at their site a moment ago. They use spin-lock collars and are intended to be used with 1" plates.

If I were doing it, I'd just get some 1" plates.

However, another way to do it is to get the All Plates kit from Shermworks.

[GripPower]

The grip stuff I'm talking about comes from strongergrip.com. A pair of Grip-Ball dumbbells, leverage ball, thumbbell, probably the plate loaded mace too. I really like rubber coated plates now that I have them (can't go back), and I'm thinking I would end up spending ~$300 to buy the standard plates I would need for everything from warehousefitness.com. If anyone knows of a cheaper place to get rubber coated standard plates, please let me know. I would need to buy an adapter for each item, otherwise I know my laziness in moving around the adapter will get to me. The constant effort that would go with the Shermworks kit would ensure I stop using it after a week. I was planning on getting the Body Solid adapters until I read that they're only 1.75" in a review here.

I do swings with kettlebells, and if I'm going to use Heavy Handles as a kettlebell I'd really rather not have a spinlock on it. The last thing I want is to have it loosen and have the plates fly into the wall or my foot. After having those Ivanko collars I just can't use spinlocks anymore.

[KBKB]

The challenge with using an adapter is securing it to the spinlock spindle in such a way that it won't come off. This is especially true if the spindle is oriented vertically or has a lot of force placed on it as when doing kettlebell swings. If you got one made of metal, I guess you could have it welded on.

I think that 1" standard plates w/ no rubber coating and the spinlock collars are the way to go. You should be able to get them for 50 cents per pound. The reason for no rubber coating is that you'll be able to hear the plates rattle should the spinlock collar begin to loosen up.

[ProtienandIron]

I accidently posted this in another thread; If using the adapters vertically I would be more concerned with the adapters slipping off then what the collars will do. The adaptors I have seen are just a grub screw holding them in. Are you sure this is the route you want to take?

[Vermonter]

The cheapest adapter is duct tape. (with PVC pipe)



You might be lucky and live in an industrialized location where you can get a hold on specialized sized washers, bushings, spacers, etc. and you could get some rings which bridge the gap between a 1 inch outer diameter bar and a 2 inch inner diameter plate. The Shermworks adapter kit is a great solution which does this. The beauty of this type of solution is that you can still utilize your spin-lock collars and have a secure fit.

Olympic adapter sleeves pose the problem where you then need to use an Olympic collar, which may then make it more expensive than it is worth if you want a secure hold.

As ProteinandIron and KBKB mentioned, you might be better off simply picking up a couple of standard plates to use for this specific purpose

[Cleveland33]

The grip stuff I'm talking about comes from strongergrip.com. A pair of Grip-Ball dumbbells, leverage ball, thumbbell, probably the plate loaded mace too. I really like rubber coated plates now that I have them (can't go back), and I'm thinking I would end up spending ~$300 to buy the standard plates I would need for everything from warehousefitness.com. If anyone knows of a cheaper place to get rubber coated standard plates, please let me know. I would need to buy an adapter for each item, otherwise I know my laziness in moving around the adapter will get to me. The constant effort that would go with the Shermworks kit would ensure I stop using it after a week. I was planning on getting the Body Solid adapters until I read that they're only 1.75" in a review here.

I do swings with kettlebells, and if I'm going to use Heavy Handles as a kettlebell I'd really rather not have a spinlock on it. The last thing I want is to have it loosen and have the plates fly into the wall or my foot. After having those Ivanko collars I just can't use spinlocks anymore.

I'm with you on that, never had a lot of luck with spinlocks. I've had Oly weights on DB handles vertically with a York speed collar on them with no problems.

Ultimately though, you've gonna have to decide between your laziness and your cheapness (I was gonna say frugalness but I wanted something that would sound as equally negative as lazy) for a solution to this.

[ProtienandIron]

I have never seen that done like that before. Great idea.

[KBKB]

The cheapest adapter is duct tape. (with PVC pipe)

That is a cool idea. And well executed too.

Reps on recharge.

[sherman]

Here's how it would be done with the Allplates kit. I added a solid collar to hold in place the spinloc collar (belt and suspenders). The spacers are made of solid aluminum 3/8" thick. Total cost equal to about a half tank of gas.

[GripPower]

Looking at them again those adapters don't seem as much trouble as I had thought they would be initially, so that should be fine for most of my stuff. I still don't like the spinlock on those Heavy Handles if I'm going to use it as a kettlebell though. Would these lock on to a spinlock to secure the weight more securely?

ironcompany.com/1inchcompressionringcollarpair.aspx

[KBKB]

Looking at them again those adapters don't seem as much trouble as I had thought they would be initially, so that should be fine for most of my stuff. I still don't like the spinlock on those Heavy Handles if I'm going to use it as a kettlebell though. Would these lock on to a spinlock to secure the weight more securely?

http://ironcompany.com/1inchcompress...ollarpair.aspx

Probably, assuming of course that you have enough spindle left upon which to put them.

I'd try it with the spinlock collar(s) alone first. If you use metal plates and snug them up well, you'll know when it's getting loose from the rattle of the plates as you're using it.

I've read elsewhere too that you can use a rubber washer in conjunction with a spinlock collar to help keep it from coming loose.