Hole Spacing: How Critical Is it?

[BusyDizzyIzzy]

I'll chime in. Hole spacing is very important to me, behind only safety and stability. I don't want to have to work around because of poor hole spacing options.

BDI what do you think of MTL's suggestion of getting the Lamar rack drilled to double the hole options?

Also about the Promaxima Racks, they have fantastic value but they are all done with 3" hole spacing. Customization is not an option according to the sales person that gave me the qoutes. Also they are all well over 7'.

Does Lamar offer the option of having the holes doubleup'd? Or is this something he would do on his own? For the push/pin safety spot bars to work properly those holes need to be drilled accurately both in vertical and horizontal spacing.


To get 1" spacing all you need to do is cut some 1" thick wood slats to fit over the safety rails. Thats what I did.

[Pillager]

Does Lamar offer the option of having the holes doubleup'd? Or is this something he would do on his own? For the push/pin safety spot bars to work properly those holes need to be drilled accurately both in vertical and horizontal spacing.


To get 1" spacing all you need to do is cut some 1" thick wood slats to fit over the safety rails. Thats what I did.

I don't think wood would hold up to the beaten I would give it with pin presses and rack lockouts. I would be cutting a new piece more often than I would want to.

Do you know if Lamar offers additional holes as an option?

[BusyDizzyIzzy]

I don't think wood would hold up to the beaten I would give it with pin presses and rack lockouts. I would be cutting a new piece more often than I would want to.

Do you know if Lamar offers additional holes as an option?

Maybe email them.

On the wood slats, they actually take the abuse real well. I use solid 1" oak. Its Velcro'd to the top of the safty bars. Its taken 3 615lb. drops. Nothing more than a very small indentation where the bar hit.

I primed and painted them to match the black dip handles I have. Looks sharp, on top of being super functional.

In fact if anything, its a side benefit that the solid oak slats actually keep the abuse off the main safetybars. Keeps em looking new. I'll post pics of mine soon enough when I update my thread on the Lamar rack.

[MaineWoods]

Please do post the pics. I'd be interested in what you came up with. Also, what do you do with the dip handles when you're not using them? Any obvious trick I'm missing? It's annoying having to slide them through the support bars and slide the foam handles on each time... Annoying enough that I've started doing "suspended" dips with homemade style "blast straps"... My goal so far... five. :-)

-Sean

[BusyDizzyIzzy]

Please do post the pics. I'd be interested in what you came up with. Also, what do you do with the dip handles when you're not using them? Any obvious trick I'm missing? It's annoying having to slide them through the support bars and slide the foam handles on each time... Annoying enough that I've started doing "suspended" dips with homemade style "blast straps"... My goal so far... five. :-)

-Sean

I bet you didn't think of it, but just reverse the dip handles, mount em on the outside of the cage. Do it on the side that keeps them out of the way. Thyats the nice thing. They can be mounted in 4 different positions on the rack.

[mtl]

Do you know if Lamar offers additional holes as an option?

I don't believe they do, but you could certainly call/email and ask them. I'd like to know for sure myself as well. I don't know why they don't do the extra holes as a marketing item anyway (I'm sure it adds a bit to production costs, but it might still be worth it). Certainly something for them to address in the next revision of the equipment.

My thought was that if they didn't you could pretty easily lay out a pattern for the holes to be drilled and then center a drill press fence to drill your holes with the proper sized bit. I really don't think it would be that hard and the holes are small enough (it would be alot tougher to drill the larger holes for the skewer style power racks because of the size bit involved, the HP needed to turn it and the torque it would put on the part.....you don't want it to move while drilling) that you wouldn't be compromising the integrity of the equipment by modifying it like that. The critical part is just to be sure the holes are straight and true (which the drill press would due for you).

a regular drill press with a fence/clamp setup to hold everything steady, would probably work fine:

[mtl]

BDI, if you got your camera back from being repaired, I'd love to see some pics of your rack as it stands now also because I was curious how it looks with the quick change plate stack as well as the other items mentioned above.

[BusyDizzyIzzy]

BDI, if you got your camera back from being repaired, I'd love to see some pics of your rack as it stands now also because I was curious how it looks with the quick change plate stack as well as the other items mentioned above.

Planned on all of it. =)