Home made equipment..

[Chris-Winfield]

I can get away without a spotter on dumbell benching , Even when I used to do my sets with 100lb dumbells while still in highschool , I never need a spotter , most the time I asked for a spotter for the hell of it , but I would always bust out my sets to failure , then after they get brought back down to my chest I can control them to the floor. Or sit forward with them still in my hands.

Of course theres great risk of damage doing this , but I can always find somebody around house to spot me and days that I cant , just go to near failure.

But I figure I will always be able to lower the weight controlled fashion , since lowering phase your what is it 40% stronger? upper phase gives out I have a crutch for lowering , which when I fail I always fight it every millimeter of the way down till the weight comes to dead bottom.

anywho.. going to start dimensions and math needed since Ive only calculated for circle , the I will figure out the length of the 2x4 pieces needed for the mold to get things straightened out.

 

[Chris-Winfield]

Dimensions of molds - [media]http://i42.tinypic.com/317bh8k.jpg[/media]

Mold --------------- [media]http://i44.tinypic.com/334i6f5.jpg[/media]

 

[Stickler*]

tough to see the pics in detail, but good luck

 

[Chris-Winfield]

sorry , I figured I would upload as JPEG , since its a smaller file format. Should of kept them bitmap I guess , pretty much its just small basic step information just explaining images like why making 2 for each mold , the length of the dumbells , ect.. nothing major or important that you can get out of just the image.

and thanks , after I get some food down ill go see about gathering all the materials together.

 

[Chris-Winfield]

WE have alot of scrap wood around the house , my dad works and at windsor windows , defect windows , defect wood , ect... they throw out..

He brings alot of that wood home , because theres nothing really ever wrong with it , just not the exact size in length they need most of the time.. So perfectly good wood gets thrown out.

Along with when we first moved here there was a really small shed , my dad started expanding on it , and it was pretty much done with. Then it snowed really bad and the roof was covered with snow , already , and a tree fell ontop of the shed. So there was alot of wood that we saved from that , and there was alot of fresh wood inside that hadnt been touched because there was still some to do.

Im thinking we're going to either go with metal building , or block building now. not too sure what hes planning on doing.

but so theres alot of scrap wood and fresh wood around , just got to make sure their straight not bowed and I can use the old wood. Alot of it is stacked in my room the other we gave away to our neighbor because he was building a fence for his pigs lols.

but I should have almost all the material here.

Im not going lumberjack lol

 

[Chris-Winfield]

just noticed i have a simple math error on my drawing , mi calculated overall total length of the octogon. Im not gonna bother calculating just cut the pieces how they need to be cut and whenever they match up ill measure and thats how big the base board needs to be.

 

[Chris-Winfield]

All I need are compound lifts , all the others for my needs are just a waste of time. Im not training for stage appearance , just raw, fuctional strength and endurance. I can work my whole body with compound exercises.

With just a bar , dumbells , and a bench , and place to do dips , pullups and chinups.

For my needs isolation exercises , are not functional. They just slow recovery for the overall benefit.

I agree that gyms will have different equipment than me. But sticking to the basics , I can reach my goals with select equipment from a gym , in the home.

 

[Chris-Winfield]

molds coming along , sucks having to use a handsaw and miterbox for the angles ... whenever the handsaw is old , dull , and rusted.

Jig saw got stolen. Circular saw works for the initial cuts but whenever I have the small chunks that I need to cut the angles with , circular saw is too dangerous when we dont have any C-clamps.

 

[Stickler*]

When POW's during the vietnam and Korean wars were captured, they filled soda bottles with water and lifted rocks and stuff, and it worked to some level...but I think if you ever truly want to advance in this sport, you will need to join a gym.

true.. but you gotta give the guy credit for SERIOUSLY thinking this through... lol ... i'm just hoping nothing cracks/breaks mid set and doesn't land on the guys face! .... that's why i'm offering input..

 

[Chris-Winfield]

tools at the house to use to cut with... suck ass , 5 minutes to saw through just a corner... of 2x4

because of a dull , rusty handsaw blade.

And its the only thing I can use... Im having to nail instead of screw the wood into place and hope that the wood doesnt split.

Since I CANT FIND ANY DRILLBITS... and the power drill , all the bits for the power drill are messed up kind of rounded. what the hell.

Easy job to do , and Im having to do everything the hard way , My mold is an octogon , but not perfect.. so not too sure how in the hell its going to work if I make another one , so maybe I will have to use the same one 2x for a pair , which is pretty stupid.

And I dont see myself remaking this mold anytime soon with stolen jigsaw , missing drill bits , rusty dull blades , rounded power drill bits.

today just isnt my day. Im wanting to snap and sling the hammer through the wall. Because this is bullshit. I guess im just going to try to relax , and take my time and make the pieces for the 25lb weight.. and see if I can make them close enough to perfect as I can to where maybe I was just rushing too much cause of frustration with the smaller mold. But for now. I really wish I had a jigsaw or bandsaw. Dont wanna go to somebodys house who I know has one because of some stuff going on over there right now.

 

[Chris-Winfield]

So my molds are mostly done , Just have 2 corners I need to fill with triangle pieces on the large molds in order to make them the right dimensions. and change from square to octogon on that side.

Then I'll soon be mixing , pouring , and curing the concrete.

I will find out exactly what I will do with coating them after , for now I am deciding on the bar to use for the dumbells.

The barbel is a 2" OD , exactly , I cant find pipe with a 2" OD , just PVC thats 1.90 OD" because lowes lowes doesnt carry a big enough size of steel pipe , So my thoughts is the NPS 1 1/2 PVC pipe is 1.9" OD thats only basically 3/32 off on diameter , im happy with that , and its the only thing that I can get my hands on store purchase not over internet with with higher costs due to shipping and custom sizes have to be paid extra for.

So PVC , a 17" piece for each dumbell , 1.9" OD should be strong enough to hold the weight necessary , especially after filling with concrete because , concrete has a high compression strength , while being inside of a tube its going to be compressed on bending which will prevent bending movement of the PVC.

 

[Chris-Winfield]

I finished my design for my equipment , OK.

TOTAL COST for having a weight bench with rack , that will allow me to adjust the angle to any desired angle. Which I will be aiming for around 20 degree for my training I could still do declines but not at that much of a decline angle. Which I feel declines come rated under chest dips IMO so im fine with that.

Also Weighted crunches of all variations , or normal crunches , .. It has leg holder where my legs go over and lock at the ankles. I can increase the weight pretty much as high as I want to.

Also can do dips , and weighted dips.

2" pvc , which is outside diameter of 2.375 , I designed it to where I can fill the entire pvc structure with concrete. for even added strength and will cost me barely anything. With the fill caps for the concrete capped which will make all the concrete contained inside. so even with stress to break the super strong bonds of the concrete since all forces will be compression since its contained in a pipe. Even if the bonds do break , it will stay pacted and contained. , so strength wont drop.

The design has alot of supports , alot of uprights , and utilizes all of the different exercise stations together in one design for added strength and stability. While using pretty much custom dimensions for what I feel I want for my equipment to suit my body.

This entire package , is costing me around 120-150 dollars , THATS TOTAL ALL ASPECTS OF MATERIALS WITH EXTRA

 

[irishhammer]

I wanna see pics of this thing chris, you got me thinking about making my own weight set now haha.

 

[Chris-Winfield]

Depending on how much you actually want to spend for PVC , you can add in more areas of bracing , smaller rectangles are stronger load wise due to leverage transfer. OR you could do X braces which work better for stability.

I figured this design was good enough. I mean of course I could spend 200 dollars , and still save TREMENDOUS amount of money rather than purchasing my own equipment , and have a rock solid piece of equipment that will stand just as stable and strong as steel.

But I suppose this is good enough.

I plan on putting it all together , take it apart and pvc cement all of the pieces together , then heatweld the joints for even stronger hold.

Then tip it on the backside , and cap off the one leg near the weight rack , and fill the other as much as I can to where I can still put in the other cap that is epoxied and heat welded. too. Just have to make sure you have the water to mass ratio of the concrete that is recommended so excess water that isnt used for the chemical reaction doesnt stay and cause swellin in the pvc. Which I dont see that much harm since their wont be a major amount of excess water. But still need the concrete flowing enough to make its way into all of the areas of the tubes , which pressure from the fill tube being the highest area whenever its up on its back in the fill position will help.

The drawing is done by eye in paint , I know some of the dimensions are off but its just rough design , I have all the measurements of how I designed it though for every single piece of PVC.

The only thing with how the design is , you duck a little to get inside of the box to do dips , and you need platform for each foot , which I plan on just using cinderblock

cheap , but still sturdy design. with a better budget you can build even better. with no downsides. I also am training with frontsquats though so I have the seat that attaches in the front with a U notch one side on the floor using my feet on the floor to balance my body whenever I bench. I dont use leg drive.

[media]http://i44.tinypic.com/206j5nm.jpg[/media]

for spotter purposes I left the box area open on the bench side , because when doing dip anyways my back will be to the other bar. and chest to the open area like a normal dip station , allows for room... while also keeping stabilizing on the box. since my hands will be pretty close to the lateral support.

The reason I have the seat set to go the opposite way from the box is that , It is around 28-30 inches , depending on personal preference for dips. But if im using dumbells I figured it was safer hand wise if it was the other way , yeah its going to take up more room... But I would have crushed fingers sometimes , Im careful with my dumbells puting them down but I still dont want to take any chances.

design can be changed , I already have it in mind an easy way to do it , would save around 2-3 feet of room. But only if you just want bench , and dip station. Im using it for weighted twisting decline crunches also.. So design change doesnt match my needs.