Materials and available tools for creating a barbell
A homemade barbell, which is easy to make at home, consists of a metal bar and round concrete blocks that act as pancakes. For compactness, you can use beams or concrete a couple of metal pipes or corners as a rack for compactness. In general, to create a barbell you will need the following tools and materials:
- - stainless steel pipe with a diameter of 25 mm;
- - building materials (cement, crushed stone, sand);
- - several pieces of dense polyethylene;
- - a wide pan or similar form for concrete pancakes;
- - paint brush and paint of any color;
- - welding machine, grinder, wrench, hammer drill;
- - a pair of bolts with suitable nuts and washers.
The length of the stainless pipe, which will play the role of the bar, is selected individually, based on the size of the grip, as well as the thickness and weight of the future pancakes.
Casting concrete plates for the bar
It is recommended to start creating a bar by casting concrete pancakes. To do this, you will need a wide round shape, the role of which will be perfectly fulfilled by an old saucepan. The weight of the weights is selected individually, and the total weight of the bar can be assembled from several weights. However, when casting concrete pancakes, it is not recommended to make them too thin to avoid destruction. In this case, two pancakes of 25 kilograms each were created, for which a mold with a diameter of 32 cm was used.
Concrete for the future pancake is mixed in a pan that acts as a mold. To easily remove the hardened rod pancake, the following condition must be met: the mold is lined from the inside with moistened polyethylene, which will provide a smooth surface of the finished product and make it easy to remove the hardened concrete from the mold. To obtain the correct proportion of the concrete mixture, the following is mixed in the form:
- - cement 7 kg;
- - crushed stone 8 kg;
- - sand 10 kg;
- - water 3.5 l.
Water is added until the solution reaches optimal thickness to thoroughly mix the solution. After obtaining a homogeneous mass, a stainless steel tube for the neck is inserted vertically into the center of the mold (the axis of the circle) and fixed motionless. After the mass hardens, it will be removed, and in the finished pancake there will be a hole necessary for attaching it to the bar. You should not make the mixture too liquid, this is necessary so that the hardening proceeds faster. If you have two identical molds and tubes, you can pour both pancakes at the same time, otherwise they are cast alternately.
After hardening, the concrete pancakes are removed from the mold and weighed.For perfect weight adjustment, excess concrete can be removed by sanding one side with a grinder. To do this, put a concrete grinding wheel on the grinder and remove a small layer of concrete. The castings obtained in this case are 25 cm thick and 32 cm in diameter. Ultimately, the concrete pancakes look like this:
After the concrete has completely dried, the pancake can be coated with paint. This will protect the concrete from absorbing moisture, which affects the weight of the bar and can lead to the destruction of the plates.
Preparing the Bar and Barbell Rack
Based on the thickness of the resulting pancakes and their number, equal indentations are made on both sides of the bar for attaching pancakes. To fix the plates on the bar, it is necessary to make protrusions that prevent their arbitrary movement. This is done using a welding machine by welding a thick, rough seam around the circumference of a stainless tube. In this case, the seams were placed at a distance of 40 cm from the edges of the bar, so that in the future it would be possible to put on additional weights to weight the projectile. The total length of the bar is 2 meters.
After this, a stand for the barbell is prepared. Here, the rear racks of the beams were used, made of metal pipes concreted into the ground. First, the optimal height at which the projectile will be fixed is measured. Then, at the marked points, at the same level, holes are drilled with a hammer drill for the bolts on which the neck will rest. Strong bolts are inserted into the resulting holes and tightened with nuts for static fixation in the racks.
The bolts must be long enough to securely secure the bar.For safety, a pair of nuts with a wide washer must be screwed onto the ends of the bolts, which will prevent the rod from accidentally falling off the bolts. If this sports equipment is not being built indoors, but on an outdoor sports ground, it is recommended that the bolts and connections be coated with paint, which will prevent corrosion.
After completing all the above points, you can proceed to assembling the projectile. To do this, the weights are placed on the bar until they stop on the clamps, and the bar is placed on the racks. Here we consider a very simple and reliable way to make a barbell with your own hands, which does not require labor or financial costs. For bench press, you can install any low bench near the rack. The end result looks like this:
The total weight of this bar is about 55 kg; its weight can be increased by adding concrete or metal plates. This equipment is ideal for various exercises and development of all muscle groups. When conducting training, do not forget about safety, as in any gym, and begin exercises in the presence of a belaying partner.
