Garage Gym Projects

[wellvrsd]

Full Disclosure: My garage gym lives in the basement. I still believe it qualifies as a garage gym.

I've gotten to the point where almost everything I want for my gym are things I feel like I should be building myself, so here we go. This is where I'm starting from:



The rack is from Titan Fitness, they used to call it the HD, but it appears they have changed the name to T-3. It's sitting was sitting on some foam from Harbor Freight, and the platform in front of it is a piece of plywood on some 2x4's that was the base for the previous owner's sauna. All of these need to be replaced or improved. I'm ok with the single bare light bulb though, it feels right.

My to do list:

• Build proper lifting platform - Done
• More space inside the rack - Done
• Additional uprights for the rack with plate storage
• Barbell Gun Rack, similar to this
• Deadlift Jack
• Fat Camber Bar
• Fat Trap Bar
• Prowler
• Plyo Box

 

[wellvrsd]

The most common way people build their own lifting platform is to lay down two sheets of 3/4" osb, then glue two more sheets of osb perpendicular on top of the first two, then center a nice piece of plywood perpendicular to the first layer with horse stall mats along the sides.

I varied from this standard for a couple of reasons. First, this platform is in my basement, and nothing 8'x8' is making it out of there whole. I would like to move someday, and I would like to take this platform with me when I do. Second, I have a whole lot of 18' 2x6's that made up a box that my metal roof trim components were delivered in. I did have to pay for the box, but I considered that part of the cost of doing the roof; for the purpose of any subsequent projects, they're free to me. BTW, I could have returned the box for a full refund, but I must have missed it when the Menards counter person told me that the first time . I just wanted to throw that in there for anyone working out the costs of their own metal roof.

I wound up ripping 6" off the plywood so that it would fit in the center of my 42" rack. The extension on the end is for a future set of uprights that will be plate holders.

 

[wellvrsd]

My power rack came with 24" of front to back depth. It wasn't terribly restrictive, but if 24" is good, 30" is better, right? This little project took me about 6 hours.

No turning back from here:


I post these two pictures to rebut some of the complaints about this power rack. People complain about the quality of the welds, and the lack of interior finishing/toughness of the powdercoat. I believe these complaints to be from early versions of the rack, as not many recent reviews include these problems, however some of the early reviews are still considered the final say on this rack. I do agree that the welds are not the prettiest, but having cut through a bunch of them without finding any defects, I trust them. The second picture here is after trying to wirewheel off the powdercoat. I wound up grinding it.


I don't have a picture of the fitup of any of the first joint because I didn't have enough hands. The 2x3 extensions I was adding were just a touch bigger than the 2x3 beams I was adding them to. I used the flat of my welding table to keep things straight in the one plane, then held a straight edge against the new extension and eyeballed the gap didn't change along the length of the beam. Clamp, re-verify square, tack, re-verify square, and weld. The fit-up in the picture was even more tedious. Measure, tweak, measure, tweak, measure for each plane. Two tacks on top, flip over, measure and tweak some more, and start the real welds. All four were with-in 1/64th inch in legnth of each other, made it all worth it.


A little color, and put it all back together.

 

[MDSPHOTO]

Looks good and nice to have the skills and equipment to make it yourself. Here's what I did for bar storage in my basement gym, simple peg board to get everything off the floor.

 

[drivesitfar]

Well: here's a stand I had for my lat and bench accessories from www.ironmaster.com. it is solid and holds almost any lat accessory you can buy. their dumbbells are good quality and I had their adjustable sets up to 165 and didn't worry about failure and easy to change. another thing is had 2 sets of 165's that took almost no space after selling my Ivanko urethane dumbbell set from 5's thru 100's that took up about 16 feet of wall space.

nice color choice on your rack and not sure who was criticizing your rack or the welds, but if they work and you like them then that's really all that counts.

ask questions if you have any and I or some of the other members will try to help. or we'll just watch.

BTW my favorite piece of equipment is my Invertalign inversion table made by Teeter Ups.

 

[wellvrsd]

Looks good and nice to have the skills and equipment to make it yourself. Here's what I did for bar storage in my basement gym, simple peg board to get everything off the floor.

That's a gorgeous set up there. So clean. Mine will be reclaimed wood and iron pipe, hopefully the execution will be as good as yours, but it will be a different look.

Well: here's a stand I had for my lat and bench accessories from www.ironmaster.com. it is solid and holds almost any lat accessory you can buy. their dumbbells are good quality and I had their adjustable sets up to 165 and didn't worry about failure and easy to change. another thing is had 2 sets of 165's that took almost no space after selling my Ivanko urethane dumbbell set from 5's thru 100's that took up about 16 feet of wall space.

Those Ironmaster dumbbells are slick looking. I'll definitely have them in mind if I ever decide I need to do more dumbbell exercises. Currently I'm all barbell and bodyweight, my 5-50 dumbbell set just collects dust.

 

[BigSteve63]

Like your power rack. I had one I made from 3" channel that was extra deep as well - thought I had to have a Wieder with pec-deck so I sold it. Worst mistake ever!

 

[drivesitfar]

Well: a couple options you have for using your dumbbells more might be to get dumbbell hooks from http://www.allstarhealth.com/f/country_power-power_hooks.htm and they have good supplements too.

also I used this for spotting sort of like the ProSpot machines. Shermworks makes spotters for Olympic bar and for dumbbells. http://shermworks.com/

if you've ever thrown your shoulder out dumping dumbbells while doing bench or flies with them or bruised your legs you'll love either of these two options. I have no affiliation and just like a quality product and want to see members, friends and clients lift safer because don't want to see people getting hurt trying to get healthy.

good luck