will this work

[rdsk8ter]

I am working on building my own squat bar for weight lifting and want a drop bar without the cost of a store bought one. Here is what I'm looking at doing if I could have some of the knowledge base here it would be appreciated. The bar is just a standard Olympic style workout bar with the ends cut down the red section is about 6" long for the actual drop made of two 3/8" thick 1 1/2" wide plates. The bar will be passed through the 3/8" and welded on both sides. What I'm wondering is if the 3/8" steel two wide will be strong enough to handle the weight of a decent weighted squat. Right now I am at 135 per side but am getting stronger by the day. Adding gussets would be difficult on the bottom-inside of the top bar but realistically what am I looking at weight wise the bar could hold assuming the welds are good. pardon my great paint skills but its just easy when your tired.

 

[RedRabbit]

I wouldn't. I'm really into lifting and have tried making some simple equipment and it has always seemed a bit sketchy. But I wouldn't get under a lift I built myself either so maybe I'm a bit paranoid.

 

[kerrynzl]

Bore a piece of 1-1/2"x1-1/2" Tubing [ 2 holes] for droppers

I've seen dropped axles on trailers done like that , so a weightlifting bar should be OK

 

[theoldwizard1]

Bore a piece of 1-1/2"x1-1/2" Tubing [ 2 holes] for droppers

What wall thickness ? 0.120, 0.188 or ???

I would triple the plates (gives you 9/8 or 1.125). Pin the plate together with at least 2 - 1/4" or larger button head screws. Use Locktite.

You will get a lot more flex out of the bar. At very high loads, it will bend.

 

[JESTERxHEAD]

make a gusset out of the 3/8 material the distance from the drop to the side of the bar about 3" wide. Weld that in and you will be good to go.

 

[Kevin54]

I'm going to say that it won't work too well. The reason being is the portion going into the 3/8" thick plate. You do not have a lot of bearing surface to adequately hold that kind of weight on the end. If you weld everything together, it may be better, but do you want to ruin a good bar with welding? And if you don't, then you have to figure, you only have a bar sticking through a plate by 3/8". That is not very much at all.

I've worked on some bar designs and have done some research on the bars. Personally, to keep something from happening, I would look for a used drop bar before I would rig something up like what you show. If you go to some lifting sites, you can find some Olympic Drop Curled bars for a reasonable price.

What you are showing, sort of reminds me of shackles on leaf springs back in the day. Many of times I saw a car that the shackles folded over on the cars. And I know, there is a difference in weight, but it's the same concept.

Go to a few lifting sites, or do a search for EZ-Curl bars and find yourself either a good used bar, or save some coin for a new one that you know will hold up

 

[gte718p]

I'm not a serious weight lifter. What is the purpose of the drop bar? Is it just to make the bar a little higher so it is easier to get up?

 

[kerrynzl]

I'm not a serious weight lifter. What is the purpose of the drop bar? Is it just to make the bar a little higher so it is easier to get up?

Yeah! make the droppers about 60" then it will be really easy [you won't need to lift it off the floor]

Seriously though, they shouldn't do that towel on their shoulder ******** and learn to roll the bar onto their shoulders

You cannot roll the bar into position with droppers

 

[bmxdad]

I wouldn't, unless you get some good welds on there and anneal it ... something were to come loose then either you or someone near you could get hurt, especially if you start squatting some heavy weight. Add another 100lbs and bar is going to start flexing, imagine what the welds well be doing.

 

[zkling]

You will be just fine, keep the edge of the hole >~.5 of the hole diameter from the edge. I think box tubing would be easier and that is how a number of them that I have seen are done. Are you going for the full safety bar or just an offset bar? Another issue is if you do chop a regular bar, you need to get rid of the plating before welding. Hence why most offset/camber or drop bars are not chrome finished, but instead oxided or painted.

I'm not a serious weight lifter. What is the purpose of the drop bar? Is it just to make the bar a little higher so it is easier to get up?

It shifts the weight balance forward when squatting.

 

[A_Pmech]

If I was to make something like that, I would use two 1/4" pieces of flat on each side, spaced several inches apart. The result is much more efficient than one 3/8" flat.

 

[Notgrownup]

Why don't you build a raised deck like with 4x4 or 6x6 blocks of wood with 2x4 nailed to the bottom to give it stability???

 

[larry_g]

I am working on building my own squat bar for weight lifting and want a drop bar without the cost of a store bought one. Here is what I'm looking at doing if I could have some of the knowledge base here it would be appreciated. The bar is just a standard Olympic style workout bar with the ends cut down the red section is about 6" long for the actual drop made of two 3/8" thick 1 1/2" wide plates. The bar will be passed through the 3/8" and welded on both sides. What I'm wondering is if the 3/8" steel two wide will be strong enough to handle the weight of a decent weighted squat. Right now I am at 135 per side but am getting stronger by the day. Adding gussets would be difficult on the bottom-inside of the top bar but realistically what am I looking at weight wise the bar could hold assuming the welds are good. pardon my great paint skills but its just easy when your tired.

My first thought looking at this is the not drill the drop bar and put the tube through it but rotate the bar 90* so that it can be **** welded to the side of two bars. So now you have a 1.5" wide self gusseting drop.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[rdsk8ter]

Basically I may have miss spoken as there will be two 3/8" plates on each side totaling 3/4" thick. The bar is chrome plated but I assumed I could just grind the area around the weld to remove the chrome I've never messed around with it before now. I have a workout cage so I am trying to keep it to where if I hit my max the bar can rest down onto the cage. The cage is 47.5 on the outsides so I'm trying to stay as wide as possible on the main bar to accommodate the easy use on the cage. I havnt really thought of cutting the bigger section as I am fairly certain that it bolts on the bar. I do have an idea of bracing over the top I'll draw up tonight and post. I have built bars, platforms, and a lot of attachments for the cage but this is one I have been putting off for some time and really wanting to do. It leaves me to ponder would it be better to start from scratch or modify this bar. I like building things like this because well they don't sell much used equipment near me and when they do its because its either bad equipment or its beat and needs to be tossed and secondly I like to build it because it means more to me knowing that I made it.

 

[rdsk8ter]

ok how about something like this adding a continuous 1" wide 1/8 or 3/16 strap welded up and over now the weights would be trying to collapse- stretch a triangle if my thinking is correct

 

[kerrynzl]

You don't need strongbacks if done properly. This is how we make 4000lb dropped axles in NZ.

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/...qIoMOCl3c2Y_teXBSzfU1UCdPLLniDSvoBpTAzbcwEf4_


As mentioned earlier you can make the droppers from some square tubing.
I've made dropped axles from 50mm square 5mm thickness [2" x 1/4" ]that take a huge load.

You could easily bore 2 holes into a piece of 1-1/2 square x 1/4" and it wouldn't bend.
If you have access to a mill ,you could drill the holes in the tube on an angle to recover lost width from the overlap.

You will never load a weight bar the same as an axle [ or impact it the same as going over a bump ]

 

[iron_worker]

If I was to make something like that, I would use two 1/4" pieces of flat on each side, spaced several inches apart. The result is much more efficient than one 3/8" flat.

^This. I was thinking this before I saw his post. Obviously you don't want to bring that second plate in very far or it will limit your grip width range but even a few inches will increase the strength of this setup tremendously.

IW

 

[TheGreatNate]

It shifts the weight balance forward when squatting.

I'm not really understanding the point of this bar either, can you elaborate further?

 

[zkling]

I'm not really understanding the point of this bar either, can you elaborate further?

Do you squat much? Think of the bar position and CG of a back squat or front squat. Now shift the weight down and forward around the center of your chest. It forces your lower back to stay tight while allowing a more upright body position. It also forces you to fight stabilization as the off set causes it to swing a bit. Depending on the amount of offset you can also move your hands to vertical portions instead of the straight bar, helping those with limited shoulder flexibility. There is another bar called a safety squat bar (look it up) that really forces the lifter forward, causing them to fight to sit back in the squat. Does the average person need one? Probably not, but it is just another tool of the trade. I will say though the safety squat bars are pretty nice.

 

[Kevin54]

I'm not really understanding the point of this bar either, can you elaborate further?

Ivanko makes some nice bars, but theirs are called EZ-Curls instead of drop bars. With the curled bars, it is easier on your wrist which allows you to lift a little more weight.

 

[TheGreatNate]

Do you squat much? Think of the bar position and CG of a back squat or front squat. Now shift the weight down and forward around the center of your chest. It forces your lower back to stay tight while allowing a more upright body position. It also forces you to fight stabilization as the off set causes it to swing a bit. Depending on the amount of offset you can also move your hands to vertical portions instead of the straight bar, helping those with limited shoulder flexibility. There is another bar called a safety squat bar (look it up) that really forces the lifter forward, causing them to fight to sit back in the squat. Does the average person need one? Probably not, but it is just another tool of the trade. I will say though the safety squat bars are pretty nice.

I do some squatting but I'd never heard/seen a bar like the one the OP described so I was curious what the benefit was. That does help clarify things, so thank you.

 

[rdsk8ter]

here is a picture I literally just found but it basically shows what i want. I just don't know how well it will hold.

The bar as discussed it helps train on a new level, I wouldn't recommend them until you have good form down its hard to learn on them.

 

[zkling]

It will hold just fine. People drastically understamate the strength of materials and then go by a seat of their pants guess. While I don't think it is the most effective design it will be just fine as long as you manufacture it properly. Yes I ran the bearing, tearout and bending numbers just to verify for myself. I would have no problem with that design, again if properly manufactured.

I forget the name off the top of my head but the cheapest maker of those uses solid bar stock and 1x2? tubing for the offset portions. That is what they had at the college gym. Something like gorilla bar? : It was all black and IIRC ~$200.

 

[jimmyjammoto]

I'm sure you want to use existing equipment to make this, but instead of cutting up a useable bar you could just build a clone of this Rogue safety bar fairly easy and it would hold up fine.