The joys of free power racks (missing parts)

[Chris Morth]

Aloha CrossFit boards,

I've been lurking the equipment board for a while in my continuing mission to upgrade my school's weight room on as limited a budget as humanly possible and I've gotten some really excellent ideas (can't tell you how much the kids love using tires as bumper plates).

But building on a budget does have its drawbacks and I've recently run into one.

I recently acquired a used power rack that lacks the accessories to actually make it functional (the safety bars and the actual bar holders). Finding a suitable replacement for the safety bars is no big deal, but I'm struggling to come up with a safe and practical solution for the bar holders. Hopefully the pictures I'm attaching will be useful. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Aaron C Bennett]

This is the easiest way I can think of:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...63/rackpin.jpg

A wfs link explaining the standard bolt rating:
http://www.boltdepot.com/fastener-in...ade-Chart.aspx
Don't use an unmarked (Grade 1 or 2) bolt.
If you need more in-depth look at different bolts, check out this wfs link:
http://www.americanfastener.com/tech...ings_steel.asp

If you know a metal-worker, you could try this:
http://tsampa.org/training/blog/arch...kproject_8.jpg
http://tsampa.org/training/blog/arch...rrack_hook.jpg
From the wfs link: http://tsampa.org/training/blog/archives/2005/07/

[Aaron C Bennett]

There is also eBay for such things.
http://cgi.ebay.com/J-HOOKS-2-5-X-2-...tness_Strength
(wfs)
http://i13.ebayimg.com/02/i/000/9d/e9/af12_1_b.JPG

You can also find the safety bars:
http://cgi.ebay.com/SAFETY-BAR-FOR-2...3A1|240%3A1318
(wfs)

[John Biddle]

The simplest thing to use for the "hooks" would be bolts, say 8 inches long, and as near as possible to the thickness of the holes through the uprights of the squat rack. That would give you about 4 inches to rest the bar on, 2 inches through the upright of the rack and room to put a nut on the other side.

Ideally, the thread on the bolt would be long enough that you could put a nut on each side of the upright (the one on the "hook" side of the upright, nearest the bar, would be fixed, to stop the hook being pushed too far into the upright that way - the one on the other end would be removable, so you could alter the position of the hook).

You could weld some washers to the head of the bolt to provide more of a lip to hold the bar if you thought that was needed. If the thread on the bolt wasn't long enough to allow a second nut as suggested above, you could weld another washer part way down the bolt as an alternative.

I think this would work adequately, and be pretty cheap (assuming someone can do the welding for you). Potential problem - kids either not being able to move the large nuts on the bolts so as to be able to change the positions, or (more likely) losing them.

[John Biddle]

Aaron Bennett's posts came up while I was typing mine - his sketch is pretty much what I was thinking of.

[Chris Morth]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll take a trip to the hardware store this weekend with some measurements and see what I can find. I knew there had to be a fairly simple answer out there, I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. I'll give these a go and see how things turn out.

Chris

[Jeremy Lamplough]

I got a local welder to make a simple one. Quite cheap.

regards Jeremy

[Dean Jones]

How much on a budget are you? If you can spare $100, you could easily pick some up from BodySolid or another rack company. I got 2 lift-offs for $35 shipped and I think the longer lift-offs (safety bars) were like $55 shipped, I think. From what it looks like, the diameter of those holes is very similar to the BodySolid rack I have...