These shitty plates are more than $3/pound? Have you looked at The Strength Co. plates?
Olympic Iron Barbell Plates - Made In USA – The Strength Co.
These look great and they are domestically manufactured. They also guarantee that their pairs are of equal weight. I try really hard to get USA-made equipment (although it's often a very challenging task). However, I notice in the promo pictures that the inner hole of the plates doesn't appear to be smooth they way one expects the steel insert of a bumper plate to be. That makes me a bit nervous that the plates will either not fit snugly or tear up my barbell. But maybe I'm just paranoid. Does anybody own these? Thoughts?
50 Pound Weight Plate Pair - Weight It Out
These shitty plates are more than $3/pound? Have you looked at The Strength Co. plates?
Olympic Iron Barbell Plates - Made In USA – The Strength Co.
Save your money on Gucci-looking overpriced plates and go with The Strength Co. Grant's plates fit snugly, won't tear up your barbell, and, at all plate sizes, very close to true on the stated weight.
Although it's nice to see another company making gym equipment domestically, those plates are super cheap-looking, and they would probably be annoying to handle in the gym. There's a reason these flat steel plates are not the standard.
Those blingy plates look ridiculous.
If you look closely at the images and know about metal finishing, I think you will find these to be a lot smoother than your bar. So damaging you bar is not your main issue. I would be more concerned with handling. There's a reason plates have a lip. It make then a lot easier to handle. Their web site actually has a warning about using it.
The concept could be interesting, they are cutting them from plate steel. Not unlike Microgainz's five pound plates. But at that price you can get more from cast plates.
I've already been talked out of these. I am not an expert on metal finishing. My bar is not smooth in that it has grooves that go around the shaft. It looked like these plates have grooves that would be at a right angle to the ones on the barbell. I'm no metallurgist but it gave me pause which is why I asked about them.
What caught my attention was that they are USA made and they seem to cut pairs from the same piece of steel so you don't have to worry about weighing out each plate. I'm also worried that these are *too* thin and that would put too much pressure on one portion of the needle bearing if a deadlift went awry.
I'm willing to pay a premium for USA made innovative products but it seems that The Strength Company product is a far better choice. Thanks to everybody who made me see the error of my ways!
I ordered a bunch of Weight It Outs plates in early September of 2020, at the height of Lockdownapallooza when no one had any in stock that I could find; they did so I ordered a bunch of their 'blemished' plates. They're irregularly cut, the holes in the centers are way too big so they wiggle a lot on the bar, due to steel density issues the plates are much thinner than iron so it's actually a little painful to hold them by those 'handles', and the steel peals like a church bell on easter...but they were what was available during those stupid times and they've done the trick. When I buy some additional plates in the near future it will be from the Strength Company.