A question about the "Rip" Rack

[Mark Rippetoe]

Will the bench be upholstered in auto velour as described in book?

The bench will be an un-upholstered bare piece of unfinished butcher-block maple. 2 x 10 x 48, a beautiful piece of furniture for your gym.

[RangerRick]

The bolts are 1.25" shoulder bolts. The nut is tightened, of course. The pins, well, everybody else's are shittier than ours. I don't know what Westside spacing is, but the TSS version has 2-inch centers on the hole spacing.

The pins are definitely no joke. I had a machinist build a minor variant of this rack four years ago. For the purposes of evaluating reliability, we did a 500lb drop test from about 3 feet on the pins. Ruined the cheap bar as expected, but the rack and pins were unaffected.

The design is simple, effective, and solid. The C channel steel will probably last until the sun goes supernova. Worth saving your pennies for.

[jimmyboss]

Will TSS be producing pre-bent cheap bars to use in these racks?

[Mark Rippetoe]

No. You'll have to buy those from China.

[jimmyboss]

No. You'll have to buy those from China.

Haha! Do you recommend buying a cheap bar purely for doing rack pulls in this rack?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Why would you do that???

[jimmyboss]

Sorry I meant to say as well as purchasing a good bar so that you wouldn't bend that when doing rack pulls. Or would you just do rack pulls with that anyway and get another when it bends?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Doing rack pulls bends the bar IF YOU DROP IT ON THE PINS. Don't do that, and the bar won't bend.

[jimmyboss]

Doing rack pulls bends the bar IF YOU DROP IT ON THE PINS. Don't do that, and the bar won't bend.

Ha! Good point, thanks. Even so I watched an Alan Thall video that said that putting the bar down on pins with enough weight will mess up the bar. Do you recommend block pulls as alternative to protect the bar?

[Mark Rippetoe]

I have 3 bars in my gym that are perfectly straight after 39 years of use in a black iron gym. Perhaps Coach Thrall is incorrect about some things.

But you're doing a good job of filling in for quad.