Power rack plans: can't use bolts on inside front?

[sgtroyer]

Rip,

Thanks for all the great info. I have what may well be a dumb question about your power rack plans, but I couldn't find the info searching. The big bolts that you use as bar hooks can only face one way, otherwise they would be inside the channel and you couldn't safely set the bar on them, correct? From the pictures, it appears that the channel has the flat face forward, for both the front and back vertical sections. So you can put the bar on the inside of the rack at the back (which works well for bench pressing) or on the outside at the front (pressing, I guess, if you wanted to do it out of the rack), but what about squatting in the rack? To squat the way I do at the gym, you would want the bolts on the inside front, so you're in the rack but facing forward. Do I just need to face the other way, towards the wall? I find it easier to look at a point on the floor than on the wall, but maybe I'm doing it wrong.

Thanks.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Maybe you could turn the rack around.

[sgtroyer]

Maybe you could turn the rack around.

Yeah, that's true, although then that leaves me with the same problem for bench pressing. I'm thinking the best answer might be to build it with the front verticals turned around facing the other way, so that it's easy to put the bolts on the inside either way, and not worry about attaching to the outside (or use the safeties at an angle for that, I think I've seen a picture of that on the site somewhere.) Just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something obvious. If the rack is out in the middle of the room this isn't an issue, since there's no real front or back, but mine would be up close to a wall.

Thanks.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I have 4 racks in this gym that are close to a wall.

[sgtroyer]

Okay, I get it, clearly I'm missing something obvious and it was a dumb question after all. Can you give me another clue? I promise I'm not being obtuse on purpose.

[Mark Rippetoe]

You can build the rack any way you want to. It's your rack.

[David Kirkham]

I built mine flat side in. I don't lift out of the rack. I think I might do a bolt together one next time.