Protecting Bars

[mweitz]

K, metal to metal is bad. While cheap gear is to generally be avoided, it can be useful while building your home gym.

Cheap bar rests are metal. This wears your knurls, and scratches your bar.

The best thing would be to countersink bolts with a nut on the opposing side into small pieces of UHMW. While this is certainly possible, the resting points on those are usually raised, so it would complicate matters, though I hear UHMW is easy to work with.

I got a "squat rack" with some other gear I purchased. It is basically just an adjustable bar holder, and can be used for squatting, pressing or bench press if you put a bench in it. The guy I got it from used some carpet with double sided tape and put it on the bar holders. It works OK, but the tape is getting old so they aren't staying in so well.



I just picked up a very inexpensive bench press bench. It is missing some parts and a bit rusty, but it's solid, and it is perfect for a flat bench press, which is all I need (it was 30 bux, and the guy was 4 blocks from me on craigslist).

So today I started looking around the garage for stuff to cover the bar holders with. First thought was an old mountain bike tire, but mine have wires which are very hard to cut. Next was a heavy duty dirtbiking motorcycle tube, but I only have new ones, and they cost about as much as I spent on the bench, LOL.

I found an old freediving neoprene booty (3mm) and cut that up and zip tied it to the holder. It looks like it will work OK, but it's ugly as hell.



Next I found some old SCUBA weightbelt material. I have 2" Nylon Webbing and 2" Rubber belts. I decided to try the webbing since I have more of it and I don't use it for that anymore. I think the rubber will probably wear better and look better, but I'll go with the nylon webbing for now and see how it does.



Any other ideas of pictures of what you have done?

[Adam Skillin]

I tried coating some j-hooks with shoe repair stuff. It was too tacky, the bar couldn't move in the hook. Ended up cutting it off with a razor.

[mweitz]

That's not a bad idea though. And it made me think of this stuff:

Tool Handle Dip

Plasti-dip makes an aerosol too. Might be a fun project.

Can get that at Home Depot type stores.

2" webbing can be had at REI type places.

[Cody]

There's a reason UHMW plastic is used by essentially every reputable lifting equipment manufacturer. If you don't want to drill/countersink it, McMaster-Carr has self-adhesive strips of it. No reason to be ghetto when the plastic is extremely cheap (ebay has the best prices).

[mweitz]

There's a reason UHMW plastic is used by essentially every reputable lifting equipment manufacturer. If you don't want to drill/countersink it, McMaster-Carr has self-adhesive strips of it. No reason to be ghetto when the plastic is extremely cheap (ebay has the best prices).

If I was going to keep this stuff for any length of time I probably would, but spending several hours and 20 or 30 bucks doesn't make sense. Since the surface isn't flat you can't just slap it on, you either need to bevel it or use two pieces. This also increases the cost since it has to be a lot thicker. Then you have to find hardware that will work. I'm sure McMaster Carr also has that (I'm lucky, I have a very comprehensive nuts and bolts place 5 min from my house), but even sourcing the stuff would take time.

Did you do this? Can we see your finished product? How much time did it take? What was the total cost of everything, including parts, special bits needed to countersink and hardware?

[Cody]

If I was going to keep this stuff for any length of time I probably would, but spending several hours and 20 or 30 bucks doesn't make sense. Since the surface isn't flat you can't just slap it on, you either need to bevel it or use two pieces. This also increases the cost since it has to be a lot thicker. Then you have to find hardware that will work. I'm sure McMaster Carr also has that (I'm lucky, I have a very comprehensive nuts and bolts place 5 min from my house), but even sourcing the stuff would take time.

Did you do this? Can we see your finished product? How much time did it take? What was the total cost of everything, including parts, special bits needed to countersink and hardware?

I cut and counter-sank new UMHW for my j-hooks, took less than 2 minutes to take the old pieces off, fab, and install the new pieces.

You don't need to bevel the UHMW, just lay it on top - your bar will have the same surface area contact. I would simply pop a hole through the j-hook, counter sink the UHMW, and use a flat machine screw with a nut.

I already have the drill bits, and any man should at least have a drill. You can borrow a countersink bit, otherwise they are pretty cheap at home depot.

[mweitz]

I cut and counter-sank new UMHW for my j-hooks, took less than 2 minutes to take the old pieces off, fab, and install the new pieces.

You don't need to bevel the UHMW, just lay it on top - your bar will have the same surface area contact. I would simply pop a hole through the j-hook, counter sink the UHMW, and use a flat machine screw with a nut.

I already have the drill bits, and any man should at least have a drill. You can borrow a countersink bit, otherwise they are pretty cheap at home depot.

We aren't talking about pieces that already have UHMW on them. Look carefully at my photos. You can't just slap a piece of plastic on those.

[Cody]

We aren't talking about pieces that already have UHMW on them. Look carefully at my photos. You can't just slap a piece of plastic on those.

I'm aware, read my second point - the uneven surface doesn't matter.

[mweitz]

Got a cage the other day. The hooks had some wear, though none on the bar at all.

I was going to just wrap the pins with a short piece of hose, but found some wire wrap and decided to try it.

I finished the ends with electrical tape. Have to see how it holds up long term.

[johnnys]

That's not a bad idea though. And it made me think of this stuff:

Tool Handle Dip

Plasti-dip makes an aerosol too. Might be a fun project.
.

I tried the spray on my j hooks. Better than nothing, but not holding up well. I got the idea after dipping a couple s hooks that hold collars, and failing to figure out a way to dip the j's cheaply.