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Thread: Tim!s Gym garage plate & barbell maintenance

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2019
    Posts
    78

    Default Tim!s Gym garage plate & barbell maintenance

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    I am a "self-sufficient lifter" operating out of my garage, and avid fan of Starting Strength. I wanted to share with you my recent experience maintaining my iron plates and B&R 2.0 barbell

    The weight plates needed little... work gloves on my hands, I put some effort into rust removal on the plates with steel wool. One to two coats of rustoleum Hammered in black and they look great. A Sharpie oil-based marker in white for the poundage for the final touch. Highly recommended.

    My beloved B&R 2.0 bar from Rogue was a little over a year old, with routine maintenance as described here by Rippetoe. During the VA gym shutdown by VA Governor Blackface, I opened up my gym to high school and college athletes. Increased use = (increase palm sweat+ VA humidity) - lazy ass maintenance = rust. Yuck.

    I'm committed to lifting, so I wanted to experiment with a longer term solution to removing rust. ~$10 for a 4" x 10' PVC pipe, ~$10 for 4" end cap, $4 for two 1-liter bottles of vinegar. 1) PVC pipe to soak barbell in 50/50 solution of vinegar and water 2) tie nylon rope around end of barbell for retrieval 3) let soak three days. I cut the PVC pipe down to 6" past the barbell but you don't have to... just have a longer recovery rope.

    When I first pulled it out I thought I had just blown hundreds of dollars by ruining the bar. There was a thick, black coat of ook on the bar. Hose that down, then wipe down with rag and let air dry in your rack. Light scuffing with steel wool and then 3-in-1 Oil and the bar looks brand new.

    (Recommend you let the rusty ook drain out of your barbell by letting one side stay up on a J-hook while the other side touches the ground for about an hour, then reverse BEFORE 3-in-1 oil)

    The PVC pipe will be available years from now should I once again become lazy and fail to do monthly maintenance.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2019
    Posts
    272

    Default

    Is chalk damaging or maybe protecting to the bar knurling?

    How about on plates?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2018
    Posts
    599

    Default

    Chalk absorbs moisture (why we use it) and will absorb moisture from the air and hold it against your bar if it stays in the knurling. Best to brush it out if you have a raw steel bar. Probably less of an issue for plates.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2019
    Posts
    78

    Default

    Plates were untouched by rust. The rust on the barbell was in weird places... the sleeves and the knit long where the chalk wasn’t . Weird. But it is gone now.

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