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Homemade Dumb-bells For Under $30!
After reading a discussion thread over at my buddy Ross Enamit’s forum a couple of months ago, I’ve been dying to make a pair of these.
Yeah, I know that they have cheap DB handles at Walmart with the screw on collar locks, but they are too short to handle heavy loads. Oh, and the reviews that I’ve read about them have been less than stellar.
Also, I just get a kick out of building things. After building a club-bell out of pipes and fittings from Lowe’s and a set of parallelettes out of PVC pipes, I guess I’ve been bitten by the DIY’er fitness equipment bug!
Anyway, I was able to steal a way a few minutes from changing diapers and warming bottles, to pick up the following items from Lowe’s:
- Two (2) 18 inch galvanized steel pipes
- Four (4) 2 packs of #12 Pipe Clamps (The one that you use a screwdriver to tighten
Then, I headed to Walmart to pick up
- One (1) roll of duct tape
- One (1) tennis racquet grip and tennis racket grip
All of these items cost me @ 27 bucks, and I was able to build a set of DB handles that can handle up to 200 pounds of weights each as Ross demonstrates below. Yes guys, he’s doing one arm rows with a 200 pound home-made DB!
Now, I won’t be needing to load my DBs with that much weight any time soon, but it’s good to know that a $7 pipe can handle such a load.
Another advantage of building your own DBs is that you can make them thick-handled if you want. Since I’ve been training with KBs for a couple of years now, one thing that I really love about training with them is their thick handles.
Call me lazy, but I don’t like doing separate work for my forearms. So, once I noticed that training with KBs gave me a stronger grip by default, I was hooked on using thick handles.
So, I knew before I made them that they would be thick-handled ones.
OK, here’s a quick “How-to” on building your own DBs. I encourage you to go and read the original discussion to get an idea of the different variations guys have used to make theirs. Also note that I used only the items I listed above.
Here’s the beauty of building these affordable DBs; it’ll take you less than 30 minutes to make them!
First, remove all of the tape and stickers from the pipe. Honestly, this was the hardest part for me because I had to scrape them off. Next, get out your trusty measuring tape and measure six (6) inches from one end of the pipe. Mark it on the pipe. Then, measure six (6) from the other end of the pipe and mark it too.
Now that you have three six (6) inch section marked off on your pipe, it’s time to get the duct tape. The center six (6) inch section is going to be your handle. So keep layering the duct tape until you get the desired thickness.
Keep in mind that the last layer will be your tennis racquet grip, which is thicker than duct tape. Make sure you don’t build your handle up too much with the duct tape before wrapping your grip.
Finally, cover the duct tape with the racquet grip. Use two pipe clamps to hold down both ends of the grip tape, but make sure that the ends of your clamps that will stop the plates from sliding is lined up with the mark you made on the pipe in the beginning. This is important because it will ensure that you’ll be able to put the same number of plates on either side.
Tighten up the clamps on the ends of the grip really well; then, slap on your plates along with the other pipe clamps that will serve as your collar locks. Once they’re tightened, you’re ready to start training with your new homemade DBs!
Here’s a brief vid of my DBs. Notice the difference in the thickness of the handles. I’m going to build up the other handle, but I wanted to show you guys the difference.
One final word about these homemade DBs. If you’re concerned about the plates sliding off or if the pipe clamps are strong enough, then don’t because I loaded up one handle with 100 pounds, and it was rock solid. Also, I did a couple of snatches with 65lbs and, again, no problems.
Let me know if you guys have any questions …
