Written by: Kaizen DIY
Hey everyone, welcome back to another DIY gym equipment tutorial. I’m Kyle and this week’s project is DIY leg rollers. Having a single-leg roller or better yet, a pair of leg rollers can add a lot of versatility to your rack. Use them for sissy squats, split squats, sit-ups, and so much more.
My rack has 1-inch holes, so my design utilizes a 1 inch threaded rod. This design is great and feels super solid. The only downside is that it’s kind of pricey. The cost was around $140 for the pair, plus maybe 20-30 minutes of my time. That’s still less than purchasing, but not by much.
If after watching this video you decide the cost is too high or they’re too much work, check out our affiliates, Rogue sells them for $120 each plus shipping, REP has them for $100 each with free shipping.
The key to this project is the availability of the foam. I am in the US and I found these 16-inch foam pads on Amazon. All of the steps in this project are based on the dimensions of these pads.
The pads are around 15.5 inches in length. The center hole is about an inch and a half, in order to decrease the amount of space between the foam and the threaded rod, I add PVC.
I cut these pieces to 15.5 inches with my miter saw. If you don’t have a miter saw, you can use pretty much any other type of saw.
The only length I could find the 1 inch threaded rod is 36 inches, which means I need to cut it down to size.
This is probably the most difficult part of this project, which isn’t saying much because it’s pretty easy. This can be done with an angle grinder and a cut off disc. I recently got a chop saw so that’s what I’m using.
I cut these to 22.5 inches. That accounts for the pads, nuts, washers, and width of my 3×3 uprights. It may be different for your setup.
Once they’re cut, you’ll need to clean up the edges. I use a belt sander but this can be done with any number of tools or even just sandpaper.
After all the cuts, it’s time to assemble
The 1-1/4 diameter pvc is a little snug, but it fits.
The rod goes through the pvc, washers, lock washers and nuts go on either side. The lock washers are optional but I use them because I don’t want anything moving around.
Once everything is tight, they’re ready to use.
I head over to the Garage Gym Experiment house to test these on Jake’s rack.
The 1” version works great. I’ve been getting a lot of requests for a ⅝” version, so I decided to make that as well.
The build process is basically the same, but using 5/8” hardware instead of 1”. I add a couple more layers of PVC to fill the gap.
Tighten everything up and it’s good to go.
Initial thoughts on this? Don’t waste your time. The 5/8” does not hold up, there is a lot of flex, and it just feels unsafe.
If you’re looking for leg rollers that fit 5/8” holes, I’d recommend going with either the REP PR-4000 leg roller attachment or the Rogue Monster lite leg roller. They’re much safer options.
So, it’s a bummer that the 5/8” version didn’t work, however, I did come up with another idea.
I recently bought a Fringe Sport 2×3 rack power rack with 5/8” holes. It came with 6 weight storage pins, which actually hold up well under a lot of weight.
It got me thinking…and eventually testing them out as leg rollers. Amazingly, they hold weight much better than the rollers I made.
I add a little foam and some gaffer’s tape, and boom, they are done.
This version works way better.
A big thanks to Figjam_exerciser and Matt Pendergraph for coming up with so many great ideas on how to use the leg rollers.
| Materials: |
| 2 x 1”x36” Threaded rods |
| 2 x 16” Foam Pads |
| 6 x 1” Hex nuts |
| 8 x 1” Flat washers |
| 4 x 1” Lock washers |
| 2 x PVC 1” x 24” |
| PVC 1.25” x 24” |
| Tools: | Amazon | Home Depot |
| Dewalt sliding miter saw | Amazon | Home Depot |
| (Above) alternatively, these cuts can be done with a hand saw | ||
| Dewalt chop saw | Amazon | |
| (above) alternatively, this cut can be done with an angle grinder and a metal cut-off wheel. | ||
| Belt sander | Amazon | Home Depot |
| (above) alternatively, this step can be done with just sandpaper |