Guest Post by Mike Reed, Owner of Micro Gainz LLC
A few ago when I became more interested in powerlifting, I wanted a power rack so it would be safer for me to lift by myself. You see I am not a gym-goer. I have always worked out at home for various reasons the chief one being time savings. When I looked at power rack prices I decided that was not really feasible for me, so I turned to my father in law who is a bit of a craftsman. I showed him what a steel power rack looked like and we drew up a power rack that would be made from wood instead. The power rack you see in my pictures is made from 4 solid pieces of Oak, one of the strongest hardwoods out there.
We measured the space in my garage and then he used his wood tools to make the boards himself. The boards are 91” long, by 5 ¾” wide, by 1 3/4’” thick. This can obviously be tailored depending on the size of the space you are filling for a power rack. The holes in the boards are 1 ¼” and I use 4 foot long 1” pipe to fit through the holes for the safeties. The barbell rests on 1” thick pipe with elbows on them that are cut down so the barbell will not slip off the rests. The entire structure is screwed into the joists of my garage ceiling for support and anchored into the floor with concrete screws giving the entire rack stability and strength. The rack is 40” wide by 29 ¾” in depth. This will depend slightly on your personal garage/basement location. I have used the rack for squats, bench pressing, and overhead pressing.
Many will ask is wood strong enough to hold a lot of weight on a barbell and the answer is yes. The oak boards are extremely strong and there are no signs of wear after 2 years of use. The most the rack held for me is 350lbs which is held with ease. The other question many will ask is if the weight is dropped will the rack break apart and the answer to that is the rack will hold just fine. I personally dropped 250lbs off my back and it hit the safety 1” pipes and bent the pipes, but the wood did not crack or buckle or anything. For most weightlifters, this rack will handle all your needs for a fraction of the price of a steel rack. If you are a handy person this is a great choice for sure! I would say between the 2 steel pipes, 2 elbows, and 2 small pieces of pipe plus the wood it would be less than $100.
***My name is Mike and I am the owner of the company Micro Gainz which offers fractional weight plates for barbell and dumbbell weightlifting. These fractional plates have been reviewed right here on Garage Gym Experiment! If there are any questions hit me up at mike@microgainz.com.
Thank you to Mike for taking the time to write this for the home gym crowd. It’s truly appreciated. You can check out the Micro Gainz review here.
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