How to Make Homemade Concrete Barbell with proper Steel Frame
An easy, cheap and funny way to make your own Homemade Barbells!
Before attempting to build your first home made Barbell-set, we would like you to first familiarize with basic concreting, as the cement:sand:water ratio used in this video may vary according to the climate (and humidity) of your country, so for every doubt concerning the proper way to make concrete jobs at home, we invite you to ask a professional bricklayer first. Also basic MIG welding skills are required for this new project of yours to be successful.
Step by Step Instructions
- Be ready to get dirty, as this project generates a lot of dust. Also make sure you pick a nice-weather week, as just one day won’t be enough.
- Cement and send are cheap, so consider buying buckets of different sizes: this way you will make more Barbells to choose from for your training.
- Don’t underestimate weight: a bucket filled of concrete is heavier that the same bucket filled of water, so be careful when “overfilling” those buckets!
- First thing to build is the frame: only a proper steel-framed bar can guarantee that your new Homemade Barbells won’t break (and your feet will break too, if each side is not held together by a proper frame).
- The most difficult part in this project is keeping the handle bar perpendicular to the bucket that you have just filled with concrete: a spirit level will come in hand for making the steel bar straight.
- After 24 hours from filling each bucket, you will need a lot of water to make the new concrete barbell come out from it: slowly breaking the bucket apart is the best way in my opinion, as buckets are cheaper than risking to crack the new-born barbell.
- A good job is such when concrete looks smooth and shows no cracks: again, for this result to be accomplished you need practice, which basically is the main ingredient of Martial Arts.
- Remember to wait one full week for the concrete to cure before starting training.
Quick note: in the above video I used white cement, and for some pieces I used black powder for coloring the concrete: this is totally up to you, as it will give your new Homemade Barbells a different look (which can still be achieved by painting the finished job with proper concrete paint, and once the concrete has fully cured).
Total investment for a set of eight varying weight Barbells:
- € 15 for Cement
- € 35 for Sand & Gravel
- € 28 for Steel Pipes (Barbells)
- € 20 for Steel Bars (Frame)
- € 30 for outdoor anti-UV Paint
