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Home-made T-bar rower

by Scott Bird
May 14, 2007
3 comments

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Gary Chandler is very much part of the growing network of DIY equipment enthusiasts. His latest creation, a home-made T-bar row machine, is superb.

Over to Gary for a few details about its construction :

I used an old spin-on bar with an electrical cable hangar as my swiveling attachment point. The bar goes into a 4×4 with a 1-1/2” hole drilled into it for a pivot point. The box at the end allows some quarters to counterbalance the weight and keep the back end of the bar from coming up when the thing is loaded. The foam pad at the top is from a stereo box. The weight rest is an odd bracket from a
garage door opener. The nicest thing about this rig is that a simple shrug of the shoulders is all that is needed to lift the weight from
the rest, and it’s only a couple of inches to the side (and a shrug) to park it, rather than waaaay off to the side, like some gym equipment.
I have since added a footrest, between the back box and uprights, using a piece of pipe and conduit clamps. The bar comes out for other
uses if needed. I’m pulling around 300 on this thing lately. Takes two quarters for the back balance when over 260.

A few of Gary’s other works (which are equally brilliant) :

Wooden Weight Tree

This is made from just 2×4’s and a piece of wooden closet rod, hammered into holes. You could use pipe if you don’t have a rod to cut up. With weights set on top where those nickels are, you can put your chain through them and walk up to it and hook them to your belt at waist height. Very convenient.

W-Bar Chin Rig

This is for guys who get wrist pains from a straight bar. A piece of innertube for bar protection, a springclip and S-hook.

Hammer Press/Pull

This one speaks for itself, using a piece of chain or two. Bolts, or spring clips.

Squat Rack

Using 5” pieces of pipe, or as in my case, stainless steel curtain rod (1”) set 2-1/2” deep into the 4×4’s. 6’ tall and 42” at the base. Yes, that is a drink holder (from a bicycle) and a window fan mounted over the stabilizer board. This will be used to hold attachments, as the weight collars you see there. Maybe some speakers?

Chin-up Bar

If you have a cased opening you can spare, you can use an old weight bar or pipe, and simply drill into both sides of the jambs, and slip the bar into one side, then the other, and use bar collars to keep it centered. My old bar was rusted, so I used metal duct tape to cover it.

Brilliant.

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Comments

Very cool stuff indeed! The T-bar looks especially interesting from my vantage point as I am also planning on making one. Just wish I could see a video clip of it in actual use to see its mechanics. Judging by all the units I’ve tried that just don’t have a good angle of pull, especially at the top where the elbows are often forced out of line with the hands, I would be more than a bit wary of making a unit I haven’t seen or tried in action. On the surface, it looks great though!

Does Gary have a website? I’m on a handheld so might just have missed the link.

Posted by: Kris | May 14, 2007 4:49 PM

No website as far as I know, and I’ve just asked him about a video. You’re not the only one who likes the idea :)

Out of interest, what sort of handheld are you using? I’d be very appreciative of any feedback on how the site holds up; particularly things that do/don’t work properly.

Posted by: Scott | May 15, 2007 2:21 PM

It’s a Nokia E61. Having the Internet in the pocket feels like a leap almost on the order of when mobile phones replaced the need to go home in order to call a friend (while hoping he would also be in to answer it, barring that his mother might know where he went so one could go out looking for him…). The recent introduction of flat rate data connections with unlimited transfer made me take the leap from the cheapest phones I found adequate for calling and SMS to a top-end phone. Really satisfied, especially as I seem to finally have found a good avenue for keeping up with my feeds.

But I digress. Your site works great on both the built-in browser and mobile Opera. The large screen makes this phone a bit unrepresentative, but I’ll grab a quick video for you later today.

Posted by: Kris | May 15, 2007 4:05 PM