How to make your own bumper plates on a budget

Mehdiby Mehdi | September 22, 2007
Filed in DIY , Equipment | 8 comments

Bumper platesThis is a guest post by Mehdi, author of StrongLifts.com.

You’re into strength training for some time. And now you decided to incorporate Olympic lifts. You want to Power Clean. But the problem is: you don’t have bumper plates. You have normal rubber plates. What do you do?

Well you could buy a set of bumper plates. But this will cost you money. And you end up with twice the amount of plates.

Better is to use 2 old tyres & wheels as bumper plates. Easy & cheap. Here’s how to make your own bumper plates.


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Tyres & Wheels. Ask your local supplier for 2 old tyres & wheels. They’ll often give you these for free. Choose tyres & wheels with these properties:
Bumper plates Flange. Next you’ll need two flanges to fix the wheels on your barbell. This are the only things that will cost you money.

Barbell is 50mm thick. Wheels have a 70mm opening. 70-50 = 20. Divide that by 2. Flanges should be 10mm (0,39inch) thick to fit between barbell & wheels.

Bumper platesYou can buy flanges or you can mold them yourself. Don’t forget the 4 holes to attach them to your wheels.

Bumper platesIf you’ve done the job right, the flanges will fit perfectly on your wheels.

Bumper platesAttach the flanges to your wheels using bolts.

Bumper platesYou’re done.

Bumper platesNow you can put them on your barbell.

Bumper platesOutside collars to make sure they don’t move. And you’re ready to clean & snatch.

Bumper plates

Images courtesy Marcus.

Mehdi is the author of StrongLifts.com, a blog helping you build muscle & lose fat through strength training. If you’d like to join him on the Straight to the Bar writing team, let me know.


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Discussion

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Comments

1
Mehdi
September 22, 2007 4:18 PM

Thanks for allowing me to post on your blog Scott!

2
Mike
September 24, 2007 2:00 PM

Where do you buy the flanges? What are they used for when not being used to make bumper plates?

3
Kevin
October 3, 2007 12:25 AM

For the flange, you could also take a 10lbs plate and drill the holes into that. Then bolt that to the wheel. Definitely a good idea and saves money buying a bumper set.

A+

4
Marcus
November 8, 2007 8:03 AM

Zoals ik m’n reactie op je PM op mijn forum schreef (die je niet gelezen hebt). Het is OK de foto’s te gebruiken met credits erbij (mijn naam en link naar forum) erbij.
Zie ik hier geen van beide.

5
Limbs
March 11, 2008 10:03 AM

I used 12 inch tires and the rims were 50mm. I didn’t have to use a flange or anything. Works great!

6
ryan
May 16, 2008 12:07 PM

Hey Limbs, where did you find a rim with a 50mm axel bore? I just went out to the junk yard and the smallest I could find was 55mm.

7
brandon
September 14, 2008 7:31 AM

just an idea… you could fill the tires (through a method which I am unsure of) with water or sand, and add a bit of dynamicism to your lift. This means you need less tires to meet your load percentages as you can vary the resistance with the addition of a fluid or solid

8
Marius
May 16, 2009 4:06 AM

Hey brandon what do you mean? Where do you fill it in? W\Do you have a link to this? And can I just find a tire and just put it in a stick instead of doing all the drilling and stuff? How much will it weigh?