Straight to the Bar

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How to Make Your Own Bumper Plates on a Budget
Bumper Plates

Bumper Plates.

You’ve been into strength training for some time. And now you’ve 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 number of plates.
Better is to use 2 old tyres & wheels as bumper plates. Easy & cheap. Here’s how to make your own bumper plates.


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:

  • Diameter: 7,5cm (2,9″) bigger than your plates.
  • Opening: 70mm (2,7″) assuming you have 50mm Olympic barbells.
Bumper Plates

Bumper Plates.


Flange.
Next you’ll need two flanges to fix the wheels on your barbell. These 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.

Flange

Flange.

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

Flange

Flange.

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

Bumper Plates

Bumper Plates.

Attach the flanges to your wheels using bolts.

Bumper Plates

Bumper Plates.

You’re done.

Collars

Collars.

Now you can put them on your barbell.

Ready

Ready.

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

Finished

Finished.



Images courtesy Marcus.

UPDATE : thanks for all the feedback on DIY bumper plates, this approach works extremely well. Love it.
I get a lot of questions regarding a DIY platform to go with it (much like the one pictured above). Kat ‘The Mighty Kat‘ Ricker has a great article on building one :
DIY: How to Build an Olympic Weightlifting Platform
Good stuff. Incidentally, if you end up building one of these, I’d love to hear (and see!) how it goes. Leave a comment below the post, or share the details in the Google+ Community. Cheers.

Over to you. Drop us a line on Twitter ( @scottbird ), or add a comment below.

Cheers.

 

NB : if you love talking about strength-training as much as I do, you might also like to check out the weekly newsletter (there's also a daily version available). A regular dose of fitness-focussed discussions, absolutely free.

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  2. Monday, 13 Sep 2021 – Strength & Fitness Newsletter - […] Gem From The Vault : How to Make Your Own Bumper Plates on a BudgetMehdi Hadim (Stronglifts) | Follow…
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