Pinch Block Woes

[Lol999]

Hi all, got myself a new pinch block the other day and thought I'd give it a try. I'd called at a mate who's a fabricator and the only 4x2" box section steel he'd got was stainless, so I had a piece, de-greased and thought I'd give it a try. Now in order to do it "properly" I talced my hands until I can get some lifters chalk. I couldn't get 30Kg off the floor! Talk about slippy! Now the question is: is it the stainless, which in hindsight probably won't "season", or the talc (great on your arse but crap to grip with), or both? Would I be better off getting some plain old mild steel box section so it can get a bit rusted, ingrained with chalk and skin etc?

Thanks, Lol

[egg_uk]

you could just make it from wood

[Martin_Arildsson]

Hi all, got myself a new pinch block the other day and thought I'd give it a try. I'd called at a mate who's a fabricator and the only 4x2" box section steel he'd got was stainless, so I had a piece, de-greased and thought I'd give it a try. Now in order to do it "properly" I talced my hands until I can get some lifters chalk. I couldn't get 30Kg off the floor! Talk about slippy! Now the question is: is it the stainless, which in hindsight probably won't "season", or the talc (great on your arse but crap to grip with), or both? Would I be better off getting some plain old mild steel box section so it can get a bit rusted, ingrained with chalk and skin etc?

Thanks, Lol

Use it more, it should season.

[AP]

Yeah its the stainless.

Wood actually is my favorite material for pinch blocks.

[egg_uk]

i made a few of them not too long ago, as we had a new fence post 4" x 5", just havent got round to getting a loading pin yet, then you just screw into it with a hook to hand the loading pin from. its pretty cheap. and i tried picking the piece of wood up, the longer lengths (a couple of feet long) seem quite effective to me

[Lol999]

Well I've been using wood, albeit 3x2 which isn't long enough for my fingers so I need 4x2. However, someone said that using wood is good for 15Kg extra on top of using steel so I thought I'd do it properly and get steel to simulate the set up in competition material wise.

Cheers, Lol

[CoC#3]

Don't use talc if you want a good grip on something - deadlifters actually sometimes use this substance on the thighs to aid the 'slipping' of the bar up the thighs.

[Lol999]

You see that's the thing. is there a difference between talc and chalk? I used talc since I've seen people such as on the BGC videos and there's a lot of chalk/talc in evidence. I basically just want to make sure I'm doing the thing right and not be tripping myself up using the wromg gear.

Cheers, Lol

[makey98]

Talc is Magnesium Silicate Hydroxide mostly known as the primary ingredient in talcum powder (baby powder) which is a lubricant....not what you want

Chalk is Magnesium Carbonate -used as a drying agent for what we do.....

[Lol999]

Great stuff, now we're getting somewhere! To be honest I wondered if it was a lubricant when I applied it to my hands and thought "how smooth". Almost as bad as greasing the block up! I'll get some proper chalk and then see what happens. Thanks everyone, much apprecciated.

Lol