Olympic Sleeves On Squat Rack

[dunebuggy31]

Buddy of mine has a dilemma. He recieved both a Powerline squat rack and a Troy Shrug bar. Now, he wants to put the shrug bar on the rack supports, but they are meant to accomodate the width of a regular barbell (upto ~ 1 3/8), and the olympic sleeves of the bar sit on the supports.

Anybody have any ideas on how to get the bar on the supports without sig. risk, ie in a secure way?

Ideally, he would have to have some kind of rig that stays on the support but that also tapers out to hold the olympic sleeves of the shrug bar. I think...

Hope I explained this well enough. Any suggestions appreciated.

Edited March 7, 2008 by dunebuggy31

[AP]

Wait, so he wants to sit the 2" or so diameter sleeves on the j-hook of the rack, where you normally unrack a regular width barbell from? Not sure if I have that right or why he'd want to do that but...

So he needs to make a custom j-hook, one that will accommodate the 2" sleeve. I would start by finding some thick bolts. If the holes on his power rack are large enough he could just use the bolts straight as J-hooks and they will hold a decent amount of weight.

If the holes aren't big enough for a good sized bolt or if he needs strength for really heavy weights then he'll need to fabricate a j-hook out of either wood or metal. If I were going to make one it'd be out of wood since I can't weld. I'd buy a length of 2x4 and cut it into 6 maybe 6" length sections (depends on the hole size in his rack). I'd take one section and counter sink one big bolt somewhere near the top of it and I'd counter sink another bolt somewhere nearer the bottom. The top bolt would go into one hole in the power rack and the bottom bolt goes into the hole two spaces below that so you are spreading out the weight a bit over the bolts, over the rack. Then I'd take another section of 2x4 and screw it on top of the first with some big screws and then I'd screw a third section of 2x4 over that so you have a block of about 4.5" thick that bolts onto your rack. He'll probably want to make a lip on it so the sleeve doesn't just roll off and he may need to trim or shape it somehow so he can get plates to fit on it but you've got one quick and dirty j-hook. Make a second one making sure they're even otherwise the bar won't sit straight and for god's sake test it out with some weight before you rely on it! But it should hold some serious weight.

Its his own risk if he's using it for bench or some bizzarro thing with the trap bar.

That's my attempt at what he might need, maybe someone that's better at working with wood or metal will chime in.