Adjustable Thick Bar

[mcham]

I've decided I would like an adjustable thick handled barbell

Would be a great training tool, and could make Joe's Fairbar idea practical in competition.

But How? Is this even possible or practical??

I'm not sure. I've got some ideas, but thought I'd throw out a challenge to all you DIY equipment designers/manufacturers out there:

Design an adjustable thickbar system that allows you to change bar thickness quickly and accurately from between 2 to 3 inches and can still hold heavy weight.

[Roark]

mcham,

I have also thought about this, and though I lack the thinking/design skills, here is what I considered:

Have several six inch lengths of pipe cut. Each pipe being a snug fit over the next smaller size.

Slide all these pieces onto an exercise bar and use locks to keep them from sliding- they will revolve.

If the biggest diameter is 3", and you want 2-3/4 for an exercise, slide the two 3 inchers (one for each hand) to the left and to the right and secure them out of the way.

Others could be slid aside- each fitting inside the previous size you slid aside, until you are down to the bar itself.

Not pretty, but it has potential in the hands of a designer?

[OldGuy]

Joe that works. I know I have done it! You can do it with a barbell. but it is eaier with dumbbells. I have been converting my pair of loadable Olympic dumbbell handles that way for some time. All you need to do is find pipe that slides snuggly over the bar and then another pipe that slides snuggly over the first pipe and so on. The sleeves and the inside collars hold the pipe in place. Remember that Olympic bars come in lengths of 5, 6. and 7 feet.

[mcham]

I thought about the pipe-inside-pipe approach too, but thought that it wouldn't work for barbells. But some way of locking them in place like 2 handles on the bar could work.

I had a think too and came up with something far more complicated, therefore difficult to make and probably prone to wear

The idea is a solid inner bar (i.e. an olympic bar) with an outer "coiled bar" around it. The solid inner bar is what the collars are attached to, the coiled outer bar is what you hold onto.

The coiled bar would be a rolled up piece of sheet metal with a good inch of overlap at the seam. This means it can be squished into a smaller diameter or forced open to a larger diameter. There will be a seam the length of the bar, but it would be minimal if some thin but strong metal was used.

Then you just need a mechanism for forcing the outer coiled bar to open or close. This is the hard bit: could be a stronger inner coil, could be some sort of off-centre cam, etc… anything that can be used to force the outer coil bar to open or close. There'd be some screws or levers for adjusting the diameter.

...all a bit too complicated...

[OldGuy]

The way I did it was to remove one sleeve from the Olympic bar, and then slide the pipes onto the end of the bar. The length of the pipes is the distance between the inside collars.

[Jeff T]

Why not just use a 2 solid pipe then layer pvc around it. The weight would be pressed between the collars and the pipe.

Of course, 2" is bigger than fairbar for some of us...

Jeff

[Jonathan McMillan]

Mcham,

Nice idea, very organic sounding!!! But as you say I don't know how practical it will be, might end up being to complicated to produce on a large scale. What about drilling holes through the barbell, dumbell and inserting rods through holes in the pipe layovers that everyone mentions that way they would not be able to rotate , and you wouldn't have to get close fitting pipes of many layers to build up to the 3" and beyond range?

Jon@han

[John Beatty]

EASY. Maybe I'll start making these next "soon available in the FBBC website" lol. take the inner pipe, fit the bigger size sleeves over it. drill through all 3 pieces Then add a pin with one of those little clips. The handle would have to be bigger than the normal FBBC handle or no room for pins. Actually....I think I will make some of these. Soon available on the FBBC website........

FAT BASTARD BARBELL CO.

[John Beatty]

Oops - now that I reda the whole thread, I see Jonathan put that up already. I may still manufacture some...

[Jonathan McMillan]

John,

Guess great minds think alike

Jon@han

[Strong Man]

those bars must be good for grip training

[mcham]

I like the PVC idea! Not sure if this is what was meant, but the PVC could have a slit down its length so that you can just snap it on over the top, pipe over pipe, without having to take off the collars. Sure the PVC would fatigue over time, but it's cheap to replace.

That's why I suggested my complicated "colied bar" idea - I didn't like the option of having to take the collars off to change the diameter.

After you snap a set of PVC pipes over the top of each other, you could then screw in rods as already suggested, or perhaps tighten some hose clamps over the top?

With a set of pipes that fit perfectly inside each other could change the diameter by about 5mm with each pipe you add.

Would only take a minute to expand or reduce the diameter - undo the srews/clamps, add or remove a few pipes, tighten screws/clamps again.

The biggest pain would be getting the pipes off - I would hope that the pipe seam fits together perfectly, so will be difficult to prise them off.