Monday, April 23, 2007

New DIY gym equipment on its way!!

Busy, busy busy.

Man, it's been difficult getting enough time to post all the stuff I want to post. If you've been looking forward to the second installment of my article on endurance training, I apologize. Hopefully it will be up in the next couple of days.

One of the things that's been keeping me busy is the planning and building of several new pieces of home-made gym equipment. This weekend I completed a 100-pound sand bag and a 150-pound heavy punching bag.

I also am only one step away from completing what I'm calling The Perfect Stonebell. What is a stonebell you ask? Well, it's a kettlebell made out of stone--concrete actually. I call this the Perfect stonebell because it's relatively easy to build, uses inexpensive materials and IT'S ADJUSTABLE! Yep, it's made of concrete AND you can adjust the weight. If you're interested in working out with kettlebells but don't want to fork out over $100 for one of Pavel's, this project ought to really interest you.

The concrete is poured and as soon as its cured, I'll remove it from the mold and give it a test run. Then I'll be putting together detailed instructions on how to build one. I'll be putting together detailed instructions for the 150-pound heavy bag and sand bag as well. In the meantime here are a couple of photos to whet your appetite:
Making the stonebell mold:














Getting Ready to Cast:

















My son posing wtih the nearly-finished 150-pound punching bag:


9 comments:

Unknown said...

That looks great John. Are you going to enter it in the competition?

It's exactly the sort of thing people are looking for.

Jedd Johnson, CSCS said...

Looks cool. Can't wait to see what the finished product looks like.

John E Fike said...

No more waiting, finished product is here:
http://jawbonejournal.blogspot.com/2007/04/debut-of-stonebell.html

Unknown said...

Great ideas, very inspiring! I made some k-bells recently from iron plates I had and some 50 gauge steel cable. Basically, you line up the plates like wheels, loop the steel cable (25') through the holes several times leaving enough room to form a standard-size k-bell handle. Wrap the looped strands with duct tape, then hockey stick tape until the desired thickness is achieved. Steel cable is super-strong and has never failed me. To stop the plates from rattling...grab some duct tape and go nuts. The result looks alot like the commercially available adjustable k-bells using plates, but at a fraction the price (50 gauge cable is about $3 for 25 feet). Adjustable with a utility knife to cut the tape and some time to re-construct the handle.

Unknown said...

Great ideas, very inspiring! I made some k-bells recently from iron plates I had and some 50 gauge steel cable. Basically, you line up the plates like wheels, loop the steel cable (25') through the holes several times leaving enough room to form a standard-size k-bell handle. Wrap the looped strands with duct tape, then hockey stick tape until the desired thickness is achieved. Steel cable is super-strong and has never failed me. To stop the plates from rattling...grab some duct tape and go nuts. The result looks alot like the commercially available adjustable k-bells using plates, but at a fraction the price (50 gauge cable is about $3 for 25 feet). Adjustable with a utility knife to cut the tape and some time to re-construct the handle.

Unknown said...

Great ideas, very inspiring! I made some k-bells recently from iron plates I had and some 50 gauge steel cable. Basically, you line up the plates like wheels, loop the steel cable (25') through the holes several times leaving enough room to form a standard-size k-bell handle. Wrap the looped strands with duct tape, then hockey stick tape until the desired thickness is achieved. Steel cable is super-strong and has never failed me. To stop the plates from rattling...grab some duct tape and go nuts. The result looks alot like the commercially available adjustable k-bells using plates, but at a fraction the price (50 gauge cable is about $3 for 25 feet). Adjustable with a utility knife to cut the tape and some time to re-construct the handle.

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