Building My Own Squat Rack (With Pictures)

Ok, so I recently got an Olympic barbell and 300 lbs. of weight. My dad has lifted weights for years, but all of his stuff is Standard -sized. We decided to build a squat rack for my Olympic bar, mostly because I miss back squats, and I'll be moving in a few months, and I lack a bench. I thought this would be cool to share with everyone, and maybe inspire someone who has no rack to go build one themselves. My dad helped me out immensely, but even though he's very handy, I feel the rack can be made by someone with much less experience.



The total cost of the rack has run me $53. I bought 16 2 x 4's, but we haven't used them all. Also, the rack might have some adjustments done to it, so the price isn't final, that's just what I spent to get things started. Along with the lumber, I bought 2 3' 90 degree aluminum ****l to cut into brackets for the rack, a box of 1.25" wood screws, and 8 2.25" lag screws.



For a bench, my dad has an old Weider bench he no longer uses. We hacked off the the bench press arms to transform it into just a flat bench, slid under the rack for BP.





The angle cuts for the bar up on the squat rack worked out nicely. We are going to put some of the ****l bracer material we bought in the crack, to keep the two 2 x 4's from splitting. We also added just a couple of ****l chunks up to act as guiding "ears" for racking the bar.



We planned everything out ahead of time, obviously, and really just pieced it all together. We put the brackets we cut up in all the corners. The stability comes from the cross beams on the back, but we will probably add on to the front for an even stronger feel. The cross beams got the lag screw, so we can take them out for moving purposes. The rack can just break down into two smaller pieces.



I haven't had a full workout yet, but from the sampling of squats and benching we tried out after we finished, the rack seems surprisingly strong. I'm pretty proud and very happy with what we did. It took 4-5 hours for us to put it all together, but we're very happy with the results. I'll put up some pictures for everyone to see. Please ask any questions you have, I'm more than happy to answer, especially if it helps some of you without a rack.

 

Wow it looks great. I came home today with a pile of 4x4s to do the same thing. I can use your pics as a guide- exactly what I had in mind.

Are you going to leave it unpainted?

 

Here's a bunch of random pictures of different phases of the construction.

 

Yeah, I like the untouched wood finish. I might stain it or something too, but I like the look as of now.

 

More Pictures. It probably looks like my dad did all the work, as it's him in the photos, but he doesn't really work the camera very well, so it's kind of my thing.

 

Yeah that's my gut.







Let me know what you guys think.

 

Me too.

Again, it really came out looking nice.

 

Impressive, very cool and economical. Can you get into a full bottom squat position with the safety railings at that height?

 

Pretty close. My flexibility isn't quite where I want it yet, so when it's too high I'll just walk it out a few more feet, out of the rack. Not ideal, but I'm making do.

 

Very cool.

Have any idea how much weight it can hold? It looks pretty sturdy.

 

Thanks man, you'll have to put up some picture once you build yours. If you're curious on dimensions, it's a bit over 5' high, 4' wide (perfect for an Olympic bar) and 5'3" long. I have 18" off the back for some counterbalance. My main concern was the stability. I didn't want it teetering backwards if there were too much weight on the rack. I think it'll work out pretty nicely too, especially considering my currently puny numbers.

 

If I create a thread cursing my stupid broken rack, I'll let you know. We've only had the 135 on there, but it doesn't creak at all. Considering how much we've bolstered it, I don't see anything less than 400 or so being much of an issue. I was amazed at how sturdy a pile of 2 x 4's can be.

 

Is your dad Dr. Phil?

 

Thats pretty damn cool man.

 

Nice work. I'd never even considered makin' a rack outa wood before, but I'll hafta keep this in mind once I get done with school...

 

EndlessScott - very cool man. I actually bought a squat rack a month ago but I respect you more for making your own.

 

*applause*

 

No, no he's not. That's a pretty funny comparison, I'm not sure I'll tell him about it though, might make him cry. When I was really young, and he was in really good shape (and not old-looking), he actually used to look a good bit like Hulk Hogan.

 

How much did you pay for it? It might be an option for me down the road, but at all the sporting good stores and eBay I couldn't really find much in my price range (dirt cheap).

 

Good job building the rack. If I had the skills to do it, I would. I need to take a simpler route.