Saturday, February 8, 2014

DIY Dip Station

Exercise equipment is expensive. And so is square footage. For this reason, I frequently exercise in the living room and search for creative and affordable options when it comes to meeting my equipment needs. Fortunately, the Internet is packed full of valuable ideas for do-it-yourself exercise enthusiasts on a budget. This is where I found the instructions for my homemade dip station.

For years I have wanted to integrate dips into my exercise regimen, but could never figure out a good way to accomplish this. My equipment must be portable and, preferably, collapsible so it can all quickly be put back in the corner when I'm finished. That way, I earn my gold star for the day and get to stay up a half-hour late on Saturday! But because dip stations are typically fixed and heavy, I had just about given up on being able to perform this excellent upper body exercise at home. Coincidentally, that's about the same time I came across a blog called Homemade Strength. Carl is the author of this blog, which features numerous projects that the average DIY guy or gal can complete fairly easily. For a detailed description of the dip stands featured in this post, click through to http://homemadestrength.blogspot.com/2011/06/dip-stands.html.

Since there already exists a complete how-to guide on these stands, I'll forgo the finer points of construction and stick with a summarization. Importantly, this pair of dip stands required me to buy nothing. Everything I used for this project was scrap. Even the collapsible metal sawhorses, upon which the stands are positioned, were purchased years ago for use as safety rails when performing barbell squats.

Following Carl's instructions, I started by cutting two foot-long sections of metal pipe. I then took a 2x4 and cut this board into (8) five-inch pieces. Using a hole saw, I cut holes through four of these five-inch pieces into which the pipe ends could slide. So, half of my 2x4x5's have holes through them and half don't. The 2x4x5's without holes are secured to the outside of the 2x4x5's with holes and the pipe rests in the middle, with the ends of the pipes secured inside the holes.

Dip Stands beginning to take shape
 
Both pipes are secured into the wood on one side by a bolt which runs through the top of the 2x4 with the hole cut. This bolt first goes into the wood from above and travels completely through the metal pipe before finally entering the wood underneath, preventing the pipe from moving. The process for this is described in great detail at the link provided above. Though it sounded a little daunting, it was really pretty easy.
 
This secured one side of each stand, and now it was time to secure the opposite sides. This was accomplished by attaching a plywood base to the bottom of both sides of the stands.
 
One solid dip stand, upside down
 
The dip stands complete, I needed only to secure them to the sawhorses. Because I use these sawhorses for squats and because I exercise in the living room, I have to be able to assemble and disassemble this station quickly. The sawhorses come with holes already pre-drilled, so I was able to simply drill holes through the plywood base that lined up with the existing ones. To secure his stands to his sawhorses, Carl at the Homemade Strength blog just fits a hex wrench through the plywood base and metal frame. Though this is a terrific idea, I had no extra hex wrenches laying around so I used what I did have - nuts and bolts. Finger tight is plenty enough, so it is a pretty quick process putting up and taking down these stands.
 
Two small bolts secure each stand to the metal frame
 
The project was now complete, unless I wanted to go the extra mile and paint or stain the stands. I quickly opted out of this option, preferring instead to take the pair straight to the proving grounds for a quick test drive. And, as advertised, the stands worked perfectly. My thanks to Carl at http://homemadestrength.blogspot.com/ for taking the time to share this and many other projects with those of us out in cyberspace. I'm finally able to introduce dips into my strength program, and it didn't cost me a dime.
 
The finished product
 
Test drive proved the design was a success

   






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