My plate racks (making 2, one for each side of the platform) are at last taking shape. The plate separators were difficult as they were all made by hand a few months back with no workshop. Just a blow torch and a cheap plumber's pipe bender, so they are not perfectly uniform. But I think they look pretty cool. For some reason I didn't use the set square on the first one so it's not vertical, but a couple of bangs with the hammer will fix that.
This is a rough copy of the Eleiko competition rack. I will add a tray underneath to add some rigidity and to give me a place to keep small stuff like straps or headphones or whatever.
One design change I made was having the plate separators welded under the tip frame, not on top. That way I can glue on a strip of right angle plastic so there will be no metal on metal contact with the plates, so the paint won't chip off the edges. Seems to be a common problem with the powerlifting plates when stored in metal racks that are not the tree style. I opted for this design over the tree style as then you aren't bending over all the time picking up the heaviest plates. Just shuttle them across to the barbell from waist height. Plus they are cool and for some reason remind me of Imperial Walkers.
I made sure the side plate storage posts were set so that the top edge of the 5kg plate did not hit any other plate sitting on the top post. Top post is also longer to take all the small change plates plus a competition collar. Had to weld the outer edge of that one, while with the shorter side posts I was able to do an internal weld. The original Eleiko has them bolted on, but that's primarily for shipping purposes.
The posts were a bit of a problem, as the Eleiko plates have pretty fine tolerances. Shitty plates have a gaper of a hole so they fit on anything (Sounds like a video I saw once on @
Shrek 's Facebook feed). But Eleiko's are a tight fit and won't slide onto a 50mm post. I managed to score a bit of 49mm pipe at the local scrap yard. $5 for a 2m length. Score!
Once the tray is welded on I can start grinding to clean it all up then a few coats of paint. They will look like a bought one.