DIY Gym Cable Machine - Full Build Log - Part 1of4
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ค. 2016
- DIY Home Gym Adjustable Pulley Cable Machine Build Log
Part 1 of 4 - Material Prep and Beginning Fabrication
Here's a video log of how I built my own adjustable cable machine for my home gym. These are widely available online but I couldn't find the one for me:
- Very expensive - £475 was the cheapest retail machine I could find with a rotating and height adjustable pulley.
- Size - You'll see in the video that my home gym is not the biggest! All of the retail machines I found we're totally floor standing and as such had large footprints to prevent them from tipping over. They would've taken up far too much space in my gym.
- Capacity - All the adjustable retail units that I could find used weight stacks and the cheapest maxed out at around 70KG which is fine for most exercises but could easily be exceeded for lat work and there didn't seem to be any way to increase the maximum weight capacity.
My design uses 1" bars to hold the weights so it can take standard home gym weight plates which you've probably already got and can be bought for next to nothing on ebay. As such it also has finer increments for weight adjustments which make it ideal for light weight rehab work.
I'd like others to have a go at building one of these (or two for a crossover!) for their own home gyms. I had intended for the videos to be a full tutorial for anyone to have a go but realistically I think a maker would need to have some basic/intermediate DIY/fabrication experience, as although I've made sure to include all of the important steps, I can't possibly cover 100%. Also, for the significant cost savings to be viable, you'd need to already have a well stocked set of tools as you see me use in the video. That being said, I would invite anyone to give it a go!
My design DWG file and a PDF print are available below:
PDF: drive.google.com/open?id=1106...
DWG: drive.google.com/open?id=1NVV...
The PDF is intended as an overview only. If you're going to build this then you will need to use the DWG file so you can take precise measurements and prints as and when you need them throughout the build. If you don't have AutoCAD to view the file then you can download TrueView for free from the AutoDesk website which will let you measure and print as needed.
Basic Materials List:
40x40x2mm Mild steel welded box section for the main frame
50x50x2mm Mild steel welded box section for the weight plate mount and pulley mount
3mm Thick mild steel sheet for the base and all other plate pieces you see
1" 14AWG Mild steel tube for the weight plates
M10 Part-threaded bolts, nuts, washers, rod etc
Steel sleeves, M10 internal, 15mm external
95mm Pulleys, M10 hole. Pack of 10 from Ebay Hong Kong seller
Plastic coated wire rope, 5mm overall diameter
8mm detent pin to secure the pulley assembly to its various heights on the frame
Split pins to secure the pulley assembly hinge pin
5mm Wire rope clamps and carabiner
40mmx40mm Box section plastic end caps
2mm Plastic sheet to sleeve the weight and pulley assemblies
Etch primer and gloss black top coat (approx 800ml of each)
4mm Thick mild steel spacer washers used to space pulleys from the frame according to the designs
With the exception of the main steel order, all other parts were from ebay.
Total material cost £196.92
I'll provide more details on all of the above if needed. - บันเทิง
![fellow fellow - Proud [OFFICIAL MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9uZF7BlUQPE/mqdefault.jpg)
Never apologize for your welding! You’re out there getting it done. And that’s what they may grinders for anyway. You have a clever design and thrifty execution. It’s a great, and honest, how-to video and I can’t wait to see the rest.
Thank you so much for your precise advise and guidance on this video. I've been searching for a long time to find someone that gives so much detail. Brilliantly done, congratulations and thank you
Thanks for your kind words, I'm happy you liked the build!
Thank you for taking the time to share this, Top man!
I watched your video 3 years ago when i first caught an interest in building my own equipment and i recently found the time to finally do it! thank you for the inspiration
Lots of appreciation from India..brother can you help me making my gym equipment by myself
Thank you so much
You solve every problem
i build 2 of them from your project...after 3 years works perfect ...thx
fantastic work, by the way!
Thanks
Im building my Dream Home Gym too. Next project im going to build is cable pulley system. I like Your vid, thanks for sharing and inspiration.
Muchas gracias y saludos desde Colombia
Thank you
Thank you so much for sharing the plans of your machine with us. That's great ! Helping a lot
You're welcome!
good video, thanks for sharing :)
Thanks for the guide. I nearly had a heart attack looking at the price to purchase
a Cable machine.
If you want super smooth movement look into getting some concept 2 rower model b seat rollers (4 of them) and use them on the weight carriage (more cutting and welding will be needed).
Thanks for the suggestion, but bearings are excessive for the weight assembly. As long as anyone building this for themselves follows my designs, the centre of mass for the weight assembly will be in line with the suspension point of the cable, so as long as you load the weight plates symmetrically, the lateral load on my plastic shims is minimal and the movement is extremely smooth. I've used this machine for 8 months now and I can't think of a single mod to make it any better.
Oh, and you get extra points for using the word “bespoke”.
Thank you sir for providing us such a good design for home gym
But sir i am confused about measurements, for-eg verticle beam length shows 2217mm when measured but is mentioned as 2056mm in dwg, thickness of pulley and diameter of its grove, also why decimal? Can i just roundoff, what do you think about its maximum weight capacity or any mod to increase it.
Really amazing effort
Thanking you sincerely
Bilal
Bhai shab
Hi, great build! I am just embarking on this project, I have all the steel but was wondering what 2mm plastic you used and how well it has been wearing? Thanks
Thanks, I used 2mm acrylic, but polycarbonate would also be fine. The plastic really hasn't worn at all. You need to follow the drawings/dimensions of the weight carrier carefully to make sure the cable attachment point and the weight bars are aligned so there's no side to side force on the weight carrier. This would cause the sleeves to wear.
@@RandomChannel967 I'm sorry i forgot to say thanks for the reply! My machine has been going strong for 2 years now with no issues, I even added a pull up bar which attaches to the machine and across to the other wall.
Hi! I don't have the space to build something like this at the moment - hopefully in the future when we move, but I was wondering what you used as the wooden stoppers that stop the cable attachment from hitting the pulley when retracting it.
Hi, its just a wooden sphere/ball with a hole through the middle, already had it lying around, dont know where it came from. Can't see it being that hard to find on amazon/ebay.
Where did you get those pulley wheels? They look so high quality - did you pay much for them?
Cómo hiciste el sistema de poleas? Podrías mandarme un esquema? Un 10 tu máquina, muy funcional💪
Where does one buy these steel pieces ?
brother with does for that iron run free so over the other iron?
wtf?
good vide bro . wat is the name of the glue you use ? the blue one
Thanks, it's just regular super glue/crazy glue
Thank you for sharing! Excellent work!
May I have the drawings for reference?
I can't find the link. Please
The link is in the video description
curious do you think this wood work if it was made out of plywood instead of metal? im handy with wood butbthats about it
I'm sure it could be made to work but it would have to be bigger to have the same strength as steel, I'm also not sure how the sliding pulley assemblies would work, they need to be able to slide up and down very easily and I don't know how you'd achieve that kind of accuracy with wood.
RandomChannel967 thanks for your input I might give it a shot sometime soon
Very bad welding, very good job :))
where did u get the bearing weel from?
i am looking for it but cant find it
imran khan. Just search ebay for. '95mm gym pulley wheel' You can buy them in packs of 10.
RandomChannel967
how much it will cost me per bearing wheel?
imran khan They're not expensive, look on ebay
@ randomchannel967 am building my owen crossover machine with 2 weight stacks and i just
want to ask you them pullys you got any problems with them yet after use them for all that weight
on them after your workout's? seen a few reviews on them on ebay a few people said they were no
good for there home gym when they use them because of wear and tear with all that weight on them,
if you could let me know thanks mate, have a good day..
Hi Derek, I can only vouch for myself here but I haven't had any issues with these pulley wheels after almost 18 months of use. I only paid approx £1.50 each for these so it's fair to assume that they're using pretty cheap bearings which would be the first point of failure. I remember branded pulley wheels being close to 7 or 8 times more expensive when I was designing this, so from my point of view, I'd rather build the whole thing with cheap pulleys which cost the same as one branded pulley and take my chances. If I have to replace a few as the years go by then I'm ok with that. Good luck with your build, I'd like to see some pictures if you get a chance.
thanks very much mate am starting my build in 3 weeks as soon as am done i'll give
you a look at it ok i'll even do a small video for you and send you it ok..talk soon and stay safe..
Thanks pal, you too.
I would like to ask whats thar ball you use in the stopper of the pulley
it was just a cyindrical wooden ball that I drilled a hole through, shouldnt be too hard to find online.
Bro can u shere the hand adjustment of 2 pullye material sheet design...... Actually my pullye is 4 inch so can u shere how I made these
Is it correct that when pulling the rope for 1 meter, the weights go only up for half a meter? In other words: do you need 20 kilos of weights to 'feel' 10kg? It is hard to exactly see how the ropes run.
Yes you're correct. It's a 2:1 pulley, so a 20kg plate would require 10kg of force to lift.
Ok, thanks for clarifying. That for me is a disadvantage, as weights are quite expensive and I plan to make a machine with two ropes. I'll try to find a solution for this.
All adjustable pulley cable machines use a 2:1 ratio.
Really? I did not know. I was hoping to prevent this with the principle of an additional wheel as shown here: forum.bodybuilding.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2507261&d=1275954140
In this case the red ropes would be connected to the weights and a fixed point. But the ropes get in the way of the weights I am afraid.
That attachment shows fixed pulley positions, not adjustable pulleys like this machine.
Can I ask for a detailed size drawing, thank you very much
Bro lots of appreciation and respect from India..brother can you help me making my own gym equipment in my home ...I want to get to know the proper dimensions and how to make it..
What is the length of the cable?
Please Make a video Your GYM Tour.
I have downloaded the DWG and the PDF file, but the DWG file looks exavtly the same as the PDF file in Trueview? Same measurements and all.
Thats because it is the same. You can use trueview to take additional measurements and print specific parts of the design to scale if it helps your build
Ah okey, I see. Thanks for your quick response!
This is all great, I commend you and commend the building spirit. Just giving my personal opinion. For those without metal skills/tools, this is all too much, and there are tons of wooden setups to try with hardly any skills or tools needed. Not knocking your work, metal kills wood any day; if you have the skills time and tools.
From the video description:"I'd like others to have a go at building one of these (or two for a crossover!) for their own home gyms. I had intended for the videos to be a full tutorial for anyone to have a go but realistically I think a maker would need to have some basic/intermediate DIY/fabrication experience, as although I've made sure to include all of the important steps, I can't possibly cover 100%. Also, for the significant cost savings to be viable, you'd need to already have a well stocked set of tools as you see me use in the video. That being said, I would invite anyone to give it a go!" I'd also say that if you want a basic pull down/pull up then by all means have a go at a wooden one, but I'm yet to see a wooden cable machine with an adjustable pivoting pulley and such a small footprint.
+Random: A wooden adjustable and pivoting and compact... doubtful. I like wood because it's easy and quick to prototype and modify.
More like impossible with wood. As I stated in the description which no-one seems to read, this project is intended for people with previous experience of metalwork and who have the associated tools, or for those people who want to take the plunge and give it a go and make it work along the way (people like me).
Can you please share a detailed drawing of each item. I would love to make this for myself at home
There are drawings and info linked in the description.
How could I get the plans to do the same job?? 🙌🙌
They're linked in the description
what size of square tubing and thickness
It's in the description
ok thanks
the problem with gasslesl MIG welders, I will be steeling this BTW :)
Yeah tell me about it! lol. Hoping to upgrade next year to a 150Amp+ gas MIG, or maybe treat myself to a TIG!
I only have a gasless mig welder. Can I build this with a gasless mig welder?
?what does it mean1" 14AWG
1 inch diameter, 14AWG thickness steel tube
I can’t seem to download the file, any ideas
Yeah no worries, post your email and I'll send them on.
RandomChannel967 can sent blueprint my email?
Did u guys get any email from him??
Supub❤
the link for you design (pdf) isn't working for me, any chance you would be willing to email it?
I've just checked the link and it's still live. But if you can't get it working from your end then I'd be happy to email over the zip file if you reply with your email.
RandomChannel967
Hey u, ☺️ I can’t open the dwg file, would u please help me out?
Can you show me the drawing on paper? thank you
You should make kits, and sell with instructions. You wouldnt be making videos anymore, you'd be too busy spending money! 👍👍
you say capacity 70kg so you mean 140 /2 kg becous 2:1 or only 70kg
It's the same as the costing 3000 dollars
can anybody in the La area assist me with making one of these. can pay $$$.
Mujhe ap ka nombar chiye
..my 10X(95mm Black Bearing Pulley Wheel Cable Gym Equipment Part Wearproof* didnt come...they refound my money back ...
ok, why are you telling me this?
to warn the others :))
I don't know which seller you bought from, but I've bought packs of ten wheels twice on separate occasions (from the same seller each time and probably the one you used) and both have been delivered within a few weeks without any issues). I think you've most likely had issues with the import/customs process in your country or just a straight forward lost parcel. The seller gave you a refund and it's incorrect and unfair that you'd use this to 'warn others'. Order again and get on with it.
finaly i buid a cable machine...2 of them...from your plans...thx
The drawing is crap.