Build a Power Cage

First step is finding how long to cut the lowest upright sections. This is critical, since it determines how high the Safeties will be. Have an assistant measure the distance between the underside of the bar, and the deck, while you are bottomed out in a squat with a lightly loaded bar. Then assemble the pieces shown: a scrap of 2 X 8, a FLANGE, a NIPPLE of whatever length, a TEE, and another NIPPLE screwed into the middle leg of the TEE. Now, measure the height of the top of the horizontal NIPPLE. Subtract that height from the figure you got by measuring from the floor to the bar while you squatted. That is how much longer the upright has to be. So disassemble your assembly, measure the NIPPLE, add the difference you have to make up, and that is the required length of the uprights. Subtract another inch, since you don't want the bar actually touching while squatting normally. It will probably come out somewhere around 25" give or take an inch. Have four pipes cut to that length, and threaded on each end. Ensure that the clerk threading your pipe is consistent, and runs the pipe through the die just to where two threads protrude out from the back face of the threading die. While you are there, also have four pieces cut that will determine the distance between the front and back of the cage. Two of them will be your Safeties. 28 or 29 inches should be about right. So you should be carrying home 8 pieces of pipe, cut and threaded.

Somebody asked for details on attaching the flanges to the base 2 X 8 boards. The bottom must be counterbored so that the head of the bolt will not protrude from the hole and scratch floors or put a hole in carpet. First thing, mark the location of the holes from the top side, using the flange as a guide to mark them. Drill a small pilot hole for each hole location, taking care to keep it plumb. (straight up-and-down) Flip the board over. Drill the counterbore, centered around the pilot hole. It should be just deep enough for the bolt head and a washer, and just big enough to admit a socket for tightening the bolt. Then drill out the bore for the bolt. Be sure to keep it absolutely plumb. Notice how the bolt head is pulled neatly within the wood, leaving a flat surface on the bottom of the board.

Shown is a paddle bit, usually used for boring straight through a piece of wood when a large-ish hole is required. The horns on the side will cut deeper than you think you have cut. You will want to use a small wood chisel or screwdriver to carefully deepen the middle of the hole, inside the ring cut by the horns, to have a flat surface of solid wood for the washer to bear against. So if you use this type of bit for the counterbore, only go in about 3/16" less than what the bolt head and washer thickness would indicate. There are better types of bits for this but a paddle bit is common and cheap. It is certainly not the most elegant solution but it will work if you use a bit of craftsmanship. At this stage of construction, you are drilling into a scrap piece only, so practice, and get it right. You will need to be able to make good, clean, consistent holes in the next step, when you mount the uprights in their flanges to the base boards.

Okay, now put together what you got. Assemble the pipe and FLANGEs, then mark, drill, and counterbore holes for the bolts that will hold the FLANGEs down on the boards. The pipe must be screwed together VERY tightly; otherwise it will not be rigid enough. Stand the two sides up, far enough apart to squat between. Now Squat, with a lightly loaded bar, and double-check the height of the safeties. If they aren't right, NOW is the time to correct them. You must have each step right before adding the next bit, so don't let not good enough be good enough.

Now we will add enough stuff to make your structure actually useful looking. Into each of the four TEEs, screw a CLOSE NIPPLE. Then screw on another TEE on each of those. Make sure that the final positions are as shown. All four of these should have the middle leg pointing directly to the front, or to the left in the illustration. Get these super duper tight before proceeding. Next add a CLOSE NIPPLE to both front corners, and a shortish NIPPLE, maybe 2-1/2" or 3" to the back corners. The reason for the slightly longer NIPPLE is that the UNION you will add to it will be there only temporarily, and you must have enough pipe to grab with the pipe wrench to remove the UNION. The UNION on the front corner will stay there, so the CLOSE NIPPLE is fine. Now add a CLOSE NIPPLE to all four UNIONs, and top each with a TEE. Screw everything together tight as hell. Don't worry about which way the top TEEs are facing, since they can be pointed wherever you like by loosening he nut on the UNIONs. The lower TEE you just put on the back corners is for a rack point. This rack point will be useful when Bench Pressing, if you reach the point of failure and cannot get the bar up to the regular rack point. It is sort of a "bail-out". The lower one on the front corners will find use as a rack point for deadlifting, or for attaching a jury-rig cable setup. The upper TEE on each corner will have the Spreaders screwed into the middle leg. The Spreaders will determine the width of the entire structure. The front one will be permanent. The back one will be temporarily at that height, but will be at the top of the cage when completed. There will be three of these spreaders, all told.

Break the UNIONs apart and you will be breaking off four subassemblies from the corners. Label them to keep them straight. Screw each of the two front ones onto one end of a piece of pipe threaded on each end. The two pipes that were cut identical to the Safeties will do fine. Even though they are only temporary, screw the subassemblies on nice and tight. One will be for the front, and the other will be for the back.

Here is a view from the front, showing the front temporary spreader assembly. Observe how the upper halves of the UNIONs must face squarely down onto the lower halves.

Once again, the front view. Now, the temporary spreader assemblies are in place, and the UNIONs are tightened. Now lay your olympic barbell, loaded only with a couple of small plates, on the rack points to determine how much longer the actual spreaders can be. You want them as long as they can be while still allowing the bar to rack properly and the plates to not screech and scratch against the uprights. About 1-1/8" on both sides is sufficient clearance. When you have calculated the correct length, (Should be around 47") and double checked, go get three more pipes cut and threaded for the permanent spreaders. Remove the temporary ones and install the one in the front. It will be there forever.

The back of the cage. The safeties are not shown. Temporarily install a spreader on the two rear corners as shown. Now you can double check the width of the structure with a loaded barbell. If everything is cool, remove the spreader and the UNION from each rear corner. Remove the NIPPLE too. The uppermost part on the back corners will be TEEs.

Now you must build your bench. You must build your bench to such a height that when you are Bench Pressing, the bar is about a half inch to 3/4 inch above the safeties when it is barely touching your chest. This will give you a height of an inch or two taller than normal. If you don't build your bench at this point, you will not be able to determine the proper height for the Bench Press rack points.

I used 1-1/2" pipe and fittings for mine, but that was overkill, and the size of the FLANGEs and TEEs made it awkward to build. 1-1/4" would be better, maybe even 1". The top of mine consists of 2x4s, 3 across, over two cross-braces of 2 x 8. With the 1-1/4" pipe and FLANGEs, 2 x 6 will work fine for the cross members.

Shown here is the backbone of the bench, 42" long, with the TEEs that go on the ends. The TEEs are turned so that the legs are horizontal.

Here we are installing the NIPPLEs that stand the legs off to the sides, and the TEEs into which the leg sections are screwed. Obviously the TEEs must be turned so that the sides point up and down. The legs will screw into top and bottom of the TEEs, and FLANGEs will be screwed onto the top of the legs for mounting the wooden top, and the bottom to serve as feet. You will have to experiment to see how long these NIPPLEs must be that are installed at this point. The FLANGEs must clear each other, but must be as close together as possible in order to bolt to the wood. They should be nearly touching each other. The top two drawings are the overhead view. The one directly under them is the view from the side of the bench. The one next to that is of course an end view.

See what I mean? Here we can see the legs and how they are installed. Not much difference between top and bottom, at this point. FLANGEs are used both for feet and for mounting the wood that comprises the top of the bench. Shown are exploded and assembled views, from the side and also from the end of the bench.

Now the boards go on. The cross pieces are 2 x 6 in this illustration. The longitudinals are 2 x 4 and spaced to give the correct width. You will probably want about 11". Too wide and the bench interferes with shoulder motion. Too narrow, is, well, too narrow. You figure it out. Length is, of course, something you will decide according to your needs. If you like to put your feet up on the bench when bench pressing, you will want a somewhat longer bench. If space is at a premium, then a shorter one. You can upholster your bench, or just cover it with carpet, or even sand and varnish it and train on the bare wood if you are a real hardass.

Depending on the spacing of the 2x4s and the spacing of the holes in the flanges, you may have to do some figuring out for yourself just how to bolt the wood to the frame. Some bolts will be able to go through both the cross member and the top board. Some will have to go through only the cross member. You may have to get a couple of shorter bolts to bolt the center board to the cross member. Work it out. Get it right. Don't be afraid to toss the wood and start over if you screw it up. Do it right and it will be right for a lifetime. Do it wrong and it will be wrong until you toss the whole thing in disgust. Anyway, refer to earlier instructions for boring and counterboring bolt holes, selecting bolt lengths, etc.

Try out the bench and check the height. When you Bench Press, when the bar is touching your chest but not bearing down on it, the bar should be 1/2" to 1" above the safeties. The lower leg sections of the bench can be changed out for more or less height. Get it right, so your placement of the Bench Press rack points on the back corners of the power cage will be right.

Now that your bench is completed, you can have your assistant measure the clearance between a loaded bar that you are benching, and the deck. You must be able to clear the rack points even with your max weight on the bar. You should have a pretty good handle now, on how to try a piece and then determine how much too short it is. So, referring to the illustration (the side view of the complete structure) add the rack points for Bench Pressing. Try out the cage before going any further. Use your new bench, and load the bar up with your heavy working weight. Make sure that you can rack and unrack the bar with no problem. Be careful because the structure will still be very shaky at this point. When you are totally satisfied with the bench press rack points, add the Squat rack points in the same manner as the others. It is better to have them an inch too low than an inch two too high. Make sure you have them at the right height before going onward.

Notice the ELL on the back corner in this side view. Just below it is a TEE, with the middle leg pointing inward toward the centerline. This is where the permanent rear spreader goes, between those two TEEs. Once that is in place, the cage will begin to feel more solid. Notice the front side of the cage. The spreader there is installed slightly different. I chose to use TEEs with the middle leg pointing downward, one side leg in toward the centerline to accommodate the spreader, and the other leg sticking out to the side, where it is handy to have NIPPLEs screwed into it for various things. The TEE just below that, with the middle leg pointing forward, is there mostly for attaching pulleys and stuff.

The empty legs of the TEEs on top of the back corners can be used to mount a chin bar. Shown is a CLOSE NIPPLE between the top TEE and the ELL, but you will use whatever length NIPPLE will give you the proper height. You will use a REDUCER or possibly two REDUCERs on each side to get down to 1" pipe. Two 1" UNIONs and two 1" ELLs, with appropriate NIPPLEs to join them together go on next. The chin bar itself will be slightly longer than the spreaders, due to the shorter run-in on the 1" ELLs.