Anyone here successfully made weight plates using concrete mixes?
plates have gotten real expensive for no reason and I've been thinking of DIYing them with wooden square moulds

Plates have gotten expensive due to Drumpf era tarriffs

I made two plates prolly like 15 years ago with my dad when I was a teenager. You'll need steel reinforcement anyway and you have to be kinda careful with them. IMO if you're a brokie you should get less weights, a bar, a set of rings and just do weighted calisthenics.

>>76392112
This.
You don't even need "weights" as in iron plates. You can use almost anything from a backpack filled with books and other stuff, bottles filled with sand and bags filled with literal rocks. You can get cheap ropes and tensors from your local hardware store. And use your imagination.
You'll go a long way before 'needing' to buy pro stuff. But do get in mind to eventually get a barbell and real plates since nothing beats it. You'll only need to buy them once.

>>76392098 (OP)
You can get molds for this. Just pay attention to water+concrete proportions. Adding more or less water will change final cured density, affecting both weight and strength.
>for no reason
lmao have you tried paying attention?

>>76392106
>doesn't buy American
That's what you get for sending our GDP to foreign governments

>>76392217
1. I'm not American
2. It's just iron cast into a fucking mould

>>76392098 (OP)
I made a whole set during covid. Don't buy molds if you're going to be a cheap fuck, buckets are fine as long as they're of an appropriate diameter. I had to buy a wide base bucket for my 20kg but every other weight I already had an appropriate mold or borrowed from my neighbor. Paint buckets for 5kg.
In my case I could only find a PVC pipes exactly 50mm so I used them for the mold and then had bare concrete rub against my barbell.
After 3 years I finally replaced them, I was expecting to use them until they broke but they didn't, only 1 1kg and 1 2.5kg cracked (early) but didn't break. I used rebar inside the 10kg and 20kg.
There's plenty of guides online, it's pretty easy to diy but just time consuming because of curing time.

pic rel, about 60 euro for buckets, concrete, rebar to total over 100kg
my barbell coating is scratched down to bare steel now but it doesn't actually matter, I'd do this again if I had to.

>>76392394
Did you diy all that?
I was considering it but woods gotten so expensive, especially 4x4" beams

>>76392394
that's a nice medieval torture chamber bro

>>76392401
Yeah it's all diy, the rack and bench cost about 80 euro for the wood, brackets, screws etc. I did have some spares I used for the bench top (ikea shelf, had to replace that pretty quickly) and general reinforcement. The wood is 10x10cm and I used the rack for longer than the concrete plates. My mistake is that I never built safeties for it.
Back then it was impossible to find a cheap rack but now there's a lot of second hand listings even in my area.

>>76392420
thank you bro

>people can't afford fucking cast iron
Anon if all the time you're gonna spend casting plates from concrete is worth less than a dozen or so iron plates you have bigger problems than lifting right now. This isn't an expensive hobby. Being too broke to lift is poverty tier, fix your shit.

That and concrete plates just fucking fuck. They're huge for the weight, so you will run out of barbell/dumbbell space fast and be stuck lifting dyel weights on heavy lifts. They're fragile as fuck, even reinforced.

>>76392394
Be a man and forge them with molten iron instead. Cover them with spray on rubber.

>>76392420
americans cannot understand buildings not being made of cardboard and glue

Using weights to create some force for you to exercise your muscles on is primitive as fuck. There are many ways to create force that don't require hundreds of kilograms of materials. Springs, compressed air, electromagnetism, whatever. I am starting to think that the small brain body builder meme is real.

>>76392545
>americans
I live in asia in a apartment building made of concrete and metal
that is still a medieval torture chamber bro

>>76392098 (OP)
Well you're buying metal in weight.
There shouldn't be any down side to making your own plates, but the shaft should be in metal IMO.
I don't know why this concept trigger americans so much.

>>76392394
damn that whole area looks so comfy

>>76392394
Aren't those diagonal bits unnecessary?

>>76392098 (OP)
Yes. I made my own mold with latex and plaster. It wasn't stiff enough, deteriorated quickly, and gave very uneven results. Unlike >>76392394 I would recommend buying molds to get cylindrical plates. I also used a plastic drain pipe to line the center holes so as to not fuck up my barbell's collars and it's worked quite well. Concrete is just about the worst material for plates but you can buy bags of glass fiber reinforcement to mix in to mitigate most of the suck.

>>76392347
theyre expensive either way you gay retard. kill yourself.

>>76393103
Maybe, they were a last minute addition because I had spare planks and screws. If I redesigned it I'd keep the rear diagonal pieces and build fixed bench height safeties instead at the front.
>>76393113
Your setup is really nice, is this recent? Owning eleiko change plates with this setup is crazy
I used fiber reinforcement in my plates but I read that the dust can damage your lungs

>>76393213
I built it summer 2021 in anticipation of more lockdowns. The Eleiko change plates wasn't by choice. I found exactly 1 store that was willing to put me on a waiting list for plates and Eleiko was all they sold. Believe me I wasn't happy about it. I also made a small script that checked rogueeurope.com for availability of the bar every minute and it took like 3 months before it came back in stock. The whole setup was borne of frustration and scarcity.

>>76392106
there's a gym store in my city selling plates for $1.25/lb and dumbbells for $1.75/lb.
I don't know how you can be mad at that. sure you used to be able to find sub $1/lb weights used on craigslist, but that supply has dwindled, just buy new for like no premium

>>76392575
Please do show us your prototype freeweight-equivalent electromagnetic exercise device that isn't fragile, expensive or prone to send you to Snap City, Mr. Galaxybrain.

>>76393351
>he doesn't have 2 vertical collimated graviton emitters aimed at the barbell collars
NGMI

>>76392575
What is truly primitive as fuck is thinking some forces are somehow more "advanced" than others. Nuclear power plants literally just boil water.

>>76392098 (OP)
>yabba dabba doo you even lift?

>>76392098 (OP)
I don't have the weights anymore, but I used a cake pan for molds. Found an 18" one. I think 2.5" ended up being pretty close to 50lbs for me. Bought some other random ones at various height and diameters for smaller weights. I reinforced with fiberglass, didn't drop them a ton either for DLs.

>>76392098 (OP)
What I did for about a year is fill water jugs with concrete and tie them by their handles to a steel water pipe I got from home depot. 2 gal jug= 40 lbs, gal=20 lbs, quart= 10 lbs pint=5
Honestly could've used them for years till this day but I have kids and needed the space.

I'm using chat gpt to cook up a routine involving dragging tires and pulling ropes. I'm a lobster fisherman so I'm trying to incorporate movements that will make my job easier.
I have no shortage of rope and heavy junk to pull around so it's a free gym membership.

>>76392106
Plates have always been expensive

>>76394757
but like $3/kg expensive??
that's $30 for a single 10kg plate

>>76392098 (OP)
DIYEL thread

>>76394856
>$
>kg
pick one

>>76392394
nice craftsmanship anon