How to make dumbbells yourself

In this master class I will tell you how I made homemade dumbbells from cement for home exercise. In terms of manufacturing cost, it will be several times cheaper than purchased dumbbells.
How to make dumbbells yourself

Necessary materials


To make two dumbbells I needed:
  • Two 3/4 steel tubes about 50 cm long with threads on both sides.
  • Four regular 3/4 tees.
  • One rubber stepped cuff (adapter) and one clamp along the diameter of the sides of the cuffs.
  • Cement with river sand.
  • A little silicone grease to treat the rubber.

How to make dumbbells yourself

Making dumbbells


In fact, the idea is very simple:
  • I screwed a tee onto each end of the pipe.
  • To make the first part of the dumbbell, I built a kind of tripod so that the handle of the future dumbbell could be fixed in a suspended state.
  • I installed a rubber cuff on a piece of foam backing so that the handle was located in the center, but did not rest on the foam backing.

How to make dumbbells yourself

How to make dumbbells yourself

Then I mixed the cement mortar: 1.5 parts of fine river sand, sifted through a sieve and 1 part of cement, with which I carefully filled the cuff with a pipe placed in it with a tee at the end.By the way, I lubricated the inside of the rubber “mold” with silicone grease so that the cement would not stick to it too much, since I planned to use it again. The poured workpiece was left for a day for the solution to set. After a day, when the solution had hardened well, I removed the workpiece from the tripod and cut the collar to remove it from the cement.

Making the second half of the weighting material


How to make dumbbells yourself

How to make dumbbells yourself

I coated the edges of the cut cuff with instant glue and joined them together. After the glue had set, I put clamps on the ends of the cuff so that it would not unravel when pouring cement. Since the previous tripod would not support the weight of the dumbbell, to fill the second part I hung it between two handles laid on cinder blocks. Then I repeated the process: I adjusted the restored form for the weighting agent on the foam backing at a height so that the tee did not reach the base by about 1 cm, mixed the solution and carefully filled the cuff. After 24 hours, I removed the rubber cuff, and one dumbbell was completely ready.
How to make dumbbells yourself

How to make dumbbells yourself

In the following days, I made the second dumbbell in the same way.
How to make dumbbells yourself

How to make dumbbells yourself

When the dumbbells were ready, the thought occurred to me that if I had 4 cuffs, then I wouldn’t have to remove them - I would get dumbbells with rubberized weighting. Therefore, if you decide to repeat, consider my experience.
How to make dumbbells yourself

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Comments (2)
  1. Sergey K
    #1 Sergey K Visitors November 5, 2018 01:57
    1
    I once made dumbbells like this, but I didn’t leave bare cement - I cut cylinders from a pipe, welded black couplings inside them through spacers made of wire (handles from 3/4 tubes are screwed into the couplings later) Well, I filled them with cement, and then painted. It turned out very well, you can even drop it. But I miscalculated the weight of the concrete and the small diameter of the dumbbell tube made the dumbbells too light.

    In our reality, you can use any container - plastic bottles or canisters, tin cans, etc. Calculate weight based on the fact that a liter of concrete weighs 2-2.5 kg.
    In order not to use tees, you can simply drill holes at the ends of the tubes and wind steel wire (not tightly!), which will be used as reinforcement. Don't skimp on cement; it will be stronger. ;)
  2. Pavel Kalina
    #2 Pavel Kalina Guests April 6, 2019 10:19
    1
    I bought two dumbbells, 2.5 kg each, covered in plastic. The asking price is 270 rubles. It’s definitely not worth the candle!