Making Concrete Olympic Plates for Lockdown

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all the gyms were closed which left my brother and I unsettled during lockdown. We tried to make do with just resistance bands and some dumbells but it wasn't the same. We decided to get an olympic bar and a weight rack just before they sold out online! But we still didn't have any plates, this didn't hold us back it just encouraged us to make our own.

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We made a trip to our local homebase to get the supplies needed to make the plates.

(* optional items)

1. Wooden Boards
2. Concrete (20kg)
3. Thick ducktape
4. PVC Pipe (2" internal diamerter)
5. Buckets (For mixing)
6. Rebar / Wire metal Grid
7. Sheet Plastic (Anything that can be molded into a circle)
8. Saw (Cutting the PVC pipe)
9. *Glue
10. *Bin bags (Preventing a mess with the concrete)

Step 1:

Get your wooden board and place a circular object on the board. Lay the plastic around the mould and cut to size. You can either tape or glue the plastic down to the board, make sure there are little to no gaps.

Remove the circular mould. Place the PVC pipe in the center - I would reccomend placing a weight on top of the mould to secure it down, as if you use tape it is a lot harder to remove.

Step 2:

Now mix your concrete in the buckets following the instructions stated on the conctrete mix. Ensuring you use the correct ratio of water, if too much is added the mould will leak. Slowly pour the concrete into the mould up to half way - making sure it is spread evenly. Once the mould is half filled, add the rebar or metal wire for support. Pour the rest of the cement into the mould, covering the metal. It is important to check the cement is evenly dispersed before it dries. Leave a weight on top of the PVC pipe to prevent seaping.

Step 3:

Leave the concrete to set, mine took about 48 hours. When it is all dry remove the mould from the plate and clean up the edges so it is all smooth. Now, using a saw, cut off the excess pipe so the pipe is flush to the edges. Being careful not to pull all of the pipe out as you want the inner piece connected still.

Step 4:

At this point you have a working plate. ut to finsh off I wrapped the whole plate in ducktape to act as a protective layer and make it nicer to hold when putting it on the bar. I then taped the inner hole all the way around so that I would not scratch the bar and making the slide on smoother.

But to finish it off, I decided to wrap the whole plate in ducktape to act as a protective layer and also makes it nicer to hold when placing on the bar. I then taped the inner hole all the way round to prevent scratching the bar and causing damage. Also making a smoother slide on.