This is the last page in the thread. Its a summary of the functionality for those not interested in the minute detail of how I built it, but if you want to see all that detail (and read my long-winded into) you can start at the very beginning.
This bench is designed with the ultimate in flexibility and strength in mind. I fabricated everything in my shop 100% from scratch, including the upholstered seat and bench back. Designed it in CAD, ordered the materials based on the design, and then built it. Unlike all consumer-grade equipment (always 16-gauge steel), this is made from all 11-gauge and 7-gauge steel.The weakest piece can support over 3500 lbs, which may sound ridiculous but you cant put a price on peace of mind while lifting heavy weight.
The safety rails, equally adjustable, can be placed exactly where needed in any position, on either side of the uprights, so lifting heavy and going to failure without a spotter poses no risk.
Below are photos of the main positions, but as you can see there are many “in-between” adjustments possible for the incline, which is good to keep changing things up.
Also, there’s one final detail still to wrap up. I still have to put heads on all the pins. This looks nicer, but is also functional as they are much easier to handle with heads.
Flat bench press:
Incline bench press:
Decline bench press (showing fixed leg brace):
Upright shoulder (strict) press:
Squat/power rack:
Removable leg extension/curl apparatus:
Removable fixed leg brace for decline bench press, as well as situps etc:
This last piece is an add-on that utilizes the existing bar catch and safety rails to add pulley/cable exercise functionality both upper and lower. For lack of a better term, I call it the gantry since sort of what it is
The gantry just sits on top, it uses nothing more than friction and gravity to to stay in place (which it does very securely). It weights only about 30 lbs so it literally take only a minute to set up or take down. You can easily and quickly transition to a bench to a flye in the same workout during a 2 minute breather between sets.
Click! Just snap on the cable extension to the center cable and you’ve got a center lower pulley. Bicep curls, upright rows, etc.
The side attachments on the uprights adds flye capability and can be pulled in any direction so you can flye anywhere from decline to incline and any angle in between.
