Micro loading

[Rick Deckart]

It is very easy and cheap to build olympic barbell sized micro loading.

Tools:

keyhole saw
hole saw for 50mm hole, for a power drill
compass
tape measure
scale


Material:

Best is wood, preferably a large square board


Measure the dimensions of the board and calculate the surface, then
measure the weight.

Lets say it's 300mm x 310mm = 910cm², and 1100 gr:

Calculate the specific weight per cm²,

910cm² / 1100 gr = 0.873gr per cm²

Calculate the surface of a 5cm diameter disc of the material,

2.5cm x 2.5cm x PI = 19,63cm²

Calculate the weight of such a disc

19.63 * 0.873 ~ 17gr

Add that to the weight of the disc you plan to build, lets say 250gr

250gr + 17gr = 267gr

Calculate the diameter of a disc of that weight from the given material,

Radius = SQRT (267gr * 0.873 / PI)
Radius = 8.61cm

Use the compass to mark a circle with the radius 8.61cm and an inner circle with radius 2.5cm, use the keyhole saw to saw the outer circle out, use the hole saw to remove the inner circle and voila, a 250gr micro loading plate for your olympic barbell... If you use powered tools the time to build two is ~5--10min and the cost is next to nothing. BTW I don't own all the tools I use, but I know people who have them and will lend them to me or a more than happy to help out.

[Rick Deckart]

Okay found 10 free minutes today and so I did build two olympic micro loading plates from scrapwood, following the instructions above. The final plates weight 240g instead of the planned 250g but less than 5% difference is okay with me. It would be very easy to calibrate these plates with tesa and some small metal stripes... and I know they are ugly, but they work very well and are practically for free...