Want To Make Home Made Weight Plates? Save Money And Easy To Do
Maybe you are looking to begin your fitness journey at home, or maybe you are a seasoned gym rat looking for a change of pace.
During the pandemic, weights were one of the first things to go out of stock at stores, even now weights are still expensive and with the cost of living accelerating, its well worth making your own.
So, if you’re stuck with no weights and want to make home made weight plates, this guide is for you.
Whatever your reasons, making your own concrete weight plates at home is a great way to get started.
That’s exactly what we are going to be doing today. Making some weight plates that will fit onto a standard barbell of either 25mm or 50mm.
DIY weight plate ingredients
The first thing you need to do is gather your materials. For this project you will need:
- One 25kg bag of ready mix concrete
- One 25kg bag of ballast
- A heavy-duty plastic sheet
- Water
- A mould kit
- Silicon spray
- A mixing paddle
Once you have gathered all of your materials, the first thing you need to do is get your mould. What I did here is head to Rock, Stock And Barbell for my plate mould.
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Get in the mix
After that, you need to set up your work area. I would recommend doing this outside, as concrete can be quite messy. Once you have found a suitable work area, lay down your plastic sheet and set up your mould according to the instructions at Rock, Stock And Barbell.
Once your mould is set up, it’s time to start mixing your concrete.
For two weight plates weighing 20kg each, I used a full bag of concrete and half a bag of ballast.
Before you start mixing, you must glue the sleeves (either 25mm or 50mm) to the centre of the mould, let it dry and then make sure you spray the inside of the mould with a silicon spray or WD40.
This will help loosen the weight plate when it’s dry from the mould. The ratio I used to mix the concrete was – 3 parts concrete to 1 ballast, with water making up the rest.
Add your concrete and ballast and start mixing until it is all combined, you want to make sure that there are no lumps in your concrete mix.
If you haven’t mixed concrete before (like I hadn’t), you might think your mixing skills aren’t getting anywhere, then all of a sudden it binds together nicely, so keep mixing and add only small amounts of water bit by bit.
Continue to turn the concrete and mix until it is a nice, smooth consistency. One thing I would recommend is to make much more than you think you need, as it doesn’t go a long way once it’s mixed and it takes quite a bit to fill the mould.
Once your concrete is fully mixed, it’s time to start filling your mould.
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Simply pour the concrete into the mould around halfway, then add the metal mesh.
This acts to help strengthen the weight plate. Then continue to fill the mould until it is level with the top or it weighs the amount you want to make. From my experience, filling the mould to the top will give you a weight plate of 20kg.
You must also make sure you are weighing the mould for both plates, as you don’t want two uneven weights.
The weighting game
Now that your mould is full, it’s time to let the concrete set.
The best way to do this is to cover the mould with the plastic sheet and then leave it for 24 hours.
After 24 hours, your concrete should be mostly set and you can then remove the bag and leave it for a further 24 hours to dry completely.
To remove the mould, simply turn it over and tap it until the concrete weight plate falls out.
Once you have done this, you can then move on to sanding down the edges of your weight plate.
To do this, I would recommend using a belt sander.
Once you have sanded down the edges, your weight plate is now complete and ready to be used.
Now all you need to do is put it on your barbell and start lifting.
If you found this guide helpful, please check out the rest of the website for more fitness tips and tricks.
Thanks for reading! I hope this guide has helped you and made you realise that making your own concrete weight plates at home is not as difficult as it may seem.
If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments section below and I will be more than happy to help you out.
Until next time, keep lifting those weights!
Have you tried making your own weight plates before, how was your experience? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
