Making your own power rack

I wanted to buy a power rack for my home. Power racks are the best tool for comfortable and safe heavy lifting squats; squats being the hardest and most dramatic in gains body building exercise there is. There's also the Smith machine of course which, in theory, is easier and safer to use. However, it has been found the the unnatural postures it can force your body in can lead to serious injury - especially back injury. Besides, free weight exercises are always best as they are compound exercises, i.e. they work out more than just one muscle, which is not the case with isolation exercises.

Looking for it I soon realized that power racks are pretty hard to come by in Greece and in the couple of cases that I managed to locate one they were priced above 400-500 Euros which I consider absurd for what they essentially are: a simple rectangular frame made of square steel pipe.

I considered having it shipped from elsewhere in Europe, where prices are better, but it would probably incur high shipping costs as this is a fairly heavy object.

So I went to the local blacksmith and ordered it using a simple design that I drafted:

Note that the design does not include the barbell holders (hooks) that can be welded on as in the pictures below and you can even have more than one pair if you like (e.g. in case the rack is used by more than one person).

It cost me 180 euros - plus 10 euros for paint and brush as I had to paint it myself. I paid another 9 euros for a couple of tar shingles that I used to wrap the four lower corners, so that my floor doesn't get scratched, as well as covering parts of the two horizontal side bars and the hooks so that the metal paint doesn't get scratched off by the barbell. I would have preferred to use some hard rubber for this job but I could not find it - I will next try to get some from a roof insulation supplies store which should have it.

Here's what my ready to use power rack looks like. Notice that the power rack can be dismounted into five pieces (the two sides, as they appear in the design above, and the three connecting bars) for easy moving and storage.