A long time ago I bought a weight set, a pretty decent one, but then I moved and ended up leaving he weights but keeping the bar. Over the past year I've gotten back into lifting, but just with a set of spinlock dumbells using 1" plates I've bought from Sears, Walmart, Sports Authority (brands for the plates are Wieder, Sports Authority, and some generic brand from Walmart). They work fine for the dumbells, but I decided to work in some lifts with my old bar. But they don't fit. They're just a tiny bit too small. Or the bar is a tiny bit too big, depends on perspective.

Any suggestions? The bar's cheaper than the plates, so I'd be willing to buy another bar, but how do I know if it'll fit? I live in a small town on an island, with no place that sells full size bars. So I'll have to order one, but how do I know it'll fit? And why don't my 1" plates fit the bar? What the heck's going on there?

If you've got any info, I'd apreciate it.

-Charles

I live in a small town on an island

First of all, if it is a tropical island, I'll be too jealous to help you.


Measure the holes of your plates. Top to bottom AND left to right. They might be oblong.

If they are all a good one inch, then order a new bar, and it WILL fit.

I had the same problem years back ago when I bought some black cement-filled plates at a garage sale. I then later transitioned to all-metal plates as you can get more weights on a dumbell in less space than with the bulky old cement jobs. My first thought was to get rid of the cement jobs alltogether. But then I decided to use them for fixed weight dumbells because they'd be light and wouldn't get dropped on the floor etc.

Only problem was they didn't fit depending on the manufacturer of the plate.

York worked on everything but Weider didn't.

Now I have basically 90 percent metal and 10 percent cement.

A weight is a weight but metal is far superior.

We have a metal dealer not too far from here that will custom cut bars.
It works out to about the same as what I'd pay for a bar in a store.
But many off-the-shelf bars now are one piece with spin-lock ends and no anti-torque collar. I don't like those much so I get mine made up with an anti-torque tube that slides over the bar and uses collar locks.

When I was shopping for bars I'd just take the plate with me to make sure it fit.

There's over a thousand pounds of metal plates in my basement but I still keep the cement jobs around for sentimental value. Had em for about thirty years. I never used them for deads or they would have been toast ages ago.

First of all, if it is a tropical island, I'll be too jealous to help you.


Tropical island? Yeah, I guess so, it's the Big Island of Hawaii, it's pretty tropical. But hey, thanks for the advice anyway.

-Charles