My friend and I fabricated a squat rack/stand. I was testing its stability by putting weight plates on the bar. When I took them off the last one flung the bar off the rack and into my window…no good. The design does not allow me to place and take off the weights without flinging the bar.
Anybody have any advice on how to keep the bar on the pins? Having someone help on either side is not an option. I fly solo.
I’m not sure I understand your problem. Maybe post a pic of your rig so that we can give better suggestions. Without knowing any details all I can say is that my power rack is 42" wide. With a bar on the spot pins or j cups I can have 2 plates on one side before with no problems whatsoever. At 3 plate on one side it gets a little ‘tippy’ but has never flung shit across the room like a trebuchet.
The rack is too narrow. Working with what you have, load smaller plates first, for example: Bar–>25–>25–>45, then take the 25s off one at a time.
If I understand your problem, you could also just put the bar on the j-cups all the way to one side (so that one of the j-cups is next to the sleeve and the other j-cup is far inside its corresponding sleeve) and then load a plate onto the sleeve next to the j-cup. Then load a plate onto the other side. Then slide the bar back to the middle of the rack.
In order to take the plates off, reverse the process.
Is your bar 45+lbs, or is it a cheapo bar that’s 25-35 lbs?