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Here is the Palace of Pain as it was in 2001

I moved here in 98, and the equipment has been growing ever since. Here is how my basement looked in 2001.

 

 Here is an overall shot looking from one end.  It doesn't show the entire gym, but  alot of it.




Here is looking toward the smith and Crossover.  Notice the dumbells on the left.


Here is looking at the back right part of the Gym.





Here we see the Spyder Bench, the Scott preacher bench, the seated calf raise machine and in the background the 5-75 hex dumbells on a three tier rack.



 

Commercial 80-125 'Solid Steel' dumbells from Nebula Fitness.  Note the engraving.  These are sweet.  The commercial  rack is also made by Nebula and is one of the nicest designs I've ever seen.



Miscellaneous and Cable accessories. Super wide Bar; Straight bar, Triangle, Bulhorn, Belts, etc.  The pegboard actually works better than anything else I tried at organizing all this stuff.


A shot of one tower of the Crossover. 






The crossover.  This is a commercial made by Nebula fitness.  It was custom made to be 7' tall and have two 300lb stacks.  Notice the adjustable pulleys on each side.  Also hard to see are two parallel pull up bars as well as the rear wide conventional pull up bar.  This is the machine of machines.  Nebula makes extremely heavy stuff.  This was the hardest item to get around (in pieces) to my basement.   The unit is about 1100lbs.




 

This rack holds 734.8lbs (8-44lb, 4-33lb, 4-22lb, 8-11lb, 8-5.5lb, 8-2.75lb, and 8-1.1lb) Ivanko chrome calibrated (within 10 grams per plate) powerlifting plates.  These are real sweet.  The rack I custom made to be three sided with 8 bar holders.  The various bars are a Supinating Curl bar that is great.  A 5' Olympic bar, an EZ-Curl bar, a tricep bar  a home made 3" 'big' bar for wrist exercises, and a multitude of collars.




A quick shot of the speed bag.  You can't see the mount but it weights about 80-100lbs.  It's all 1.5 and 2" angle iron.  I built it a little over spec when I was welding it up.  This will have to move when I stud this wall.



 

A shot taken from the crossover location of the Smith and the gym behind it.  This originally was a poly bushing Smith from Body solid but I converted it to linear bearings (note the shafts).  It also has a plate loaded high pulley, low pulley, and pec deck.  This was this first machine I got (in 1994) and has taken many years of use with just a little maintenance and modification.



 
 
 

Another shot of the smith with the rear of the Gym in the background.



 

Here is one shot of the power rack with some goodies on it.  The bar is an Ivanko (200,000psi) powerlifting bar.  Note the chains
for a little progressive resistance.  The chain assembly is home grown.  They add about 13lbs each side at the top of the lift.  I extended the feet of the rack about 3' to the rear to make inclines easier with the bench and mostly so I don't hit the brace when I squat!
  





 

A close up shot of the collars.  These are Ivanko Chromed calibrated collars.  they have a quick locking mechanism then a knurled collar to get the weights real tight.  Also here is a close up of the chain attachment apparatus.  It's basically a short length of 2" steel pipe with a tab of 1/4" steel welded on it and drilled.  Holding the chains on are Steel Quicklee collars.





 

Another shot of the Power Rack 






A shot of the power rack with a commercial Nebula Bench with the decline foot hold on it.  This bench is the heaviest bench I have.



 

Another shot of the Bench inclined without the foot hold.  This is a beauty.



 

Just a shot of those shiny plates.



 

Just a little utility adjustable (Width wise) that I welded up and use a lot.  It's the little things that count! 




 

A rear shot of the power rack.



 

This is a 60 degree linear bearing (read 'smooth') leg sled and hack squat.  It was made by PFP who since has apparently gone under.  They made great stuff   It's made extremely well.  The 60 degree (as opposed to 45) means you load less weight for the same resistance and it takes up slightly less floor space than a 45.



 

This is a shot of the front of the sled.  I didn't like the overhead handles so I welded up some side handles (Silver here).  They work out well and complement the machine.  Also notice the adjustable lower stop (The foot sticking down in the middle).  There is a pop-pin to adjust the fail safe drop height.  This was the only machine that I saw an adjustable lower safety on.




A close up of one (of four) of the linear bearings on the sled.  These are beefy 1-1/4" linear bearings riding on a hardened steel shaft.





 

Another shot of the bottom handles.



 

This is a commercial Body-Masters Shoulder Utility Bench.  Notice the sweet stainless steel foot brace and adjustable seat height.  This is great for seated bi's and shoulders.  It's also a good bench for Pull Downs.


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