Problem with Fractional Plates

j@utis

Hi all, I'm trying to get some fractional plates and running into this problem 2nd time in the row :mad:

I've bought this set from ebay seller in italy,


They're cute and all but... 3 out of 4 are too tight to go onto the BB sleeve in my gym :mad:



So, I've got another set from amazon.


I haven't been to gym yet but I don't give these much hope neither, except 1 out of 4 again:




The question is: am I stupid here or I just don't get it why weights for 2" oly barbell are made with EXACTLY 2" holes in them?

I've wasted over 60€ on these purchases so far, and I don't know should I try again, or just give up. The smallest plates are 1.25kg in my gym, it's too much for me to got up 2.5kg at the time on certain lifts (I'm a women).


ps. I can't return the white set to the seller, so if anybody thinks they can get use out of them, pm me.

Hanley

j@utis wrote: »

Hi all, I'm trying to get some fractional plates and running into this problem 2nd time in the row :mad:

I've bought this set from ebay seller in italy,


They're cute and all but... 3 out of 4 are too tight to go onto the BB sleeve in my gym :mad:



So, I've got another set from amazon.


I haven't been to gym yet but I don't give these much hope neither, except 1 out of 4 again:




The question is: am I stupid here or I just don't get it why weights for 2" oly barbell are made with EXACTLY 2" holes in them?

I've wasted over 60€ on these purchases so far, and I don't know should I try again, or just give up. The smallest plates are 1.25kg in my gym, it's too much for me to got up 2.5kg at the time on certain lifts (I'm a women).


ps. I can't return the white set to the seller, so if anybody thinks they can get use out of them, pm me.

hammer + chisel and knock the steel inserts out of the white plates to get some use outta them

we have some bars where plates don't go on, and some that do - it's weird

if you can go into D8 you'll be able ot pick up a good quality set there. I've .5 and 1kg ones from strength shop too and they're all rock solid.

Mellor

j@utis wrote: »

The question is: am I stupid here or I just don't get it why weights for 2" oly barbell are made with EXACTLY 2" holes in them?

Poor manufacturing standards, crap tolerances.
Silly question, but if you have one from the first set that is too small, and only one from the second set that will fit. Can't you mix n match to match a set of that fit (and a useless set of 4)

NiallBoo

Mellor wrote: »

Poor manufacturing standards, crap tolerances.

This seems like the big problem but is it also possible that the bar is 2 inch instead of 50mm?

intheclouds

Have you measured the bar?

Why are you buying plates for the bar in your gym? Cant the gym supply you with plates that fit (often you need to get the same brand as the bar to ensure they fit).

Alf Veedersane

intheclouds wrote: »

Have you measured the bar?

Why are you buying plates for the bar in your gym? Cant the gym supply you with plates that fit (often you need to get the same brand as the bar to ensure they fit).

The gym does supply plates but in a lot of commercial gyms the smallest plates are 1.25kg which means you have to go increase the weight in 2.5kg increments.

Mellor

NiallBoo wrote: »

This seems like the big problem but is it also possible that the bar is 2 inch instead of 50mm?

The bar shouldn't be 2" though. the standard sizing is in mm, even in the US. It's actually 49.5-50mm, the hole is 50.4mm. There's a whole machining standard for tolerance of fit for that stuff.

If the bar is actually, 2". Then it's the same issue of crap quality as when the hole is too small.

intheclouds wrote: »

Why are you buying plates for the bar in your gym? Cant the gym supply you with plates that fit (often you need to get the same brand as the bar to ensure they fit).

They are fractional plates. Your average commercial gyms never supply them, as they walk out the door. Pretty common to bring your own, I've a set (2) like the first in the OP myself.

You don't need to buy the same brand plates and barbells. They are standard sizes for a reason.

intheclouds

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

The gym does supply plates but in a lot of commercial gyms the smallest plates are 1.25kg which means you have to go increase the weight in 2.5kg increments.

Yeah, so maybe ask the gym to provide some smaller ones?

Ive had a similar issue myself in the gym (am female also) and I found that the struggle disappears once you get up a bit as the percentage difference gets less and less (you know, increasing from 10kg to 12.5kg is increasing by 25% but increasing from 20kg to 22.5kg is only increasing by 12.5%).

Another approach is to do less reps. Thats what I did actually, I found it so hard to go for 10kg to 12.5kg on the barbell that I dropped lots of reps and just carried on slowly increasing them until I was doing a full set.

intheclouds

Mellor wrote: »

You don't need to buy the same brand plates and barbells. They are standard sizes for a reason.

Except they are not!

Hanley

intheclouds wrote: »

Yeah, so maybe ask the gym to provide some smaller ones?

Ive had a similar issue myself in the gym (am female also) and I found that the struggle disappears once you get up a bit as the percentage difference gets less and less (you know, increasing from 10kg to 12.5kg is increasing by 25% but increasing from 20kg to 22.5kg is only increasing by 12.5%).

Another approach is to do less reps. Thats what I did actually, I found it so hard to go for 10kg to 12.5kg on the barbell that I dropped lots of reps and just carried on slowly increasing them until I was doing a full set.

Or you could just spend a a few quid and get fractional plates and keep em in your bag.

Gyms don't supply them because;

- they break
- they get robbed

Same with resistance bands.

intheclouds

Hanley wrote: »

Or you could just spend a a few quid and get fractional plates and keep em in your bag.

The OP has already spent considerable quid (60 euro?) on them and no joy so I am offering alternative advice?

My gym supplies resistance bands.

Alf Veedersane

intheclouds wrote: »

Yeah, so maybe ask the gym to provide some smaller ones?

The gym provides plenty of plates. Down to 1.25kg plates is sufficient.

intheclouds

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

The gym provides plenty of plates. Down to 1.25kg plates is sufficient.

So do you have any advice for the OP?

Alf Veedersane

intheclouds wrote: »

The OP has already spent considerable quid (60 euro?) on them and no joy so I am offering alternative advice?

My gym supplies resistance bands.

Ask your gym for a set of fractional plates and see how far you get.

Alf Veedersane

intheclouds wrote: »

So do you have any advice for the OP?

The two options given regarding knocking out the inserts or seeing if a mix-and-match would work were about all the OP can do outside of buying a set from the likes of D8 Fitness or Strength Shop.

NiallBoo

Hanley wrote: »

Gyms don't supply them because;

- they break
- they get robbed

Same with resistance bands.

I used to use a gym that kept stuff like that behind the desk, they were happy to give them out but they'd still know who to ask if they went missing. Seemed to be a good compromise.

OP might suggest their gym do the same with smaller plates?

Hanley

intheclouds wrote: »

The OP has already spent considerable quid (60 euro?) on them and no joy so I am offering alternative advice?

My gym supplies resistance bands.

Are you asking if you gave alternative advice?

The easiest solution is to buy off a reputable supplier, of which there are many. Like the suggested - D8, and strength shop.

With regards gyms and resistance bands, you're lucky. The large majority of commercial gyms do not supply them.

j@utis

Mellor wrote: »

The bar shouldn't be 2" though. the standard sizing is in mm, even in the US. It's actually 49.5-50mm, the hole is 50.4mm. There's a whole machining standard for tolerance of fit for that stuff.

If the bar is actually, 2". Then it's the same issue of crap quality as when the hole is too small.

They are fractional plates. Your average commercial gyms never supply them, as they walk out the door. Pretty common to bring your own, I've a set (2) like the first in the OP myself.

You don't need to buy the same brand plates and barbells. They are standard sizes for a reason.

There about 6-8 barbells in my gym. At least 3 different kinds, one of them is York, others - unbranded. I tried first rubber set on different barbells and I could only get 2 of them to fit on one of the barbells. One plate goes on easy enough while other one needs some hammering on (stupid).
If bar thickness/hole size tolerances are really that tight it's kinda stupid because a little knock to the BB sleeve and it's not perfect round shape anymore, more like 51mm and 49mm in places, which is the case in my gym.
I want a pair of plates that I could easily fit any barbells in my gym, like the rest of the weights there.

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

The two options given regarding knocking out the inserts or seeing if a mix-and-match would work were about all the OP can do outside of buying a set from the likes of D8 Fitness or Strength Shop.

Inserts are quite chunky and they make up a good bit of the weight itself. The rest is thinish metal plate covered with rubber. I think trying to knock insert out would damage the weight too much, therefore not an option. Filling inside of the insert to make the hole 1-2mm bigger would be sufficient but I don't have tools to do that.
Yeah, I'm taking mix&match set with me tomorrow. I'm not happy about it but what can I do

intheclouds wrote: »

Yeah, so maybe ask the gym to provide some smaller ones?

Ive had a similar issue myself in the gym (am female also) and I found that the struggle disappears once you get up a bit as the percentage difference gets less and less (you know, increasing from 10kg to 12.5kg is increasing by 25% but increasing from 20kg to 22.5kg is only increasing by 12.5%).

Another approach is to do less reps. Thats what I did actually, I found it so hard to go for 10kg to 12.5kg on the barbell that I dropped lots of reps and just carried on slowly increasing them until I was doing a full set.

I'm doing Stronglifts 5x5 at the moment, so reps already are very low. I'm really struggling with overhead press and bench press and going up by as little as 0.5kg gives me motivation to keep pushing.

I'm very happy with my gym overall. There's plenty of equipment - machines, weights, squat racks/cages, never too busy and so on, so I really can't complain. I wouldn't be comfortable to ask for more.

Alf Veedersane

OP, might be worth putting those back on eBay and you can suggest to the gym that they buy a set of fractionals or buy a set yourself.

I would he surprised if the inserts were that heavy though if you wanted to try.

Dtp1979

Why don't you correspond with the seller on eBay and tell them the product was falsely advertised and you'd like to get what you paid for.

Mellor

intheclouds wrote: »

Yeah, so maybe ask the gym to provide some smaller ones?

Ive had a similar issue myself in the gym (am female also) and I found that the struggle disappears once you get up a bit as the percentage difference gets less and less (you know, increasing from 10kg to 12.5kg is increasing by 25% but increasing from 20kg to 22.5kg is only increasing by 12.5%).

Another approach is to do less reps. Thats what I did actually, I found it so hard to go for 10kg to 12.5kg on the barbell that I dropped lots of reps and just carried on slowly increasing them until I was doing a full set.

Just because you don't have a need for them doesn't mean nobody should. They really aren't for jumping between 10kg and 12kg.
More so for max effort stuff in the range for press, bench, snatch and clean. Typically in the 50-100kg range.
82.5 to 85kg might only be 3%, but at times that can simply be too much.

intheclouds wrote:

Except they are not!

Yes, there is a standard size for barbells. Sleeves are typically 49.5 to 50mm. Holes are 50.2 to 50.6 mm.

No brands have their own sizes that I am aware of. Some brands are a crap are vary a lot such as those in the OP. Buying matching sets from those brands is no guarantee they'll fit either - as evident from the different sizes within the one set the OP has.

caviardreams

Dtp1979 wrote: »

Why don't you correspond with the seller on eBay and tell them the product was falsely advertised and you'd like to get what you paid for.

Did you pay with paypal? If so you could raise a dispute via them also.

j@utis

caviardreams wrote: »

Did you pay with paypal? If so you could raise a dispute via them also.

I could do that but sending the weights back would cost me more than I paid for them, so there's no point really.

A quick update on the issue: I took the new, cast iron, weights to the gym yesterday and surprisingly all of them fit onto two of the barbells there, I didn't try on all of the barbells, only on the ones I used, and they went on fine, so happy days!

I measured all weights today - hole sizes vary quite a bit, rubbers weights seem be more consistent but the way they're done, inserts must not perfectly round or something like that, they just won't go onto the barbells. I know it's weird... For the moment I'm sticking with the two from BodyRip with the biggest holes in them

Thanks for everybody's replies!

Hanley

Bodyrip... biggest holes in em... LOLSNORT.

gctest50

get a flap wheel or something and give it a rub





http://www.lawson-his.co.uk/bibielle-rg-25x20mm-shaft-mounted-flap-whe-p2054

endacl

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

The gym provides plenty of plates. Down to 1.25kg plates is sufficient.

Certainly is. Somethings gone very weird if an increase of 500g makes a lift unliftable. You're into add/remove the spring collars territory at that point.

Alf Veedersane

endacl wrote: »

Certainly is. Somethings gone very weird if an increase of 500g makes a lift unliftable. You're into add/remove the spring collars territory at that point.

The difference between two 0.5kg plates and two 1.25kg plates is 1.5kg though. Sometimes a 2.5kg increase isn't feasible, so there's nothing wrong with getting 0.5kg plates. That way they can increase by 1kg and then 1.5kg.

Canis Lupus

endacl wrote: »

Certainly is. Somethings gone very weird if an increase of 500g makes a lift unliftable. You're into add/remove the spring collars territory at that point.

That's not the ops problem.

SS/stronglifts can be impossible to progress on 1.25kg plates. He needs .5kg plates. I know for me the OH press would be simply impossible with a 2.5kg jump each time.

Edit ^^ what he said.

Mellor

endacl wrote: »

Certainly is. Somethings gone very weird if an increase of 500g makes a lift unliftable. You're into add/remove the spring collars territory at that point.

You are looking it at completely backwards.
2 x 1.25kg plates = 2.5kg, which is not an insignificant jump at times

Somebody might be able to lift 100kg for a single, and 90kg x 5.
But they'll fail 102.5 and 92.5kg x 5.

Hence the use of fractional plates to create 101kg and/or 91kg x 5


That even a 1kg addition could make a lift liftable. At some point it's just your max. If that wasn't the case we'd all just keep adding .5-1kg and lift all the weights. Like Bruce Willas in Unbreakable

j@utis

gctest50 wrote: »

get a flap wheel or something and give it a rub

Genius! I will definitely give this a go!

Canis Lupus wrote: »

That's not the ops problem.

SS/stronglifts can be impossible to progress on 1.25kg plates. SHe needs .5kg plates. I know for me the OH press would be simply impossible with a 2.5kg jump each time.

Edit ^^ what he said.

Yet, OHP and BP have stalled ages ago and I have 3.5 more weeks to go to complete 12 weeks program. I can do OHP 5x5 with 29kg but I can only manage 1x5 with 30kg. Same applies to BP: 43kg vs 44kg :mad:

DylanJM

j@utis wrote: »

I can do OHP 5x5 with 29kg but I can only manage 1x5 with 30kg. Same applies to BP: 43kg vs 44kg :mad:

What sort of rep numbers are you getting on the subsequent sets? Sometimes it's better just to move up to the next weight (even if you can't do 5x5 of it) and look to build up to 5x5 over a couple of sessions.

For example:
session 1: 30x5,4,4,3,2
session 2: 30x5,5,4,4,3
session 3: 30x5,5,5,4,4

and so on until you can do 5x5 then increase the weight again.