Lessons Learned

Here's some take-away that might help; some you can do something about, some you can't.

Cracks in the wood posts

It's been two weeks since we bought the lumber, and one since we assembled the power rack. The front left post is getting large cracks right down the middle on both the front and back sides. Same with the rear left post. The rest of the posts don't shown any cracks.

So maybe let the wood sit a bit longer to dry out? Not sure.

I've got two choices if the cracks get too big:

• Clamp and use wood screws to keep the cracks closed
• Remove and replace the post

If the cracks get bad enough, I'm already leaning toward using the wood screw solution.

Update 17 Feb 2014:
The cracks never got any bigger and ended up noting being an issue.

Safety bar holes

We started them at 24 inches. Once we got the rack assembled and put the bars in, we determined we needed another set of holes lower down, so we marked 20 inches and drilled another set (4 holes, 2 in the front and 2 in the middle).

So we recommend starting your holes at 20 inches instead of 24. Or maybe even 18. Every 4 inches worked well though as far as available heights.

Update 17 Feb 2014:
After using the rack for a year, having the holes slightly closer together would have been better, maybe 3.5 inches apart, or even 3 inches.