GENERAL

Polak Made equipment is built to give equal or superior strength to the best top line equipment such as Samson, Forza, Serpa, and other thick wall tube gym and competition equipment.  Polak Made prices are much lower by leaving out the frills that do not contribute to strength, longevity, and usability, such as powder coat paint (available as option), chrome, fancy dancy curves and shapes, etc.    All working components and frames are top rate components.  Steel is USA sourced, most components are USA sourced.

POLAK MADE TUBE FRAMES

The structural tubing in Polak Made LLC bench presses, squat racks, power racks is 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" x 3/16" wall or 3" x 3" x 3/16" wall  structural steel tubing.  This tubing is used for the best combination of strength, stiffness, weight, and lifting room.

Most top line commercial gym equipment uses 2 x 2 x 1/8, 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 1/8, or 2 x 3 x 1/8 tubing.  The wall thickness in commercial gym equipment can often be less than 1/8" thick.  The commercial gym equipment suppliers like thin wall tubing because it is easily bent, cut and machined.  Most commercial gym equipment will become unstable and dangerous when loaded up with the weights that hard core weight lifters use.  In addition, the thin wall tubing is prone to weld failures due to burn through (the welds are laid thinly to avoid this) and embrittlement.

2 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 3/16 tubing has 80 percent of the compressive strength as 3 x 3 x 3/16 tubing (often seen in top line competition equipment).   2 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 3/16 tubing, with gussets and smart engineering, is more than strong and stiff enough for raw powerlifters, most equipment powerlifters, almost all other heavy weight users.

For the most hard core users, such as equipment powerlifters that regularly squat over 900 pounds, and the big bench pressers lifting over 600 pounds, Polak Made LLC offers 3" x 3" x 3/16" wall tubing.  It is what is used for in the best competition equipment.   Equipment made from this tube is very heavy, likely the only thing that will be left of your house or gym after a tornado comes thru.

Relative comparison of tubing sizes and wall thickness

shown to relative scale for comparison, not actual scale

*4 x 4 x 1/8 tubing was used in some old competition equipment. 3 x 3 x 3/16 tube is stronger in compression and  with gussets, as strong or stronger in bending.

Polak Made equipment not used in competition (such as pulley machines) will be made from 2 x 2 x 1/8, 2 x 2 x 3/16,  2 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 1/8, or 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 3/16 wall tubing to give more than adequate strength and stiffness for the intended uses and weight ratings.  This equipment will be superior to typical franchise gym equipment in strength, safety, and stability.

PAINT

Polak Made does not use powder coat paint.  Competition and hard core equipment will get banged up.  Use of wet paint allows easy touch up with paints available at home improvement stores and hardware stores.  Use of common enamel wet paint also allows a wide range of color selections for no extra charge.  Polak Made uses quality paint with proper metal preparation and priming.  Black, cobalt blue, and silver metal flakes also available at no charge.

Powder coat paint is difficult to touch up (will not accept and match with wet paint) and severely limits color selection.  This is why the competition typically only offers one or two colors, anything else has a steep extra charge.

If powder coat is desired, state in quote request, will be extra.

EXPLANATION OF POLAK MADE LLC EQUIPMENT WEIGHT RATINGS

Weight ratings are specified to allowable loads on critical steel structures (like a bridge or crane hoist), then modified to assure stiffness and the ability to handle dynamic loads such as placing barbells back into saddles hard. All Polak Made weight ratings have a safety factor of a at least  5.0 on complete failure and 3.5 on yielding (bending).  All welds are designed to AWS class ratings.  This is much more conservative than the competition.

FOR EXAMPLE, IF THE RATING ON A POLAK MADE LLC EQUIPMENT IS 1000 LBS, THE EQUIPMENT WILL HANDLE 1000 LBS WITH EASE.

BEWARE OF SOME OF THE COMPETITORS SO CALLED WEIGHT CAPACITIES. THEY MAY BE SPECIFIED ON FAILURE OR BENDING WITH NO SAFETY FACTOR OR ALLOWANCE FOR DYNAMIC LOADINGS.  MANY COMPETITOR’S POWER RACKS WITH A LOAD CAPACITY STATED AT 1000 LBS WILL BE SO WOBBLY AND FLIMSY YOU WILL NOT WANT TO USE IT WITH ANYTHING CLOSE TO 1000 POUNDS!