DIY Landmine Row Platform
Simple instructions to build your own T-Bar Row/Landmine platform for your home gym. This build only requires 3 items, is inexpensive ($38 CAD), and takes a relatively short amount of time to build depending on your skills. The basic principle is to get a heavy-duty swivel caster, take out the wheel, and put a piece of PVC pipe in its place.
Materials
- 1 x swivel caster with a 2" wheel width, make sure it has a bolt you can unscrew (CA | US)
- 1 x 2" diameter PVC pipe at least 20" long (CA | US)
- 1 x mounting base - I found some spare cabinet wood and cut it into a square platform.
Step 1
Unscrew the caster wheel using pliers or adjustable wrenches. You can get rid of the wheel itself but you will need to keep the bolt that runs through it (axle bolt) as well as the greasy metal tube that the bolt runs through (spanner), and the nut. Have a look at the picture at the bottom to see what the disassembled caster looks like.
Step 2
Cut your PVC pipe to 20". I'm basing this measurement off my standard Olympic barbell with 15.75" sleeves.
Step 3
Measure 3" from one end of the pipe and drill a large hole all the way through. The size of the drill bit should be as close as possible to the size of the spanner. Go on the slightly smaller side so it's a snug fit. If you don't have a bit that size use the largest one you have and while you're drilling just spin the bit around in the hole to widen it. It's PVC plastic so it won't be too hard to make the hole larger that way. Once the hole is large enough, push or hammer the spanner into the hole.
Step 4
Place the PVC pipe where the wheel was, slide the axle bolt through, tighten the nut.
Step 5
Mount your new equipment. I used some spare cabinet wood but you can use anything you have laying around, it's just meant to stabilize the caster on the ground so it doesn't wobble or move when you're swinging this thing around. You could screw the caster into wood, concrete, bolt it to the ground or the wall. If you have a power rack the best option would be to bolt it directly to the rack. It's your home gym so get creative!
Notes
I've taken this for a spin with a couple 45s and it seems to hold up. The caster is heavy-duty and rated for a 550lb load capacity, so the PVC pipe is the only piece I was worried about initially. After doing some research I found the tensile strength and collapse pressure of a 2" PVC pipe is in the hundreds of pounds. There's other factors to consider like the weight being entirely on the other end of the barbell and the physics about the distribution of weight when it reaches the PVC pipe, and the fact that I drilled a hole through the middle of the pipe but I'm confident in my setup that it will probably outlast me.
