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So, I've had it my head for awhile that I want a fat bar. I want grip that could squeeze coal into a diamond. Plus seeing Jesse Norris pounding out sets of 10 at 585 with a fat bar, it sort of makes you realize just how weak you are. So, I decided to dust of the fabrication skills / tools I have, and whip one of these up (@El Exorcisto would be so proud if he was still around). I had seen that Rogue makes their's out of 1.5" Schedule 80 pipe, but when I tried using that, and I couldn't get my collars to clamp down on the pipe. So I decided to make this out 2" tube. Figured it'd be a simple hour long project. What could go wrong! Tools Needed: Welder (Optional) Angle Grinder with a flap disc for smoothing things out and a grinding wheel if you are stupid like me. (Optional) Some sort of device to cut metal. Chop saw, Band Saw, hell, I suppose even an Oxy Torch would work, but you'd just have a lot of cleanup. Metal Needed: 7' of 2" Tube of some type 2x 1" long sections of 3" outer diameter tube with 1/2" thick walls (i.e. a 2" inner diameter) So, I picked up a 7' chunk of 2" 10 gauge ERW tube as well as 6" chunk of 3" OD 1/2" wall DOM tube. The ERW was just under $40 and the DOM was just under $20. This is where I made mistake #1. I didn't actually measure the true outer diameter (OD) of the ERW before buying it. It was over 2" by about a 1/10". Not much, but enough where the weights and the DOM wouldn't actually fit over it. If I were do this again, I'd probably go up to 2" OD 1/4" wall DOM tube for a couple reason. First, I believe that is a true 2" OD so you wouldn't have to do any grinding (this should be verified before purchasing) and second, it would be stronger and heavier. It's basically double the price though. So, my process was going to be super simple. Cut 2 1" chunks of the DOM, slide over the ERW tube 16" on each side, weld on. Done. Well, I forgot how hard it is to cut metal. It took me 2 hours to get through the DOM cuts between me popping the breaker multiple times and then learning I needed to stop about every 60 seconds to let the saw cool to NOT pop the breaker. Plus the cuts were super ugly and not straight at all. One thing I've learned is that unless you have a cold saw, cutting metal is never even close to straight. So this was mistake #2. For $7 a pop ($5 of which is the cut cost), I could have gotten the steel yard to just cut me a 1" sections that probably would have been much higher quality. So sure I have 4" extra material to work with, but the ends are all diagonal now, and what am I going to do with this metal (besides making more fat bars)? So anyway, I got the collars cut, then came the work of narrowing the ERW tube down the proper 2" dimension. First, I tried a belt sander, but that failed miserably. The belts kept catching on something or other, and I destroyed 2 belts within 3 minutes. So that idea got thrown out. Only other thing I could think of was to use an angle grinder. 3 hours of grinding later, I was done. My ends had been narrowed just enough to get weights and the DOM on just fine. Then came the easy part. Measure out markers for 16", line up the straight edges of the tube on the outside with the markers, and weld them up. 6 hours after starting my 1 hour project, it was "done". I thought about putting end caps on, and trying to smooth the bar down a bit, but was ready for this to be done. Maybe at some later point, if I try this again, I'll do the fancy stuff. Either way, it works and I'm pretty pumped. No idea how much weight it'll hold. 10 gauge wall works out to just over an 1/8" inch so it's pretty beefy. It weighs in at right around 20lbs. Here she sits. As you can see, weights actually sit nice and flush against collars. Up close of my welds (note, I'm terrible at welding round things) plus you can see how far back and I had to grind. tl;dr If you want make your own fat bar, test fit your 2" bar before buying it. Go with 1/4 wall thick 2" bar as well. It'll be closer to 20kg / 45lbs. Finally, pay the steel yard to cut you 1" collars instead of thinking you can do yourself. Then just measure and weld.