Deadlift Jack

On a co-op in North Carolina I joined a powerlifting gym with a full-size deadlift jack — an accessory that lifts the bar slightly off the ground so you can slide thin, slippery kilogram plates on and off with one hand instead of two. Back home I had no jack, which made loading slow and added unnecessary strain.

The common workarounds didn't work for me:

• Rolling the bar onto a small plate to prop one side — my home plates are octagonal and won't roll
• Lifting one side by hand while loading with the other — my school plates have no handle to grip

So I built my own.

Requirements:

1. Fit in my gym bag
2. Hold 495 lbs without breaking or major deformation
3. Stay upright while loading and unloading plates
4. Provide a gap between the bottom of the plate and the ground

My bag fit a 24″ max, so I drew a 19″ × 5″ body — as long as possible for leverage while staying packable. I placed the bar hole slightly above the plate radius to guarantee ground clearance (1 5/16″ hole for the ~1.14″ bar, matching the closest hole-saw I owned). The handle sits directly above the bar hole so there's near-zero horizontal offset and no twisting moment, sized wide to handle the vertical-offset moment while staying comfortable. A few extra cuts made loading and rolling easier.

I used wood — I had scrap 3/4″ plywood on hand, and it won't damage the gym's bars. Cut two rectangles on the table saw and glued them up, marked the handle, bar holder, and rolling features, drilled the bar hole with a 1 5/16″ hole saw, and cut the handle and rolling profile on the bandsaw. Sanded the handle for comfort and finished with three coats of polyurethane to survive being tossed in a gym bag.

Tested it at the gym the next day. It fit the bag (req 1), handled a full workout from 0–3 plates with no issues (reqs 3 & 4), and rolled cleanly with 5 plates loaded (req 2) — all four requirements met. It rolled almost as easily as the full-size jack at a fraction of the size. The only catch: past two plates I had to load and unload gently, or the jack wanted to tip sideways.

Found a real problem and solved it simply, effectively, and cheaply with material on hand.

1. Widen the base to reduce side-to-side play during loading and unloading
2. Add rubber or a softer grip material to the handle for comfort