Adjustable Dumbbell Dolly

The Motivation

I have been using the Rep Fitness QuickDraws for three months now. Admittedly, I have not been working out as much the past few months because I am tired or lazy or both. But when I do work out, I want it to be easy to setup.

Because my house is small, I don't have a dedicated workout space. To setup, I must do the following:

1. Push couch ottoman to the side
2. Vacuum cat litter in the area
3. Retrieve yoga mat from closet
4. Roll out yoga mat (gently, so Isa doesn't get startled)
5. Move dumbbells out from under piano
6. Log planned exercises in FitNotes mobile app
7. (Optional) Turn on TV and play workout video
8. (Optional) Move fan to workout area if it's a hot day

Initially, dragging out the dumbbells wasn't a huge hassle. Each one was 30-lb which was manageable. I did worry a little about scraping the floor, and on days I don't really feel like exercising, it's just one more step that requires physical effort that I don't want to do.

But at some point, I had split my dumbbells to 40-lb and 20-lb (it is really lovely that I can do this with the QuickDraws) because there's some single-dumbbell exercises like rows and sumo deadlifts that I could go up to 40-lb on. And there were not, at the time, any two-dumbbell exercises that I needed more than 20-lb on each side. This increased the physical effort required to drag the 40-lb dumbbell and cradle around.

Additionally, I recently got 10-lb add-on plates for each side. There was a sale! And I sometimes can do 22.5-lb on two-dumbbell exercises, which I have enough plates for, but because I set it up as 40-lb and 20-lb, it was an extra step to grab a plate from the 40-lb and add it on the 20-lb. (An extremely minor inconvenience, but an inconvenience nonetheless.)

So now I have them split to 50-lb and 30-lb, which is even more of a hassle to drag around. I really wanted to have them on rolling dollies to be able to pull them out effortlessly, and when I was done, be able to put them back effortlessly. And it was a good excuse to practice woodworking because I have not done any significant woodworking projects yet!

I had this project in the backlog pretty much since I got the dumbbells. I even bought the wheels already, and they were sitting in the box they came in for months. I just needed the right motivation to start it. The motivation being laziness, because laziness in one aspect of my life is the fuel for productivity in another ha ha ha...

The Process

I still had a supply of random planks in my garage (courtesy of my sister) that I could use for them. They were not the correct width. So the plan was to join two together with pocket holes (could also have just used wood glue, but that was more work and messier). Then I would chamfer (cut off at a 45-degree angle) the top edge for safety and aesthetic. (I could have also just sanded the edges to get rid of the sharp edges, but I wanted to practice using the router.)

As usual, I did this sitting in my garage. Quite literally this time. I did most of the cutting and routing on the floor, and sat in a little stool. For the first dolly, I clamped the wood to the workbench for routing. For the second one (done on a different day), I just held it down on the ground with my foot.

When drilling the pilot holes for the wheels, I accidentally drilled too far on some of them. I marked the stopping point on the drill bit with a piece of the tape, but the tape moved! How dare! But nothing a little wood filler couldn't fix.

After I finished the first dolly (it took me about three hours, not including the initial planning and measuring), I didn't get to the second one until a week later. Then, I didn't coat them with polyurethane until a week after that.

But I got it all done eventually.

The Result

The most important function of the dollies is that they must roll easily. And oh yes do they roll. So so smooth. Here is an example of what I would normally do to setup and put away my dumbbells.

Yes, the wheels even have locks so the cradle does not run away while I try to put the dumbbell back in.

Here's the first dolly from different angles, without the varnish. The top looks ugly because of the wood filler, but it's not going to be visible in actual use.

And finally, here's both of them with the varnish. As you can see, one of them looks significantly better than the other. I did a better job of picking wood pieces that looked nice and matched on the second one. You can barely tell it's not a single block of wood.

I love how the varnish makes it really look like a finished product, and less like a thing that I hacked together in my garage (even though that is exactly what it is).

I'm happy that I am gaining more confidence and efficiency in using power tools. The garage reorganization definitely helped; everything is much more easier to find and actually get to. Maybe during the upcoming holiday break (combined with PTO, I'll have 9 days off!), I will work on a shelf my sister has requested. But I probably want to start planning my office closet build at the same time, since I'll probably use the same plywood for both projects. Or maybe I will do none of that and just sew a bunch because I bought a serger that's supposed to arrive tomorrow.

Well, either way, I have no shortage of things to do.