I would drill some holes at the end of pipe and stick some wire through there or else put some screw or nails in it to hold it more securely to the concrete.
As a pipe bending mold, I use and recommend a full.size steel coffee or industrial food can. Put in a sink of cold water. Wrap your.pipe in aluminum foil, place in a 325° F oven for about 10 minutes, or when pliable. Take out with oven mitts you don't mind getting soaked and quickly wrap to desired curvature around the water-submerged can. If you don't get it right, just re-heat an re-do as necessary.
Part Time Workshop did make the most Badass looking Kettlebells. I put sand in a frying pan, then use a funnel to put the hot sand into the PVC and you won't get kinks in your PVC pipe. When I make these or Buff Blocks I like to fill My PVC with Concrete as well. Makes them heavier and more durable hand grips.
Just an idea for people out there. You can follow this method and use round bowls. They are kind of half spheres. you put one on top of the other to make the full sphere and while the mortar is fresh add the handle. The advantage with this is that these containers are much easier to find and they will be reusable. They are cheaper and also can find them at any size. But it makes it harder to assemble. But I would guess not too much. Start with the small sizes for making small kettlebells. Get some experience then do the larger ones. Good luck. I am gonna experiment with this myself!
Wow, thanks for this tutorial. Very clear and concise. KB prices have gone up due to the pandemic home workout demand or they are out of stock. I have 2 questions, if anyone tried this. 1. Do both your KBs weigh same, assuming you followed a reasonably consistent process for both? 2. Will the plastic eventually crack? If so, I was thinking it might be better to just heat, cut and rip out the plastic before painting? I can buff the concrete if needed. If the plastic is not going to crack then obviously leaving it is much better. thanks!! Now I know what to do with the bags of rapidset and some PVC pipes lying in my garage! Just need to purchase the fish bowls.
Best tutorial on this, I was looking for ways to prevent the pipe from crushing when bending it. The solution was pretty obvious, fill the pipe haha. Got some playground balls at Marshalls for $1 each, will use them as molds. Thanks for the video
You can make them way heavier relative to size if you mix in some old tire weights from a local tire shop. Yeah sure most of them have lead in them so don't lick your Kettlebells, and a paint coating will seal them up nicely.
Great vid. I'm wondering if it may be beneficial to keep the sand in the handles and as well as the reinforced wire? For the ability to use the bells for push ups, dips etc, hold more weight?
I made a set of these and they turned out great - around 28.5 lbs each (used a bit too much water). The only issue is that the lip of the bowl is pretty hard, bruising my forearms. Anyone else run into this issue, and what did you do?
Yeah, after a while i started noticing that lip too. I think you could carefully trim it or heat it up and bend so that it's not pushing on forearms. I have not tried doing it though...
Honestly you can paint them with anything you want, concrete holds any paint sufficient for this, even leftover latex paint. Gloss or semigloss works better, repels water better.
There is no exact amount on this, you have to start adding water to a small amount ofnconcrete, mix it and try to keep the same consistency as you make more.
Your concrete mix is too dry....it needs to be on the wet side . Also u should attach a small iron to the steel cable to prevent losening of handles....besides you can also put concrete in the plastic handles to make them even more strong. 👍
I tried the method of putting it in the oven and it worked but it was still kind of tough to bend, should the pipe be easily bending or will it always be a bit tough to bend, I felt like it was going to crack if I went to far, and this was at 350 for 10 minutes
when it's hot enough, it's really easy to bend it, it bends under it's own weight, so my guess is that in your case you should wait a bit more. I also think that heating it over stove would give more predictable result.
Pipe length - 21", about 53cm Find the center of the 21" pipe and measure 3.25" (8.25cm) to the left and to the right of center. That's where the bend should be. |====7.25"====|===6.5"===|====7.25"====| |===18.25cm===|===16.5cm===|===18.25cm===|
If it collapsed in the bending area, you need to pack in more sand. If it cracked - it probably was not heated enough so it was not flexible. It took me a few tries to figure it out....
@@parttimeworkshop the only way I can pay you back is with a advice: take a pan, put the sand into it then let it get hot on your oven (not the oven, actually is the part above the oven, where you cook your food. I don't know the name of it lol) then you put the hot Sand inside of the pipe. It should be more easy and faster.
not really, even if you use basketball, you would get 37lbs of concrete into it at best. 52lbs concrete ball would probably be too big to call it kettlebell
@tom st really awful idea. You hurt your wrists and body since during certain exercises the weight touches the body.There is a reason why ketllebells have the shape that they do, it's not a coincidence.
Ok well I see my local home Depot has the spray for 9 bucks vs regular spray paint for 4, I really like the finish of the Berliner though it makes it look like a genuine kettlebell, and I feel like that would be the best for the long run
Part Time Workshop the consistency looks just as good however it does chip depending on what you do with it, I do banded kettlebell swings sometimes and it chips at the paint on the handles, question how long have you been using them, two of them the pvc is cemented in but it’s about only an inch or so down from the top of the fish bowl and I’m wondering if the weight of the cement over time will make the pvc slip out, there is a 20, 40, and 60 lb kettlebell
sand is good because the particles are coarse which makes the concrete stronger. dirt, maybe has a lot of fine dust in it. so you might break the kettlebell if you use it just as it is. put some small stones in the mix with the dirt, and filter the dirt to remove organic matter. you should be alright then!
