Haha, awesome vid
@DonDonDonPata. Yeah, to say the least, most people severely underestimate the strength of arm wrestlers. Especially body builders for some reason. Heck, a few weeks ago I wrestled with a guy that won the Arnold classic and pinned him a couple times. Dude was 3 times my size. Surprised the vid didn't make more light of how we're walking Dorito's. Wide at top and narrow on bottom because we want to be as competitive as possible in our weight class. I mean we don't skip leg day, we just don't do it nearly as hard as everything else which gives us better recovery times to fit more arms in.
In other news, I built my first arm wrestling table. Took me about 3 weeks of planning and building as well as learning how to upholster. I really wanted to find a way to do it without needing to weld anything seeing as I don't know how to haha. As well as being able to collapse and easily transport it. It ended up better than I expected honestly. Tossed those gat dang tubs I'd been using previously so fast.
So this is obviously the early stages here, I made a few mistakes with the length of the table top which caused me to also cut the frame the wrong length as well because the website I got the official AAA table standard specs from had the length written out incorrectly. I was bummed out because I had happened to have this wood leftover from another project in my garage but because of the error I ended up cutting it 2 inches to short... After that crap I called up Eddie and had him measure his table for me and I just made it according to his. The frame will work just fine being where it's at but eventually I'll buy another length of conduit and cut it right.
The padding is just the cheapest gym puzzle mats from Walmart cut to size glued and stacked. We'll have to see if it will be sufficient long term or if we need to find even denser stuff. Was a wild ride learning to stitch and upholster by hand but I ended up loving it. Brought the pads to practice with me and Eddie was so impressed that he trusted me to re-pad his. Which we were all extremely grateful for. When I opened his up the padding had virtually disintegrated so that it was just wood! Anyhow, for my first pad, the one with the visible lumps in the side, I had cut the foam with scissors, which was a mistake. The next one I used a razor and made sure the sides were as clean as I could get them. Even the stitching was more uniform on the second one. I'll probably end up redoing the padding on the first at some point.
The handles are just 1x6" black iron pipe a cap and a flange each. I tried so hard to find a 1" diameter metal rod that was 6 inches long with a threaded end for a bolt to fasten it to the table for a handle that looked cleaner but couldn't find anything. They sell official handles for tables in the EU but they're around 50$ not including shipping to the US vs just a few bucks for this... I even looked at bike pegs which would've worked perfectly but they don't make any at 6"... at least not that I found. Anyway, for now I think this looks fine and actually matches with the old school look. I'll be grinding down the sides of those flanges that are sticking out to match the table whenever I get the time. If anyone has any suggestions for handles please let me know.
I used 1-1/4" EMT conduit and structural pipe fittings for the frame. It's WAY more solid than I thought it would be for something that isn't welded. It doesn't wiggle any more than any of the welded tables I've used and I'd actually say it's more stable since it's heavier. For the table top I just picked up the cheapest 3/4 inch plywood I could find (30$ at my local Lowes), cut, sanded and upholstered it. The material is marine leather from Joann Fabrics. I went for a more old school color scheme. I've always loved that classic baseball feel even if I'm not a huge fan, It'll always be the number one American pastime for me. Hardest part was attaching it to the table evenly and so that there weren't any bolts sticking through to snag your legs on.
I ended up drilling and tapping holes in the conduit and securing the table with sunken carriage bolts so this way they look hidden. Though this may change if just that small amount of tapped thread (just one side of the pipe wall) proves to not be secure enough. In that case I'll just drill all the way through and use rounded nuts with the bolts cut flush so nothing catches. There's one table to frame bolt under each elbow pad and one in each flange. This way I can actually make multiple table tops (different standards like offset pads) and change them out easily whenever I want.
The table can be easily collapsed and set up with just a hex wrench. It ended up fitting snuggly in the back of the SUV.
After all that I've already got a list of a few things I'd do differently next time but all in all I think this'll do great for now and the guys liked it a lot when I took it to practice. Absolutely love finally having a table to train of instead of the tubs.
Anyway, Hope you guys are still sticking with it!
PS. I'm trying to talk Alex into doing this with me now that I have a table.
Soon...
