#diyequipment

This is one of the easiest pieces of strength equipment to DIY. All you need is a 7 foot length of 1.5" schedule 80 pipe... You can even use surplus (ie, rusty) pipe.

If you have access to a welder, a 1" section of 2" schedule 80 cut into two 0.5" pieces completes the fat bar. If you don't have a welder, you can use some hose clamps instead. Just weld the 2" pipe (or tighten the hose clamps) about 15.5" from each end of the 1.5" pipe.

The completed bar ends up weighing about 25 pounds.

Only issue: spring clips and collars designed for standard Olympic sized barbells will not work on the fat bar due to a smaller diameter. You have a few options:

Buy collars that are designed to fit (eg, Rogue's Proloc or HG collars) for about $40 per pair.

Use some heavy duty spring clamps from a hardware store.

Make your own collars:

Cut 2" sections of 2" schedule 80.

Obtain an eye bolt for each collar section.

Drill an appropriate sized hole through one side of each section.

Tap (thread) each hole to match the eye bolts.

Here is our fat bar alongside our barbell. It's all rusty because it's surplus pipe and hasn't been cleaned up and painted yet.

Here's our fat bar painted black between the plate stops. The glossy red sections are our diy collars.