Custom Spotter Arm Wall Mount

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A uick look around my gym and you’ll be able to tell that my solution to organization is often to hang whatever it is on the wall. However, something that’s been a major pain for me are my spotter arms because after some research, it seems like only one spotter arm wall mount exists, and that’s the one made by PRX. I actually bought this product, but it didn’t work with my REP Fitness spotter arms. The hole spacing was just too close for the wider REP arms. So, it was back to the drawing board.

After a good bit more Googling, I randomly stumbled upon an Etsy listing from SPL Performance for a 3D printed spotter arm and other rack accessory mount. I was really intrigued about this, but just from the pictures, I didn’t think it would fit the REP spotter arms, so I reached out to the seller. His name is Benjamin, and he is great to work with and very knowledgeable. I sent him some pictures and measurements for the REP spotter arms, and he was able to custom make for me both the block that holds the 1” pin and the support block that helps to hold the other end up. Even with the custom work and shipment from Montreal, Canada, I received my products in about a week.

And here they are all mounted up on my wall. In terms of installation, it’s pretty much just a matter of drilling a couple of holes. But if you’re a perfectionist like me, you can throw up a laser or some other means to level and space everything out. However, it should be noted that because of the spacing of the holes on the blocks, you won’t be able to hit the studs with all the holes. You’ll be able to hit one column, then will have to use anchors with the other column if that’s what you want to do. I personally had to use anchors with all my screws because of how I wanted to mount my spotter arms and had to go through all drywall. But they’re holding up just fine.

In terms of options, you can get these mounts in a variety of sizes that’ll fit the most common rack sizes. You also have two material options and these are broken up into residential and commercial grade. Residential grade is made from PLA and commercial grade is made from PA6CF, which is a carbon fiber reinforced nylon, so from now on I will refer to it as nylon. I personally am not familiar with 3D printing, so I didn’t know the difference between these options and especially why one costs basically double, so I asked the seller. I’ll add his exact response, and you can read that for yourself. It’s a great explanation, but the main takeaway is that the nylon is going to be stronger.

“The Nylon is stiffer, the material itself is stronger and it has a stronger intralayer adhesion which means it is less likely to delaminate at a layer line when a force is applied to it. The material itself is more expensive and also causes more wear on the machine which is why those parts are more expensive”

I do want to note that the seller himself uses PLA in his home gym and only started to offer nylon because the owner of a condo with a gym requested for something stronger since his blocks will see a lot more use and abuse.

I personally have both versions. For the spotter arms, I went with the commercial grade nylon. I naturally just like the idea of over-engineering so I wanted the sturdiest option for the heavier spotter arms. But for holding something up like a J-Cup, I think PLA should more than suffice, and that’s exactly what I’m going to use them for. I just have some other stuff coming that I need to finalize wall space for before I can mount these blocks and the J-Cups up.

Something else to consider is that the two materials have a slightly different look to them. Side by side, you can see that the nylon looks like it has a rougher, more coarse surface texture, while PLA is smoother. Because of the slightly rougher surface, the nylon does look more matte black, while PLA is more satin. I hope that helps if any of those things will affect your decision.

Overall, I’m happy with this purchase. These are some great rack attachment mounts, and if you’re like me and want to mount up some spotter arms, these are basically your only option unless your spotter arms fit the PRX mounts. Even if they do, I’d still recommend that you consider this option because of how flexible the seller is and his ability to custom-make these blocks to your sizing needs.

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