Hi all! Firstly, anyone is welcome to use my design, change it however you want, or just take a closer look. This is a personal project and will not sell it. Just DM me and I'll send the file (Solidworks 2021).

I am designing a very compact but still highly functional workout machine that has to be capable of doing at least all big 5 exercises (squat, deadlift, pull-up, overhead press, and bench press) with at least 100kg (220lb). My size constraints are still a bit flexible, but I am aiming at something that would fit inside <20x55cm (<8x21 in.) footprint and <180cm (70 in.) tall. To my surprise, I couldn't find any machine in the market such as this and I wonder if anyone else has been frustrated about this before.

This is the current state of the design:


Here is a view of different configurations for the different exercises (shows bar movement range in green and exercise name on the side):


Here is a list of exercises that you can do with this design:
With the sliding "cart" and handles: squat, deadlift, awkward low height pull-up, seated overhead press, bench press
With the top and bottom pulleys: biceps, side lateral raise, tricep pulldowns, etc...

View of machine surroundings (to be mounted on a hidden floor slide and tucked away behind a cabinet). This special circumstances are forced on me because I plan to install it in a motorhome).


Everything is quite straight forward I hope. The most important aspect is the sliding "cart" with the handles that has to glide as smoothly as possible against the shaft. If this doesn't work smoothly without much wobble, is a deal breaker. I'd appreciate feedback on this! For this part I copied this idea from PBC linear:

And used a larger and stronger shaft (that's what she said) and instead of Frelon I'd be using iglide® tribo-tape liner B160 from Igus. Looks like this:


The pulley setup is not that straight forward and I don't expect anyone to figure it out from these images but believe me, it'd be very clear if you could inspect the model and rotate/zoom around.

And finally, a troublesome part of the design is: how the heck can one lock and unlock the sliding "cart" in the up position while doing squats sets (similar to how you'd put the barbell on a rack)... I've only come up with this so far, but I don't like it, there has to be some better way to do this.


Anyone who'd like to take a look at the model let me know. If you are interested, I also have static sims of the main structures and the materials are already within generous factor of safety ranges. Hopefully someone will be able to improve upon this design. You are a legend if you made it this far anyhow, all the best to you.

 

Humble post bump ☝