How To Fill REP Fitness Sandbags

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What’s going on guys? It’s Hai.

I recently added these REP Fitness sandbags to the home gym and in this blog, I want to talk about how I filled them.

Now, you may think that “Hey, they’re called sandbags so I can just fill them with sand” and you can definitely do that, but it’s not the best approach. The problem with sand is that it’s generally very dusty. So if you just fill your bags up purely with sand, when you’re working out, every time you move the bags you may get a face full of dust which is obviously not ideal and not very good for your health. Sand also tends to hold moisture and again, not ideal because you’ll likely be sweating all over these bags.

With these REP Fitness sandbags, you actually get an internal bladder that you use to hold whatever filler you want and that goes inside the more durable external bag that you pull around.

From my research, the best approach seems to be to fill the sandbags up with a mixture of pea gravel and rubber mulch. I personally picked both of these up from my local Lowe’s but these supplies can be found at various other home improvement or garden centers.

For the mixture itself, you’re shooting for a ratio of 2/3 pea gravel to 1/3 rubber mulch. You can take that as seriously as you want but I personally eyeballed the ratio. The pea gravel is where you’re going to get the main source of weight for the sandbags and the rubber mulch is really just a filler. It helps to take up space so that you get a fuller internal bladder. This helps to prevent the internal bladder from sloshing and bouncing around inside the outer bag.

When I purchased my pea gravel, it was actually pretty dirty so I dumped it in a 5-gallon bucket and just sloshed it around with some water, then laid it out to dry. This is completely optional.

After that, I put the gravel back into the 5-gallon bucket, a little at a time, while mixing in the rubber mulch. Again, you’re shooting for a ratio of 2/3 pea gravel and 1/3 rubber mulch. To make it easier for myself, I would periodically dump this mixture into the internal bladder.

I personally got a medium and large sandbag. The consensus online seems to be to run 40lbs in the medium sandbag and 80lbs in the large sandbag. These are just recommended numbers but I can say that these weights do work out pretty well.

Now, to figure out how much weight is in each bladder or how much weight each sandbag weighed, I just periodically put it on a scale and weighed it. Remember, both the bladder and outer bag add weight so depending on how exact you’re trying to be, just remember to compensate for those things.

And that’s about it. What I’ve shown you in this video is slightly more complicated than just filling these sandbags up with sand but I think it’ll be worth it in the long run. These are my first sets of sandbags and I’m still trying to work them into my workouts but so far so good. They seem to be very well constructed and should last a while.

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Titan Fitness Loadable 15-In Olympic Dumbbell Handle

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What’s going on guys? It’s Hai.

Over the past few months, I’ve been putting together a home gym. It’s coming along but one thing that I’ve desperately been needing is a dumbbell setup. Well, I decided to pick up the Titan Fitness Loadable 15 in Olympic Dumbbell Handle. If you can’t tell by the name, these are basically bare handles that you can use to load plates on and make your own dumbbells. These particular handles have a 6.25” gripping area and 2” wide sleeves that are 3.75” in length. The entire thing is 15” in overall length and weighs 8 lbs each.

Now, you may be wondering, why buy such a thing? Why not just buy dumbbells? No doubt, standalone dumbbells are the way to go if you want the most convenience and durability. However, if you’re serious and want an entire set of dumbbells without weight gaps, that’s going to easily cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. Not to mention the large amount of space that’s required to rack all that weight. For many people, something like this is going to be the more logical route. It may take a little more time to change weights, but you’re potentially saving money by using olympic plates that you already own and the space needed to store these handles are minimal.

As previously mentioned, these handles are 15” in overall length but more importantly, the loadable area is only 3.75” making this Titan Fitness handle one of the shortest options on the market. Titan also makes a 20” and 36” version, each of those giving you more loadable sleeve space. So why did I buy the shortest version and the version that allows you to load the least amount of weight? Well, it simply comes down to range of motion. The longer these handles get, the harder it’s going to be to use them with a neutral grip. With any standard neutral grip dumbbell press, these 15” handles allow me to go down and come back up with full range of motion as the ends of the handles just barely touch. If these handles were longer, I’m going to have to hold my arms out further to compensate for the length, meaning I won’t be able to employ the full range of motion in the exercise, which can be counterproductive to what I’m trying to accomplish. I can turn my hands at the top of the press, but then I’d be changing the exercise, which may not be what I’d want to do.

But since the loadable surface of the 15” handle is so small, how much weight can we logically load on the handle? Well, this is larely going to depend on the type of plates and collars that you use. Here in my gym, I have some cheap no-name iron plates and exclusively use the Rogue Fitness aluminum collars. With this, I’m able to load two 10 lb plates and a 5 lb plate on each side for a total of 58 lbs with the weight of the bar. This setup does not fully seat on the sleeves and leaves a few millimeters of overhang.

In terms of actual use, I find that the diameter of my 10 lbs plates make them very usable. I personally wouldn’t go any wider so I won’t be using 25 lb plates or larger.

Overall, I’m fine with my decision to go with these 15” reloadable handles. I think getting a longer handle would be more cumbersome than it’s worth so this is just about the best that I can get. However, I would say that having more loading space would be nice and Titan could easily achieve this by making the gripping area narrower and dedicating more space to the sleeves. 6.5” for the gripping area just seems wasteful as relatively few people are going to be able to fully utilize all that space. With my plates and had these sleeves been a centimeter longer, I could’ve gotten away with (3) 10 lb plates and that would’ve been more ideal. But, it is what it is. I’ll put these to good use until I’m able to get my own dumbbell rack one day.

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Titan Fitness Pair 15in Loadable Olympic Dumbbell https://amzn.to/3EebMAW

Titan Fitness Single 15in Loadable Olympic Dumbbell https://amzn.to/3XyY3vg

Titan Fitness Pair 20in Loadable Olympic Dumbbell https://amzn.to/3SaRaiD

Titan Fitness Single 36in Loadable Olympic Dumbbell https://amzn.to/3YSD1J1

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CHEAP DIY Floating Shelves

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What’s going on guys? It’s Hai.

My office wall has been pretty bare and I’ve been contemplating what to hang on it for a while. I ultimately decided on some floating shelves and I was originally going to buy some but for the size of shelf that I was going for, some of the cost that I saw were ridiculous. So in this blog, I want to share with you how I went about making my own for a very affordable price.

First, let’s start with the wood. I wanted 3 shelves that are 4’ long and 8” wide. From experience, I knew that construction lumber would probably be the cheapest option so I just went to my local Lowe’s. Here, the cheapest option was some 2”x8”x8’ Hemlock for $12.53. This is cheap but was my second choice. I was really going for some 2”x8”x8’ Douglas Fir which would cut the price by more than in half at $4.98 a board. I would need (2) 8’ boards and that would give me (4) 4’ shelves. With Hemlock, that would equate to about $3.13 a shelf but had my Lowe’s had the Douglas Fir in stock, the shelves would’ve only cost about $1.25 a shelf, making it VERY affordable.

Now, I’m no professional woodworker. I just know enough to get things done for my own personal projects. And for this project, I experimented with some stuff that I’ve never used before so I don’t want to give any outright recommendations. I’m just going to show you what I did and give some thoughts.

Again, I wanted (4) 4’ shelves so I ripped the 8’ boards down to size with a miter saw. For this project, I decided to make black shelves because that would best match the color scheme of the room. There’s a variety of ways to make the shelves black but I decided to try MinWax True Black oil-based stain, something I’ve never used before.

In preparation for the stain, I sanded the boards first with 150 grit sandpaper, then 220 grit. This is to get a smoother more presentable finish on the final product and to help the stain soak into the wood. But, I did purposely pick lumber that had more character and imperfections as I was going for a farmhouse aesthetic, so I did try too hard to get a perfect finish.

Once I was happy with the sanding, I moved on to the staining process. To start, I applied a coat of pre-stain. This product helps to distribute the stain more evenly so less blotching occurs with the stain. I have had blotching problems with hemlock in the past so pre-stain is something that I personally now use. The pre-stain itself is very quick and easy to apply. I just used a foam brush to spread it around. The directions say to let it sit for 5-15 minutes, then apply your stain within 2 hours.

Moving on to the actual staining, again, I used Minwax True Black oil-based stain. I’ve been looking for a way to ebonize wood and now that I’ve tried this product, I would say that it’s a very viable option. I don’t know if you can tell, but it comes out jet black like you’re dumping ink on the wood. It may look like much at first but it does thin up a bit when dried and you can still see all the figures in the wood. This is my first time trying this product and I would recommend to not apply a heavy application like I did because it does spread quite well and if you go heavy, this stuff takes a while to dry. It didn’t help that I was doing all this in a cold garage during winter so it took about a day to dry between coats. I did two coats to achieve the look that I wanted so that was two days of just waiting.

Then we move on to applying a finish. I used MinWax polyurethane and the same as before, I just spread it on with a foam brush. Once that’s dried, we can move on to mounting these shelves up.

Now there’s not really much to this step as it really depends on your application and how you want to mount them. I ended up doing three staggered shelves. I went with some brackets that I found on Amazon, which are linked in the description below, and they work just fine but if you go with the same brackets, I would recommend finding your own hardware because the ones that these brackets came with are complete trash. The heads stripped so easily and I had 3 screws that just snapped in half. There are two screws that are broken in my wall where I hit a stud and one that’s lodged at the bottom of a shelf. This shearing happened even with a pilot hole so I would definitely recommend buying your own hardware if possible.

And that’s about it. Some potentially very cheap DIY floating shelves. Depending on the materials that you already have, this project can potentially be very cheap, I mean, like less than $10 if you have the know-how. I bought my brackets because I wanted this look but you can make your own which can bring the cost down even lower. It all depends on what you're going for. Then to spice things up, you can add LED lighting or whatever else to make the shelves really stand out. I’m still working through decorating and what I’m actually using these shelves for so this isn’t finalized.

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Kobalt Quiet Tech Air Compressor High Flow Coupler Upgrade

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What’s going on guys? It’s Hai.

I recently showcased the Kobalt Quiet Tech Air Compressor that I recently purchased and in this blog, I’m going to show you the first upgrade that I did to it and that’s switching the stock industrial-sized couplers for a high-flow option. The particular couplers that I’ll be using are the Milton HighFlow Pro V Style, part number S-765.

According to Milton’s packaging, this upgrade can provide an airflow increase of up to 70%.

To remove the stock couplers, I’ve found that the easiest way is to just get a wrench in from the bottom and loosen the couplers from there. Lefty loosey, righty tighty. It’s kind of annoying doing this upgrade because there’s little clearance anywhere. You might have the urge to remove the top plate but, just take my word, there are various parts that are screwed to it. You may have more access by removing the plate but then you’ll have parts dangling and I think it would be even more difficult to torque everything down that way. So, just take your time and do a little turn at a time from the bottom.

When you get the coupler out, it’s just a matter of replacing it with the new high-flow coupler. Just remember to use some Teflon tape or other thread sealers to help prevent leaks.

Now, to really maximize airflow gains, you’re going to want to also upgrade your other fittings. I purchased a Milton kit, part number S-217 and it has the various fittings that you’ll need to connect a hose to the air compressor and tools to your hose. Then if you need more male fittings for tool connections, they are readily available online and at a very affordable price.

And that’s about it. This is a very easy install with a lot of potential gains depending on your setup. Not all tools will be able to capitalize on the increased airflow but that’s just how it is. Do your research and figure out if higher-flowing couplers can benefit your setup.

If you're considering buying any of the products mentioned, please support my work by using the links below.

Milton Industries S-765 HI-Flo V-Style Couplers https://amzn.to/3Y4CXWd

Milton S-217 1/4" NPT V Style Coupler and Plug Kit https://amzn.to/3DhjgCr

Milton Industries 760 1/4" MNPT HIGHFLOWPRO™ V-Style Fittings https://amzn.to/3jfc6rJ

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ATF eForm 4 Update After 4 Suppressors

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What’s going on guys? It’s Hai.

Back in April of 2022, I made a video detailing my experience with the ATF eForm 4 system that was re-released in December of 2021. When I made my video, I was just approved for my first suppressor. Well, today, I’m up to 4 suppressor approvals and I want to revisit the eForm 4 topic because a lot of things have changed.

When the ATF re-released eForm 4, the big appeal was that they were going to try and keep approval times to about 90 days in 2022. Then in 2023, they were going to bring that down to 30 days. This was mindblowing because up until then, it could easily take 6 months, a year, or even longer to get a Form 4 approval. There was no telling. It was a hurry-up, get your application in, and wait type of situation.

However, from the start, the 90 days was more of a “we’ll try”, not an absolute but a lot of people were upset because those wait times really slipped as time passed by. I’ve documented the wait times for all my Form 4’s so let’s go over that.

For suppressor #1, my Dead Air Wolfman, from the date of purchase to approval, it took 161 days. This was a bit longer but that’s more on Silencer Shop’s part. I explained the possible reasoning in my first video so watch that if you’re interested. In terms of ATF approval time though, it only took 95 days. That’s pretty close to the advertised 90 days so I wasn’t complaining.

For suppressor #2, my CGS Mod9 FS, the ATF approval time went up to 100 days. Again, pretty close to what’s advertised and much faster than paper filing so I’m still happy.

Then we move on to suppressor #3, my CGS Helios QD, and approval time jumped up to 259 days or about 8 and a half months.

Finally, suppressor #4, my Dead Air Nomad L, went up again to 266 days for approval.

As you can see, I spaced out my suppressor purchases and as the date of purchase moved forward, the wait times got longer, much, much longer, to the point that we’re basically back at the same wait times as before the reintroduction of eForm 4.

It’s hard to say why wait times are stretching out so long. Obviously, the political climate around firearms has never really been that good but has gotten significantly worse over the past few years. It seems like every day there are new proposed gun regulations and NFA items are definitely on the chopping block.

If you’re unaware, the ATF recently published its final ruling on pistol braces and it essentially outlaws them. An option that they are giving is for owners to file a Form 1 and register an SBR for free. I’m not here to argue the legitimacy or legality of that. I just want you to be aware that there will no doubt be a lot of people taking advantage of that offer. There are expected to be anywhere from 10-40 million pistol braces in the market. If any significant number of those pistols get converted to SBR’s and a bunch of Form 1’s are filed, all it means is the currently already slow system is going to slow even more to basically a standstill. What is now averaging 8-9 months for an approval, may drag out to years.

So what am I getting at? I don’t even really know. I kind of want to not recommend getting into the NFA game right now but if you don’t get started, then you’ll never get an approval, even if it takes forever to get an approval. It’s a double edge sword. You’re in a bad situation no matter what. I guess at this point, I’ve given you some of the information that I’ve gathered so you’ll have to come up with your own conclusions.

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