Marcy Smith Cage Machine with Workout Bench and Weight Bar Home Gym Equipment

I spent a good 4 hours putting this thing together. It is a total breeze until the pulleys. The pulley directions are difficult to read and the diagrams are hard to decipher. I was able to figure it out and only had one pulley on incorrectly. Once I fixed that the system worked perfectly. This is a solid piece of equipment. For the cost, you cannot beat it. I read some mixed reviews on this before I purchased. I don't know what people are expecting when they get something for this price, but again you cannot beat it. All systems work perfectly well. The delivery was on time and right to my front door. Got this using Amazon Prime so free shipping.***Update on product. I initially gave it a five star rating but through daily use I have to change it. This machine is just not designed for everyday use. The pieces that hold the weights on the bar and leg lift are plastic and have busted. The leg one busted during use and weight came crashing down. I don't know if you can buy the plastic pieces or not. I don't think that 6 months after buying this, I should have to be looking for replacement parts. I have to readjust pulleys about one a week because they twist. This isn't a piece of equipment that holds clothes for me. I am using it everyday. I just don't think it is designed for that kind of use.

As you can see, that was with (2) 45's, (2) 10's and (2) 5's on it. I can't believe how week and cheap the bar is. What are my options now? Thank goodness my kids weren't using it

I will keep this and the rating updated as use becomes more frequent.Week 1Took me about 8-9 hours to assemble as the instruction are....well...ok but not the best.The ENTIRE pulley system gets a big fat 0!! Sticks constantly even with weights on it. I checked the pulleys and yep...all correct. This renders the entire pulley system USELESS. Maybe after a month or a few weeks of yanking on it during workouts it might come to be better..but we will see.The smith machine is pretty good about a 3.5/5 as if you don't have the legs perfectly aligned (its easy to have them move on you) the catchers on the glide bar will just hit the upright bar...also even when aligned when they do catch..its like they are barely on there. The fit could be better.The outside racks for an Olympic bar are terrifying to use and have already come up with the bar being lifted right off them...which I found extremely worrisome for future heavy bench lifts.Week 2I have changed it from a 2-3 star review..BUT main thing was you might want to go out and get a can of DW-40 and spray it on the back glide post and all of the inner parts of the cable guide rollers. It will vastly and quickly improve the performance of the machines mechanics.Final ReviewThe cable system would get tied up so frequently it would never work and just become more of a total annoyance than anything. We just deconstructed it and removed it from the house.

This was my reward to myself for selling my condo (freeing up a considerable amount of money!). I am trying to get in shape this year and I have no experience working with weight machines but this seemed like it offered a lot of different exercises for a home user.I have it in a basement room. While the room is carpeted, I did put this on some of those interlocking puzzle tile mats. I ended up having to buy three sets of puzzle tiles (each set had six 2 by 2 panels) but only used 16 of the tiles. I used the tiles to avoid damaging the carpet and to provide a more stable surface. They look to be doing the trick. So anyway, this whole assembled device, including the bench, needs at least an 8 by 8 area. This gives you enough space to put a big weight plate (say 45 pounds) on the back part without hitting a wall as well as enough room to put plates on the bar and take them off again. It also should give you enough room for placing the bench with all the supports on the tile mat, though you could go with 20 tiles (or an 8 by 10 area) and have a little more room for the bench. You will also need a ceiling that is at least 8 feet high.This does not come with any weights; you will need a set of Olympic plates. (I found one on closeout at a local sporting goods store.) It does have a bar that holds Olympic plates, but it is not a true Olympic bar. I am not sure of the exact weight of the bar but it is definitely much less than 45 pounds. (This is good for me as I am a small-framed woman who is new to lifting...) The *length* of the bar is the same as an Olympic bar, however.This also does not come with a lat pulldown bar, but I just bought one on Amazon and it works fine with this machine. You do get the attachments/handles shown in the photo. You also get a poster illustrating the various exercises that are possible to do with this machine. I find this useful since I am not a gym rat. (I am sure there are more variations, but the poster is useful for a beginner.)Regarding assembly, this took two adults (with PhDs in STEM fields...) about 9 and a half hours to put together. We took over a month, only working an hour or two a weekend. Some notes on assembly:(1) The person who said to put the hardware into cups had the right idea. We had some paper bowls we used, and we marked them with a Sharpie, and that really helped a lot. Because although all of the hardware packs were sealed with their contents intact, the contents had come loose from the backing in a few of the packs and were all mixed together. I would strongly suggest having a ruler handy for measuring the lengths of bolts in case things get mixed up. There are two parts lists, one for the Smith machine part and one for the bench. Those are useful if you are counting washers or something. We had EXACTLY the right amount of items. Nothing missing and not a single extra bit.(2) The brackets for the chin-up bar look like they are angled at 90 degrees in the manual. They are not. You are probably not missing these pieces, they just have a much larger angle than 90 degrees. At the time you are supposed to install these, there are still a lot of parts left you haven't put on, so it may be difficult to recognize these among all the rest of the items.(3) When you are putting the plate on the bottom for attaching the chain to do rows, and the back part where there will be multiple pulleys and some weight plates, it helps to put a book (maybe 1/2 inch thick) under the base that's perpendicular to the plate, until such time as you tighten the bolts. Otherwise it does not stay in the right position.(4) As others have said, the diagrams and instructions for stringing the cables around the pulleys are not so good. We were able to figure it out, but it took at least two assembly sessions and also we had to refer frequently to the exercise chart, which shows some more photos of the assembled machine. There are cable guides that go with the pulleys and they have little plastic washer-shaped parts that are supposed to go in them before you put the bolts through them. The little plastic washers fall out all the time, but they were all there. They will stay in place just fine once the cable guides are attached to the pulleys, it is just tough getting them to stay there beforehand. Also, the cables all have different ends so you don't actually have to measure them to figure out which is which.(5) An extra note with regards to the cables -- don't tighten any nuts until you are done stringing each cable. Because sometimes there are missing bits in the directions or the order is wrong and you may find you have to remove a part to string a cable or something. You do get two sets of Allen wrenches (one in the bench hardware pack and one in the Smith machine hardware pack) so two people can work on tightening at the same time.(6) Things it is useful to have during installation that are not provided: at least two adjustable wrenches, a rubber mallet, a tape measure.If you find you have to move this after it is assembled (even just a foot or two from the wall so you can install the bar), get some of those furniture moving sliders. This is really too heavy and awkward for two adults to lift, but if you lift the far edge up and put a couple of furniture moving sliders under the supports, two adults can easily push it or pull it. Also, please know that unless you have extra wide doors, once you assemble this, it is staying put in whatever room you put it in. It is too wide to maneuver through a standard doorway. If you move, you will have to take it apart and possibly buy a bunch of replacement aircraft nuts, so keep track of the manual.In terms of operation, everything seems good. If you are short, you may need a stool to change out the handles for pulldowns. If you are short (I am only 5'5"), it is kind of difficult to reach the pull-up bar, too. The machine seems adequate for people from 5'5" to 6'1" (based on the two people who have used it thus far) and who are under 160 pounds. I can't speak as to how it would behave with someone heavier because I don't have anyone else to test it. (My dad is coming to town next month. He's 260+ pounds so I will have him try it out too and update the review with his comments.)The lower body attachment to the bench wobbles a bit but is better when there are actual weights on it. Everything else seems quite sturdy. (We have not put more than 100 lbs of weights at any one spot other than the storage bars.) If you do a pulldown of any sort without weights on the back part, it probably won't return to position when you let go. Same with the leg attachment on the bench.Everything moves smoothly. We have not had to use any WD40 yet although we have some on hand if we need it. There's no weird squeaking or vibrating, all the pieces were machined correctly, and all the plastic parts were in good shape. There were a few scratches on various parts of the metal, but this is an aesthetic concern only and didn't affect operation of the device.

very cheap product,for the price and badly fonction.i paid almost 1400.00 dollars for this product.i will never recommend this product to no one.i had a body solid home gym ,before this home gym and i should have kept it. do not buy.....

Received unit in 3 boxes. Took a bit to assemble, was 8 hrs for me. Instructions could improve. Recommend you get help, extra set of hands definitely came in handy. I do miss the fact it has no preacher curl connection, but other than that, its ok. Some plastic components which I'm concerned about as to how long they will last, time will tell. Overall I give it a 3 out of 5.