taylordat, I understand where you are coming from. When i'm at the gym I get tired of asking for spots, waiting for a spotter, or getting a bad spot on the bench. I switched to benching in a squat rack or power rack a few months ago and I have loved it since the switch. I get the pins as close to my chest height as possible and if needed I put 2.5 # plates or 5# plates under the bench to get it set just right. The set up takes some time but once you start you can go for good timing between sets, you can fail without getting hurt, and it becomes easy to train with a pause at the bottom of the bench if you can get it set right. I would strongly recommend you try this out next bench day. Hammer strength machines are good but I prefer to use them only for some light recovery work.