We all know those kid swings from ugly lumber with a nylon colourful rope. If you spend the extra bucks you even get a uglier plastic slide next to it. It just hurts my eyes to see that in someone’s garden. So let's make a pretty swing!
What you need.
Making a swing is not rocket science you only need quality wood that is very rot resistant and some very basic tools. The wood I choice is Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia
) it's extremely rot resistant and can stand easily for 40+ years in wet ground without a problem. The only downside to this wood is that it's really really hard! I burned a drillbit on it and had to sharpen my second bit. The best is to first drill a small hole and than a bigger one just like you do in metal.
Requirements for the swing:
I won't be writing a how-to because I didn't make detail pictures and making a swing is very straight forward. The harder part is the chair but that's still very doable for a beginner.
- 4 times a log of 2.5 meters with a diameter of 15cm
- 1 time a log of 3 meters with a diameter of 10cm
- 2 branches of 1.5 meter to make the A-frame.
- 4 half branches of 1 meter to make the diagonal braces.
- A good drill
- 8 M13 long bolts of 30cm.
- Draw knife or axe
- Saw
Requirements for chair:
- 4 half round logs that are planed flat.
- 4 half round branches
- 4 strong L-shaped metal plates.
- 8 bolts smooth head bolts 20 cm
- a chain of 6 meters.
My swing
It's much cheaper than buying a swing!
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Great idea. My wife was just asking me to buy here a swing like this to set out by our fire pit. I uses black locusts for our fence post. You are right about them lasting forever and they are as hard as cement. How did you rip them in half for the seat?
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I split everything by axe and wedges. You end up with some firewood and some good half logs. Than I take the angle grinder with a very rough disc to get the worst spots off. The last step was going to a person with a planer..
You can also use big table saw or go nuts with a handsaw :)
If your log is a bit too thick you can also ripsaw with the chainsaw. It's easier than it looks. Make a undeep cut of 1cm deep over the length and keep repeating this. You will end up with two halves that you can plane. :)
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I have never tried to split one by hand. That is impressive. These trees are hard as a rock
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They split quite easily with enough sharp wedges. The tricky part is to split straight...
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Dam never thinked that its better to build ownself, lol. Great blog post. Upvoted
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Haha allot of things are better to do yourself!
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Yeah its not cheaper but look classy
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Ow wow! That's just gorgeous 😍
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Owhhhh was looking forward to a how-to for a perfect article for curation ;) nevertheless the swing is beautiful and well done :) @gogreenbuddy
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I understand but this is a swing. I honestly believe even children can built their own swing. Also a how-to is tricky if you built with natural unprocessed resources. trees, clay, rocks etc is always a little bit different everywhere in the world.
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Really Making a pretty garden swing is good.Well done.Thanks for the tutorial.You are working together that good.And you made a excellent swing.
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haha,,,amazing guy
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Love the way the logs look! That swing will last for decades! It was cool to learn that hard as locust is, it splits well.
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Great work brother
thanks for your hard work,,,,
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it looks so nice & it make us very nostalgic. it is not so easy to make this, but it looks so good & natural.
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It's honestly not very hard to make a swing!
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usefull post sir
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Great work brother. Undoubtedly it is very nice to see. Will it be stronger than others? If so, then it will be very helpful. thanks @gogreenbuddy for your hard work with your girl friend to create this swing and share this.
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