Anyone can buy! Make your children happy and build a swing yourself. With our instructions it will definitely work.
Off to the garden - children and cones feel comfortable and secure there. Children love to play and swing in nature. The advantage of this play equipment - a swing can also be accommodated in smaller gardens and is also used by older children. It is not uncommon for mum or dad to sit on it because they suddenly feel like they've been transported back to their childhood days.
Swings are commercially available in different versions. But if you want to make your children even more happy, you can simply build the swing yourself. The following tips and information will help you to make your children happy with a self-made swing soon.
Where should the swing be?
First select a suitable location for the swing. It is important to ensure that the children are not prevented from swinging because branches, fences, walls, clotheslines or similar are in the way.
» Tip: If a swing is set up, there should be no obstacles within a radius of three to four meters.
The ground for the swing must not be too hard, pieces of grass or loamy soil are best. A playground feeling is created when you fill up the area around the swing with sand. In any case, it should be a safe and easily visible location.
Safety first!
A board, two ropes and tie the whole thing to the apple tree - it's not that easy after all. Safety is the top priority when erecting playground equipment. Anyone who attaches a swing to the branches of a tree should bear in mind that using the swing generates thrust and centrifugal forces that far exceed the weight of the child. The supposedly stable branch quickly breaks and injuries are inevitable.
The swing must never fall over or collapse under the weight of the swinger. So you have to use stable materials and build particularly solid. The most recommendable is still wood, because it feels good and also looks good. Also doDo something for the environment by building a wooden swing, because wood is a sustainable, i.e. renewable raw material with excellent ecological balance values (see fingerhaus.de).
Once the question of materials has been clarified, remove all obstacles and create a soft base of floor mats or sand heaps. This is especially important with smaller children. The frame should be solid and able to carry an adult. Then it is ensured that the swing really holds and the parents can be children again for a moment.
Build your own swing - what is needed?
Material List
- four round beams, 3 meters long, 12 centimeters in diameter
- two round beams, 1.5 meters long, 12 centimeters in diameter
- a round beam, 2.5 meters long, 15 centimeters in diameter
- Swing suspension
- ready swing seat or corresponding wooden board
- Swing Ropes
- Ten threaded bolts, 30 centimeters long, 12 millimeters in diameter
- 20 washers and nuts M12
- Split
- Concrete
» Tip: The material is available in every hardware store. When buying wood, you can also contact a joinery or a wood dealer.
The Tool
- wrench
- Cordless Drill
- Level
- Measure Tape
- Wheelbarrow
- bucket
Build a swing - step by step instructions
Step 1 - Preparatory work
In order to ensure a secure and stable stand for the later swing and at the same time to protect the wood from wear and tear, first dig four holes at a depth of about half a meter. The holes should be dug two meters apart, creating a visual square. Now fill about half of the grit into the resulting holes. You can see the material price for this on baustoffe-liefern.de.
The chain height should not be less than two meters. The seat height should be around 50 centimeters so that the little ones can get on and off the swing independently.
Step 2 - build the frame
Now start building the frame. For this purpose, the two three-meter-long round beams are first laid on the ground and crossed at a height of 2.5 meters. There you attach a continuous threaded bolt as a connecting piece. The bolt has a washer on each side to secure itand a mother. To give the resulting V-shape additional stability, you now attach the 1.5 meter long round beam to the vertical timber and also anchor it with the help of threaded bolts, nuts and washers. Now you have already completed the first side of the later swing and continue to assemble the second side part, which is identical.
The suspension for the later swing seat is now attached to the 15 centimeter thick wooden beam, which serves as a crossbar. How wide you attach the suspension depends on the dimensions of the seat.
» Tip: Add ten percent to the width of the seat.
For example, if you use a seat that is 30 centimeters wide and suspended two meters deep, the distance between the two suspension points is half a meter.
The suspension should be particularly stable. The threaded bolts must run through the entire beam and are fastened on the opposite side with nuts and washers. Now place the round bar in the cross of the two side parts and fix it with the vertical bars.
Step 3 - Position the frame
The frame for the swing is now fully assembled. Now you can turn to the holes dug earlier. Concrete is poured in there up to almost the upper edge. Ask another person to help you and align the frame of the swing in the holes together. A little patience is now required so that the concrete can harden properly.
» Attention: Do not put any weight on the swing until the concrete has completely hardened.
If the concrete is hard, fill the holes with gravel to the top.
Step 4 - Attach swing seat
If you have decided on a commercially available swing seat, all you have to do is attach it to the appropriate suspension. If you also want to build the seat yourself, first cut a board. This should be 30 centimeters long and 25 centimeters wide. A thickness of five centimeters is sufficient. The board is drilled at all four corners. The holes are for the key bolts with steel rings on the ends. Attach the ropes to the seat with hooks and connect them to the suspension in the crossbar.
Now you have done it, the swing can be put into operation - but not before you have carried out a test yourself!
care tips andSwing handling
To ensure that the garden swing accompanies your offspring safely through childhood, the wood must be checked regularly. In any case, apply weather protection and provide the swing frame with an appropriate wood protection once a year. This prevents moisture from penetrating the wood. If wood becomes rotten, it can easily break. Unfortunately, this is not always visually visible. Therefore, check the swing before each gardening season and test it for stability.