Porch Swing - P8

GEEEZ only took me a little over a year.... So many projects and things going on.

Got her stained

A couple of weeks ago I bought some chain hung the bench.

I was thinking I would hang the bench to figure out where to drill the holes through the arms for the chain.
Came to find out that I measured the distance between the eye hooks right, but when making the swing I didn't take in account of the porch swing arms.



These arms are just too close to the house.





Pulled the arms off, hung the bench. I hung it real low, because I was not sure if the chain I bought was strong enough. bouncing on the bench found out it was not strong enough.

2 weeks later I finally made it back to Homedepot to pick up some thicker chain.

Got it hung and it is great to sit on. Its going to be nice to sit and read a book in it.

I still need to touch up the stain where I took the arms off, but Im calling it pretty much done at this point. Its on my "list" to build another one for the backyard. My Dad had an old swing-set frame he had a porch swing in at one point. that swing is log gone, so he let me have the frame.

You can see the start of some jasmine my wife planted on that old trellis. It smells so nice when it is blooming.

Porch Swing - P.7

You thought I forgot about this project didn't you.

I pretty much did forget about it. I kept moving it around in the garage as I did other stuff.


This weekend I started cleaning the garage to make room for my next project. I need to finish the swing and get it out of the garage soon.


I only put the arms on Today, but it took awhile.


Next - final sand, and stain.

I need to pick up some eye hooks, and chain for the chair.
There are eye hooks already on our porch ceiling. The previous owners must have had a porch swing at some point. I actually measured the distance between them to determine how wide of a chair I was going to make.

I may still cut a hole for a dink holds like April did on hers. I was searching last year on porch swings and came across her youtube channel. She makes some cool stuff. One of April's Porch swings, click here.



Its been a while, Im going to watch her video again. Her's looks so much better than mine but I learn by doing. My next one should be a little better than this one.

Ready for final sanding and Stain.

Porch Swing - part 6

Finished adding the cross slats. Also added 2 more braces in the middle.

Left to do - Add the arms, sand and stain.
Put a chain on it and hang it.

Porch Swing - part 5

I guess this thing is going to take me a while to finish because of time.

I will keep plugging away at it when I get chances.

I already see improvements I want to make...

Porch Swing - part 4

Yesterday, I finally got back to do some more on this project. I still need to finish the car port roof...

I started putting the pieces together.

In this picture Im using my calibrated measuring tool to get the distance I want from the back brace (One fingers width). I do the same on both sides.

For the rest of the slats, I found a piece of scrap wood that I used as a spacer.

scrap wood spacer

And there you have it, I ran out of wood.

Once I get the back rest slats on, I will put in the center supports. I also made a few blocks to add as extra supports. I will get a better picture of blocks that next time. 

Who knows I may start on the car port. You can see the old shingles I used for paving under the car port. Im pretty happy how that worked out.

Tell me what you think.

Porch Swing - part 3

Searched for some bolts, washers and nuts. I have a few. Most of these are from when I was a mechanic. Usually recalls came with new bolts and nuts. I would just keep the old ones. I believe the bolts I used on this were actually from a prior project I had purchased extra.

I put the supports together. So far I have not  had to purchase  anything for this project, but looks like I will need to pick up some wood to finish. We also may need some paint or stain depending on which finish we settle on. 

Porch Swing - part 2

Since I used a jigsaw, there will be a lot of sanding to get the pieces more uniform. Next time I may cut at least 2 at a time by clamping the boards together. That might save on sanding.

You need to find a common denominator or like, when sanding a number of pieces that you want to be uniform in shape. Look the pieces over to see where that could be. On these it looked like the front would be the best to align them on. This is where the front board will connect to them together.

Once I sanded that edge, I was able to hold them against a block for support and see all the high and low spots. 

You can see that they are pretty far from being uniform.

Porch Swing - Part 1

We have been waiting a porch swing for some time. Just Never got around to building one.

Im roughly following the instructions from this video.

April Wilkerson

Build a Porch Swing!

 

You can print off templates for this swing off of her website. You should watch her video and give her a thumbs up.
This is her website;

https://www.wilkerdos.com

This is what I got so far. I just used a jig saw since I don't have a ban saw.

I will post more pictures as I go.