Lightweight Portable Swing

A swing that weights under 5 kg and that can be hung on a branch of a tree, without using a ladder.

You will need the following tools:

• Ruler
• Pencil and compass
• Jigsaw
• Drill
• A Ø 95 mm hole saw
• A Ø 20 mm spade drill bit
• Router
• Screws
• Sander ( with sanding paper: 60,120,240)
• file
• Paintbrush

And this swing requires the following Materials:

• Waterproof wood glue
• Screws 4x30 A2 (10 screws)
• 18 mm plywood 122 x 62.5 cm
• 10 meter of Ø 10 mm synthetic rope

• Wood stain

• Draw with a compass two circles on the plywood. One with a diameter of 350 mm (the top) and the other one with a diameter of 300 mm (the bottom). Saw them both out with the jigsaw.
• You can use a router to take away the sharp edge and make it rounder. You can do it for the four sides of the 2 circles. When you want to do this, you have to use a round over bit for your router and use the built-in guide bearings that come with your router.
• In the center of both circles you drill a hole with the Ø 20 mm spade drill.

• Saw two small rounds out with the hole saw of Ø 95 mm. In the center of these rounds you drill a hole with the Ø 20 mm spade drill.

• Glue the two parts together making sure that the center holes are aligned.

• Drill two holes, and screw two screws into the holes for extra strength.

• Drill eight holes, four in each circle. To make sure you don’t hurt yourself on the screws, you can use a countersink so that your screws don’t stick out.

• Before screwing everything together you sand all the surfaces with a sander. Use first the rough sandpaper to finish off with the soft sandpaper. do not forget to sand the edges and small spacer.

• Attach the Ø 350 mm circle to the small spacer with diameter 95 mm. Use the wood glue to attach the spacer onto the circle. Then using a drill and screw bit, screw four screws into the spacer.

• Turn this piece around and do the same for the Ø 300 mm circle at the opposite side of the spacer. Make sure that the three center holes are aligned.

• Using a file, you can get rid of the bumps inside the center hole.

• Let the glue dry for 24 hours.

• To make sure your swing is weather resistant, you can use wood stain. Use a paint brush to apply the first coat of wood stain and let it dry for 16 hours.
• Apply a second coat and let it dry agian for 16 hours.

In order to know how to tie the knot, you can put instructions on the back of the swing. The instructions for the knot I used, can be found in the attached file.