Little Green Swing

My little green swing is a swing you can take with you to a forest or wood, when there is no playground. It's really easy to carry around, because of the handle on top. In this instructable i will show you how to make it. You can always feel free to alter the design or make it better. Have fun and enjoy!

Materials

-Wood: I used MDF but this was a mistake, so I suggest you use plywood because it is more weatherproof. I used a plank with a thickness of 15mm.

-Rope: The rope I bought is a polypropylene rope with a diameter of 5mm and a length of 20m (this depends on the height of your tree).

-Cleat + 2 screws

-Paint (if you want to)

Tools

-Drill

-Jigsaw

-Sander or just some sanding paper

-Paintbrush or roller (again if you want to)

These measurements are the ones I used, you can alter them as you like.

-A: The big circle has a diameter of 35cm

-B: The handle is 4cm wide and 6cm long from the centers of the 2 circles. The middle is 4cm away from the side of the swing

-C: These two notches are used to hold the rope so you have to make them as deep as you need until all your rope fits in them. The diameter is the same as the big circle (35cm)

-D: The holes for the rope have a diameter of 1cm and are 8cm apart from each other. They are positioned in the middle of the swing.

-E: These two slots are positioned on each side in the middle between the notches and the middle holes. The width is the same as the handle (4cm). These slots don't have a real purpose. They're just there to lighten the total, so you can change them as you like.

So now that we have drawn the swing on our wood we can begin to cut it out. What I did first was cutting the outer shape of my swing out of the plank with the jigsaw. Then I used a hole saw to cut out the 6 circles in the handle and in the two slots. When you have your holes you just have to cut out the rest of the slot by connecting the two holes on each side. Don’t forget to drill out the two holes for the rope with a drill size of 1cm. After the cutting we just have to make our edges rounded, and sand our surface until we have a safe and smooth swing without any sharp edges.

I chose to paint my swing because I didn’t choose my wood very well, like I said earlier. If you use natural wood you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. If you do want to paint it you will first have to put a layer of primer on your swing, wait untill it is dry. Sand it down to make it smooth again. And then you can give it the color you like. Make sure you wait long enough until you are sure the paint really is dry.

Now we have to fix the cleat on the bottom of our swing. I placed it in the same line as the two holes for our rope. And in the middle between the closest hole and the outside of the round. You have to make sure that your screws are as long as possible without peeking through the other side of your wood. Because you have to be sure it is really sturdy and your cleat won’t rip out.

Our last step is adding the rope to our wood. First we have to make a knot in our rope so it won’t go through the hole. I made my knot in four steps. First we bend our rope and then we make a knot while the rope is bent. After that we take the shortest part of our rope that is coming out and we put it through the knot like you can see in the third picture. At last we pull the loop and the short part together and we tighten the knot. To insert our rope you take the other side of the rope and put it through the hole that is the furthest away from the cleat and you pull it through. Then you wind the rest of the rope around your swing in the notches so it can’t fall of. Now our swing is ready.

This is the moment we have all been waiting for, the first test of our homemade swing. To get I over a branch I throw the swing like a Frisbee. Then I catch it when it comes back down and I put the one end of the rope through the hole that is closest to the cleat. I choose the height I want, if your rope is to long you can cut of some off (this depents on the height of the trees you want to use) and then I secure my rope around the cleat in an eight shape. When I’m done I put the end of the rope under an eight. You can see this on the pictures. After this when you know your swing is tightly secured you can take your swing for a swing. Enjoy!