October 25, 201114 yr Many years ago, my father-in-law gave me some Cherry. It wasn't good wood, but I was able to salvage enough of it to make a swing. The original Amish plans called for an 8' swing made with 1' Oak. It would have weighed a ton and would  have needed log chains to hold it up. I redesigned it, re-sized and reinforced it. The only problem was that I used regular wood glue on the lap joints. That was not to be a problem, it was on a sheltered porch. At our new location, it is in the open. The joints started to fail and soon it looked unsafe. Rather than pitch it, I rebuilt it using Red wood and WWIII water proof glue. It has 150 SS screws in the slats and the finish is UV protected. However I doubt that the finish will hold up to the intense sun here at 6000+ ft elevation. This project took more than a week of steady work, but was worth it.
October 25, 201114 yr Very nice Ron. I built one very similar many years ago and made the same mistakes and had the same results. Your rebuild makes me want to build another one this winter. Thanks for posting!Â
October 25, 201114 yr Great looking swing Ron. That should be nice to put where you can watch some nice sunsets. What is WWIII glue? Titebond III. John MoodyJohn Moody Woodworkshttp://www.johnmoodywoodworks.com
October 25, 201114 yr Author My age is showing, WW II is my saw blade Your are correct Titebond III  I can't place it where it faces west, but where it is I can see part of the sunset reflected color on the clouds and we get an occasional double rainbow in our view.Â
October 25, 201114 yr Ron, Very nice work, looking at it makes me want to take a break and just sit back! How about sharing the plans? Regards, Larry
October 25, 201114 yr Author Larry, you wouldn't want the plans if I still had them. I bought them at an Amish lumber company, based on the picture on the front. Poor choice, The basic design was OK, but chain balance points were wrong and it was large enough to accommodate a whole family. When I first sat in it it nearly tipped over. After I corrected that, I found that the angle of the back, in relation to the seat, was wrong and bothered your back if you sat there very long. I did some we research and hopefully corrected that. My finished product does resemble the picture, but that is about as far as it goes. Â
October 26, 201114 yr Author We are to get 6 to 12 inches of snow tonight.............so it will stay in my garage for a while. I will take it out this weekend when we return to the 70s again. I'll cover it real good for the rest of the winter.
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