yep so earlier this year my son and I wanted to build a swing in the yard and
we had the same questions most people have one what size to cut the board what
would you use what rope to get and what tree to pick so here's the swing we made
and a good size I found is 18 by 8 you could go a little wider but 18 by 8
seems to work an adult can sit on it a kid can sit on it everybody is able to
fit on this side so an inch and a half and cut the holes 3/4 inch falls and I
rounded the edges so the rope won't have any pinch points and good morning so the
ropes holding up nicely on the rounded edges now as far as wood to use I had a
ton of scrap wood I could have done two options one is I could have used a piece
of two by eight or two by ten pieing and that's a soft wood but it's pretty
thick and I couldn't just use that cut it to length drilled a couple of halls
been done but what I decided to do was make it a little bit thicker and I glued
together two pieces of plywood and it made it about an inch and a half thick
plenty strong there's no bend at all Ryan you know a
piece of pine would have been fine too I think even one piece of reasonably good
plywood would have worked too but I decided to double up and glue it
together another option would have been if you don't want it thick the whole way
we could just put a strip of wood right under where the Rope meets and that
would strengthen it at the end but I decided to just make the whole thing
nice and wide now as far as rope I just went on Amazon and bought some 300 pound
breaking strength rope it's 716 inch and it's braided it's worked fine
and you could use wood glue or you could even use liquid nails construction
adhesive since it's going to be outside and speaking of being outside you need
to treat this I put five coats of polyurethane on this
and I could even see that it's getting a little bit worn on the top but you're
gonna definitely need something to protect it from the rain and the snow so
five coats of polyurethane or something else that's gonna really seal it and
keep it protected while it's outside or else it's gonna work as far as the knots
that you can see I came down from the tree I looped it under the swing and
then I tied knots here and here you want nuts that aren't gonna slide down so I
did a couple of hitches where I wrapped around the rope and then I brought it up
to here and I actually used some tape and some rope to secure it so it
wouldn't slide down I originally wanted to do that technique we can braid the
rope inside the the rope so it cinches on itself but I didn't have the tool and
this really wasn't good enough rope to do that now as far as how to tied the
knots up at the top of the tree there's a couple different things you can do and
I actually recorded a video in that back when I tied it in the spring alright
Here I am up on top of the tree and I wanted to point out the knots I used
this is the first night I tied and they did a round turn and two half hitches
and the theory was on it that the Rope coming down is basically going straight
up and over the Rope wrapping around is this one here so there's no real pinch
points in this rope I'm not kicking it or bending it anywhere where it's gonna
be pulling and at a right angle it's coming straight down this rope wrapped
around twice and then it comes over to this side where I have it wrapped around
twice again and I just wrapped it through the line so as it pulls pull
it's tightening on itself and again there's no pinch points in the rope the
force coming down I use two carpet padding on the top just
so if it does rub or where hopefully it doesn't it won't be rubbing on the tree
and rub through the rope but that was the theory I had on no pinch points on
the knot sometimes some people said do a bowline or something like that I needed
it to be tight to the tree which a bowline wouldn't really do it I would
say sag down that works if you have an eyelet through the tree or something
like that I want it tight to the branch and these
are both tight to the branch
now as far as what trees to use we have a lot of trees on our property but not a
lot of good trees for swings we have pine trees which don't work and some big
cottonwoods and now cottonwoods are soft wood and ideally you don't want to use a
soft wood because those branches can just snap and break I would much rather
trust an oak or maple over a cottonwood so we had to go with this one I think
it's a type of locust the seat that leaves are nice and small like a honey
locust and it seemed like a really strong tree and we have a good branch
sticking out at the top and the last little thing I did was I took a wood
burner and I burned my son's name on the front of the swing and the year on the
back just I think the personalized a little bit more hopefully it stays here
for a bunch of years well I hope you liked the video you just watched if you
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