How I Built a Strong, A-Frame Swing Set from Scratch...
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- Опубліковано 4 чер 2024
- This is a video about a DIY swing set build. This was my first wooden swing set build ever and it came out great. You can see what I did to build mine to get building ideas and tips to build your own swing set. My video shows what I did to construct the frame, attach the swings and anchor the swing set into place. I used only wood, mostly 4x4 lumber and one 4x6 plus various screws to hold it all together (scroll for all materials). It's really strong and will probably hold 200 to 300 hundred pounds of kids or maybe one 200lb adult. I'd avoid much more than that at full swing forces.
The A-Frame is 4x4x10s with 30 degree cuts at the ground side and 60 degree cuts at the beam side and I chopped off pointy edges. I put the lap jointed 4x4 beams at the top, 2 feet down from the top crossbeam and 4 feet up from the bottom. Gussets were 4x4s improvised not measured. It's a simple design, modify however you like. Standard swings typically need 18 inches between holes and 12" clearance on either side minimum (I prefer 18 inches and that's what I did). My large swing required 46" minimum between holes (I did 48") and 24" of clearance.
Timestamps:
0:00 Into
0:26 Making Swing Set 4x4 A-Frame Legs
1:50 1st Cross Beam
4:02 Adding a 2nd Crossbeam
4:48 Installing Swing Set Hardware on the 4x6 Beam
6:17 Assembling the Swing Set (by myself)
7:20 My Big Mistake
8:13 What is Racking?
8:23 Making & Installing Angle Braces or Gussets
9:54 Moving the Swing Set
10:18 Anchoring & Leveling the Swing Set
11:30 Installing the Last Cross Braces
11:52 My Mistakes making the Swing Set (& Fixes or Not)
I used Southern Yellow Pine Ground Treated Lumber for the Swing Set Frame...
1 x 4x6x12
4 x 4x4x10
4 x 4x4x8
3/16 in. 2-7/8 in. HeadLok Star Drive, Flat Head Wood Screw (12- Pack)
www.homedepot.com/p/FastenMas...
I had some from another project I stretched, so I only used one box. If you do it like me, than you'll probably need 2 boxes.
HeadLok 4-1/2 in. Heavy Duty Flathead Fastener - (12-Pack)
www.homedepot.com/p/FastenMas...
Deck Plus 10 x 3-1/2-in Wood To Wood Deck Screws - 55-Count
(I used deckmate, but Home Depot was out. Here's what Lowes has.)
www.lowes.com/pd/Deck-Plus-10...
Waterproof Wood Glue
Titebond III 16 oz. Ultimate Wood Glue
www.homedepot.com/p/Titebond-...
Swing Set Anchors (I'm not real confident in these, let me know if you find something better.)
www.homedepot.com/p/Creative-...
Swing Set Hangers
www.homedepot.com/p/6-5-in-Sc...
Flat Swing: (This thing rocks, worth the price)
www.playsetparts.com/molded-f...
Saucer Tree Swing, 40 Inch, 700 lb Load (looks like what I got, but what we have is not on Amazon anymore. I call BS on 700lb weight limit. You'll have to compare as I have no idea if this brand is any good.)
www.amazon.com/SONGMICS-Sauce...
People who inspired me:
I want to give credit to April Wilkerson for the idea of using lap joints on a Swing and for showing how to properly fit them with jumping. Here's her build of a porch swing:
• DIY Porch Swing Frame
And Shopfix for the idea of putting the 5 degree marks to angle the legs slightly. Cool idea. Here's his simple A Frame DIY Swing Set build. Worth a look:
• How to Build a DIY Bac...
My legal disclaimer.
DIY and Home Improvement involve risk of personal injury and should be done with care. Please adhere to all safety recommendations from material and tool manufacturers and check your local codes. Some work may involve permits and it is your responsibility to comply with your local building officials.
My videos are for entertainment purposes only. Although I hope you learn something, I'm not a professional and you are responsible for making sure you know what you are doing before taking on any home improvement task. If you do something dumb that results in personal injury or property damage, that's on you. I'm in no way responsible for your workmanship and results if they are terrible, or even if they come out great. That said, I wish you much success in your DIY projects. - Навчання та стиль
Some day I will build one of that for my grand kids. Thanks man!
Yup. This is exactly how i was picturing it. Thanks🎉
Great video. I just spent a number of hours last weekend figuring out how to lift a 4x6x12 beam in the air for a swing set with 4x4x12 legs. I’m going to use your tips to brace it this weekend. Thanks!
Excellent production.
Best DIY video I have ever seen. Thank you.😄
Brilliant !
great job and a good well put together video
Thank you very much!
Great video.
Glad you enjoyed it
Great video :)
Great video. We are at home depot now. And once my husband gets done building this. I will update
Awesome, please let us know how it goes. Good luck and have fun with it.
How'd it go
@@A.pardocreations hi. Sorry for late reply. We live in a state where it rains alot. But yes. It came out just like his in the video. Very sturdy. Very very heavy. We live on a hill so husband had to dig holes on 1 side. And it is now leveled out. Saved so much money. I'm gonna put up a video on my UA-cam page soon. Once this mud dries up.
@@DIYWithAaron oh it went well. He followed ur video and it came out perfect. We have a saucer swing and regular swing. This thing is heavy and sturdy. U did a great job with this tutorial. Thanks so much . Oh and he did it by himself as well
@@kayyoung2039 That's great. I bet your kids love it.
Great job. Can you please paste the link of swing hangers?
Thank you. Do you mean these hooks? www.homedepot.com/p/6-5-in-Screw-Swing-Hanger-With-4-in-Snap-Hook-Set-of-2-SWHWD-SCWSH/301101905
Building same design but attached to a playhouse on one end. I'm also very curious about whether a half-lap joint on the legs would weaken them. Haven't been able to find a good answer yet.
Yeah, I looked too. Although I'm sure the half lap weakens the joint, I could not figure out if it was that significant especially since the wood lengthwise will shrink more than the cross members really locking things together. In the end I skipped it just because the forces from swinging are pretty intense compared to a static build and I wasn't going to risk my kids getting hurt from a purely aesthetic design feature.
Thanks for this video. I am planning to use your essential plan here for a stronger swing set for our kids. They are now solidly preteen and have outgrown the smaller one we have. Question: what do you think if I would essentially double your design and add a middle A-Frame. So my main top beam would be 4x6x16 with everything at 18 in intervals. Enough for four swing spots. I would also set this with concrete and concrete anchor plates. Thoughts and the strength of this construction specifically thinking about the middle A Frame being enough to support the additional 2 swings? Ideally there would NOT be 4 swingers at the same time. I only have three kids. But purpose is variety and spacing.
An extra middle A-Frame is the definitely the way to go. The biggest issue is keeping the unsupported span of the 4x6 at a reasonable distance. You're spans between supports will be less than 8 feet so the stress on the 4x6 won't be bad at all. As long as you're using 4x4s for your A-Frame legs, I don't think you'll have a problem.
Anchoring to concrete will be significantly stronger than my solution of setting into gravel and metal anchors. FYI, my swing set doesn't move at all even when I swing on it full force. With concrete at six points anchoring three A-Frames, I doubt you'll have any issues based on my experience.
Is there a reason you didn't you the mitre to cut out the sliters and space the one at 2.42. The finished swing looks awesome. I'm looking at a few different ones to see what kind I want for the garden, it's for me.
Glad you liked the swing. I'm not sure what you're asking about the "mitre to cut out the slivers". Are you asking why I didn't use the miter saw to do that instead of the circular saw?
@@DIYWithAaron yes why didn't you use the mitre for the box cuts, not sure the name of the joint. On mine you can set the depth of the blade to cut the lines out to make the square.
@@GundamGir1 Can't do half laps with my miter saw. There's no sliding function on it and no functionality to control the depth accurately or uniformity across the entirety of the cuts. It's older and basic... more of a glorified chop saw then what they sell nowadays. If you have the functionality to do the half laps with your miter saw then you can do that instead of a circular saw.
Can you tell me, do I need so much horisontal Woods, if I use 1.2m anchor screws?
Are you talking about the 2 cross members on each a-frame or the large 4 x 6 beam that hold the swings and span the 2 a-frames?
@@DIYWithAaron horisontal ones on A-frame. In complete sets there were not so many of those.
@@Valuiskihh The cross members for anchoring the gussets were relatively high, so I added additional cross members lower on each A-frame for more support. You may be able to get away with just one cross member per A-frame particularly if you anchor the legs to concrete or dig them into the ground. You could also use 2x4 material to cut down on the cost and bulk as well. The 4x4s I used for cross members in my build are overkill structurally. The fasteners for the horizontal members are not as important as the beam to leg connections as the force on them is far less. There's also metal beam and leg connectors that you can buy that eliminate the need for cross members and gussets entirely. www.amazon.com/Frame-Brackets-Complete-Mounting-Hardware/dp/B01M28VV0N/
Can't you set the mitre saw at 30 and 90 degrees? I know 45 and 90.are possible
Yes, but angles on the miter saw can sometimes be confusing when not cutting at a 45 or a 90 degree angle. I always mark stuff up first to not worry about making mistakes. When you cut on the 30 degree line on the miter saw, you'll workpiece will actually have a 60 degree angle to it.
I want to copy this!!!!! I’m a woman and have never used a saw though haha might be difficult
Feel free to copy... I'm sure you could do it if you take your time. There are plenty of instructional videos on operating power saws here on UA-cam if you need to learn how to use them properly.
@@DIYWithAaron Aw thanks for the reply! I want to add a slide and maybe a jungle gym!
How much did this project cost you to do??
Can't remember exactly how insane the price of wood was at the time. But you could probably build it for $200 - $250 for the wood, anchors, screws and hardware excluding the price of the swings themselves. The swings are probably like another $150 or so. So around $400 give or take.
Using an old fashioned cross cut saw instead of the multi tool to finish the cuts on the gusset might give you less grief
Not use a power tool? Surely you jest. Although in retrospect, a simple saw might have been a good choice.
You didn't explain why you measured 30 degrees. Please explain.
I wanted all the angles to be 60 degree angles to make a very stable equilateral triangle. So the leg bottoms create a 60 degree angel to the ground and the two 30 degree parts will be on either side of the beam. 30 + 30 will give me that final 60 degree angle at the top of the swing set.
@@DIYWithAaron Thanks. I didn't think of that.
That is a speed square, not a rafter square.
Whoops... guess I misspoke. Good catch.
What a legend