Swing benches: types and manufacturing process

Swing benches are family-type models. They can have handrails or do without them, a hard seat is often covered with a mattress or pillows, and a canopy is made on the mounting beam, which makes the swing cozy like a home. Often they are installed in a recreation area, next to a table and flower beds, where the family can get together and spend their leisure time.

The model can be purchased ready-made. Most often they are produced on a metal basis, they have a small canopy and sufficient mobility, which allows you to move the structure to any place. But a hand-made swing will be more comfortable and desirable.

Before you start working on the swing, you should choose a suitable place for it. The structure can be installed anywhere, but if beauty and comfort are needed, it is worth thinking about choosing a place.

Such swings are quite spacious, adults and children can be on them. Where they are installed, a convenient outdoor recreation area is formed. There may be a dining area nearby, a barbecue area with an oven and barbecue. Or emphasis is placed on aesthetics: the swing is placed in the center of a fresh lawn or surrounded by flower beds, near a decorative fountain, pond, waterfall.

The place itself for mounting future swing can be open, closed or semi-closed. Open structures are installed in a free area of ​​the garden or in front of the house. The maximum that they can have as a roof is a small canopy equipped on the structure itself.

Semi-closed areas include terraces, a pergola, where several conditional walls covered with vegetation are erected. Sometimes the swing is placed in a closed space - on a veranda or in a gazebo. When choosing a place for a frame swing, certain nuances should be taken into account:

• you can not put the structure in a low place in order to avoid dampness;
• the place should be level, or it should be leveled;
• the swing needs a shade from a tree, buildings or a canopy, but at the same time, places with drafts should be avoided;
• near the recreation area, the growth of poisonous plants, as well as allergens and melliferous plants, should be excluded.

Having chosen a worthy place for future swings, you can start creating them. At the initial stage, it is necessary to draw up construction drawings, or at least sketch a sketch, calculate the dimensions. Go to the prepared place and try to imagine how the swing will look. They must be able to support a minimum of three adults. The angle between the seat and the back is set empirically, the most convenient option is chosen. The height and width of the swing is determined by the size of the people sitting on it.

The manufacture of a swing should begin with the frame of the future structure. The bars are connected in pairs at an angle, one of them will refer to the back, the other to the seat. Fastened with wood glue and bolts. The four paired elements assembled in this way are fastened with horizontal bars: two on the back and on the seat. It turns out the "skeleton" of the future bench.

Before sheathing the frame with lamellas, the length, width of the structure and the bend of the angle between the back and the seat are checked again. On each lamella, holes are drilled on both sides for fastening. Then the frame is neatly hemmed with the prepared material. The bench must be turned over and the bottom must be reinforced with metal corners.

Armrests of the simplest form are attached to the finished base of the bench with bolts. They can always be removed as unnecessary, the bolts allow you to quickly do this.

Before painting, the wood should be treated with an antifungal agent, protected with impregnation or drying oil, and varnish should be applied. Painting a swing should be taken seriously, as untreated pieces of wood will disintegrate in the air.

Chains or other fasteners are attached to the finished bench. Then they are hung on beams, rafters, if installed in a gazebo or on a veranda. If the swing is mounted in an open area, a special frame is built for them.

There are several basic types of wireframes. Swing benches, designed for several adults, are equipped with the most reliable model. The U-shaped frame looks like a letter P, consists of two bars, concreted into the ground, and a crossbar. Such a frame, even taking into account the cement, cannot be called reliable, it is designed, rather, for a children's swing.

The L-shaped frame is a double support structure, connected by tops to each other and exposed from different sides. A crossbar is attached to the paired supports for hanging the swing. The A-shaped frame is made like the previous one, only crossbars are installed between the paired bars for rigidity, the supports are obtained in the form of the letter "A". Such a frame is considered the most durable, it is designed for a family-type swing.

The X-shaped frame is also built with the letter "L", only its ends at the top of the supports intersect, the crossbar for hanging the swing lies between them.

You can hang the swing bench in different ways. Ropes, metal cables, chains, logs are suitable as suspensions. Chains combine two qualities at once: reliability and effectiveness, they are easy to adjust in height, so this material is most often used. But nevertheless, the chains should be checked for the quality of the anti-corrosion coating and the strength of the links, the model must withstand at least 400 kg of weight.

When adjusting suspensions for a bench, one should focus on the convenience of a sitting adult, he should touch the ground with his toes, then he will not have to tighten his legs while swinging and it will be easy to get up from the swing.

In this case, the type of the A-shaped frame is selected. The crossbar is made in the form of a bar about 10 cm in diameter. It is mounted to the supports with metal corners. Suspensions with a bench are attached to the crossbar. If necessary, a canopy is installed on top of the structure.

It is performed without side posts, so the swing looks light, floating in the air. The bars on which the suspensions cling should be quite powerful, as they will experience an increased load. A wooden platform is sometimes mounted under the swing, a wall is built of wood from the leeward side. You can nail trellises on the wall and plant climbing plants, this will decorate the resting place.

Four pillars are installed and cemented in the prepared area. A frame is mounted on top of them. A crossbar for suspensions is laid on the frame, the rest of the space of the conditional roof is "sewn up" with boards placed on the edge. The structure resembles a pergola.Three sides can be closed from the wind with transparent polycarbonate, but the building in the garden will look more harmonious if you install trellises and plant them with wild grapes.

Fastening suspensions are made not only from flexible elements (cables, ropes, ropes), they can be made from rounded timber. From the mounts you will need hooks, rings and powerful carabiners. The all-wooden structure is attractive in its own way.

If construction work was carried out at the dacha, and pallets remained after the delivery of bricks, they can be used to create a swing. One workpiece will go to the seat, the second to the back, they should be cut to size. Pallets must be processed to a smooth state in order to eliminate the risk of splinters, then soaked in an antiseptic, stained or varnished.

The back and seat are connected using metal corners. Suspensions (rope, cable) are threaded between the tiers of the pallets. The swing should be well balanced, otherwise it will fall backwards. A long structure can be made from four pallets. For convenience, the bench is decorated with pillows. Cozy swings in the garden indicate that the owners know how not only to work well, but also to have a comfortable rest.

You will learn more about how to make a swing bench in the following video.