Greg Whedon’s Beautiful Swing

Greg did an awesome job for his second woodworking project ever. He made a stretched version of my 2×4 swing with a few changes. Greg writes:

Hi Jay,

I’ve had this old frame around forever… it was originally a mainstay (walmart) swing with canope. Well, it tore up years ago, but I’d held on to the rusting frame, thinking maybe I could do something with it. Years went by. I became interested in woodworking.. then, I saw your video! I sanded, primed & painted the frame.

Though I’m an old guy, this is only my 2nd project. The first was my workbench.The half laps were a challenge cause my contractor type table saw shouldn’t take dado blades, so I had to cut them in about 30 passes per half lap. I’m not complaining, cause I know there are other people who are probably doing a great job without a table saw at all.

Anyhow, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for me, but it was a great learning experience, and my wife & I are really happy with the results. I stained it with oil based cedar semi-transparent deck stain. I think the almost orange of the stain on the wood looks really good with the blue & white frame.

Small changes I made.. well obviously this swing is long! It’s about 5′ long so I put 3 braces under the seat, and 2 in the back. I used 1x4s for the slats. Only other small change was I rounded the arms where hands go.