http://jayscustomcreations.com/2013/05/25/2x4-porch-swing/ This 2x4 porch swing was a very fun project. It took about $40 and 5 hours to put together. Click on the link above for a complete step by step plan with SketchUp diagrams and the cut list.
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this week I'm going to turn these 8 2x4s
into this pork swing so let's get
started the first step that I'm going to
take is to remove about a 302 of an inch
on both sides of my stock and I'm going
to do this with my planer as you can see
I kind of rearranged the shop just a
little bit to get better use of this
planer I spent a lot of money on this
planer and I want to use it so having a
dedicated space for it uh greatly
enchant great L increases the
opportunity for me to use it and also
putting it in this hallway as you can
see I've got a lot of room for infeed
and out feed and uh this setup works
really
well before I cut my arm pieces to
length I need to make sure that they are
the appropriate width first I need to
get these down to 3 in wide so I'm just
going to remove a/4 inch on one side
flip it over and remove a/4 in on the
other side I'm going to do this to two
full 8T 2x4s
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now before I cut any of my half flaps I
have them sitting in the in the
appropriate orientation from both the
left and the right side of the arm
assembly uh and that's for good reason
on a regular half flap joint that's just
uh 90° on both sides it really doesn't
matter you can just cut them all and and
then uh put each piece in wherever you
want to but because these are angled
half flaps they have to be in a specific
orientation so uh I don't really have
that much flexibility as far as using
multiple pieces wherever I want to so
I'm going to leave the pieces in this
exact setup and take them over to the
table saw one by one to cut this angled
half life all right real quick I want to
run through how I make a curf maker
style stop block that's going to give me
the perfect distance that I need to
travel to make these half laps
absolutely perfect so this is a piece of
scrap from the same uh stock that I'm
working with and with the outside edge
of the table saw blade the dato stack I
want to line it up against the fence so
that I'm just just about a fingernail
past my fingernail can just barely grab
against this
tooth all right now what that did is
removed just the thickness of the dato
stack that I'm working with and this
remaining material is the distance
traveled so we'll use this to measure
when making out the rest of our half
laps all right this may get a little
confusing so I'll try to explain it the
best I can uh this is just a scrap piece
of pine with two Runners and both of
these are measured 15° off of
perpendicular from this blade so 15°
faces and that's because all the angles
in this bench are
15° so now I need to know obviously I
can start right with this is but how far
this way do I need to go for my first
half lap well that's where the spacing
guide comes into play this curve maker
stop I can slide it up against the blade
right
here and basically I need to stop where
this reference face is over here so uh
I'm just using a piece of this is
actually my stop block for my miter uh
miter saw
station what I can do
is rest this edge up against the bottom
of my sled slide it into place like
so so
now so now this Edge is actually where I
need to stop I can make my runs up into
here but in order for me to get this uh
in a in a stationary position I'm just
going to move my table saw fence over to
one side and clamp it down that way just
run this up against this side and run
this up against like like so and I
should be able to get some perfect half
laps like this
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all right so this is the back rest piece
and it needs not only a half left down
at the bottom but it also needs one
right about here so basically I need to
duplicate
these two half laps onto the bottom back
support so what I'm doing is I've set up
my fence so that my last cut before I
cannot go any further is right in line
with this so I'm not going to cut any
further than here because I stopped up
against the fence now where do I start
at uh that's where we're going to use
our half flap I'm sorry use our curf
maker stop block for again what I'm
going to do is I'm going to start with
this block up against the fence telling
it to
start right there and as you can see
that is right where this half flap is
starting and then we will go all the way
up to the fence where this half flap to
stop
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I am really really happy with the way
this turned out so um no adjustments
needed I'm just going to go ahead and
glue all this together I've got both my
arm assemblies completely glued together
and on the bottom piece of both arm
assemblies in the front side right where
this half laap stops I need to create a
90° cut right here and that's because
the seat slat is going to start right
here and I don't want anything else
sticking out forward on the seat slat it
was easier to make the half flap and
then cut it later than it would have
been to make this cut before I assembled
all right now that I have the arms in
the final shape that they're going to be
in I can start trimming out the bottom
which will actually be the support to
screw the slats in and what I've done is
taken one of my 2x4s and ripped it down
into 1 and 1/2 in by 1 and 1/2 in strips
and I'm going to line that along the
back Edge of the back supports and also
along the
bottom of the arm itself as well so I've
got a couple pieces cut here I just need
to Mark and make my final cuts and then
screw them into the arm
itself as you can see behind me I'm just
about ready for my final assem but first
I want to take all of my slats and on
the top side run them through a/4 in
round over
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bit for the final assembly I've got this
whole thing flipped upside down and it's
just resting across two of these seat
slabs I've got a clamp down in the back
and I verify that these are 90° and what
I've already done is pre-drilled two
holes on either side of this first slat
we're going to start referencing off the
front face and work our way back this
way and two screws per slat from the 2x
two into the slat from
below with the first slot secured I
could use the end of a drill bit to
space my second slat by 1/8 of an
inch
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as you can tell this is a pretty big
swing so all I've got left to do is sand
the whole thing down and then install
the eyeballs this thing is going to be
hung by four of these big 38 of an inch
eyebolts now in perfect world I would
have been able to find some a little bit
shorter but these are the only length
that I could find so it's just a little
bit long for my liking but you know it
works and when I put them through I made
sure that they go through not only the
side the arm but also this this uh
support piece back here this 2x two uh
one on the top corner of the back and
then one down there at the bottom of
both arms all right so here it is all
done all sanded ready to go uh I built
this for somebody who obviously has a
porch they're going to be doing all the
finishing to that I don't know if
they're going to paint it or what but uh
you know it's a pretty big swing it's a
lot bigger than what I thought it would
be uh I have no way to show you the
actual swing swinging because I have no
way to hang it up so sorry about that
but you know this is a neat little
project I wish I had some place to
actually hang one uh it's a comfortable
size uh I'm a short guy I'm only 5'6 so
you know you can kind of get a size
comparison this is big enough for
anybody really and uh you know it's
pretty darn strong so this Project's in
the books if you like what you see like
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