Swings are not just for fun. For adults, they calm nerves, improve mood and put thoughts in order; especially if you sway and contemplate the clouds in the sky. Children and teenagers on swings train their vestibular apparatus, develop coordination of movements, and, as they say, feel physics with their whole body. Schoolchildren who know how to swing well on swings, as a rule, do better academically and immediately grasp such difficult concepts as, for example, the moment of inertia of a body.
Making a garden swing with your own hands is not a difficult task. Who in childhood did not swing on a plank suspended from a tree branch on ropes? Or didn’t he flop into a river or pond while swinging on a bungee? And having at your disposal a certain amount of material, a simple tool and not entirely crooked hands, you can build a relaxation corner in any situation, which in its effect is not inferior to a rock garden arranged according to all the rules, see fig.
Homemade swing
Swing made of metal pipes
If you have an idea to make a hanging children's swing, you first need to dig shallow holes for the load-bearing supports. You can use a shovel or a hand drill for this job. If the frame for the swing is metal, then before placing the pole in the hole, its bottom must be lubricated with substances that prevent the formation of metal corrosion.
Pour crushed stone and sand into the bottom of the hole, bury the support pillars, and pour concrete on top. After installing the support pillars, it is necessary to weld a crossbar on top of them, to which the seat will be attached. Bearings need to be secured in the center.
The seat can be attached by welding metal pipes, hung on a chain or secured to a rope. The seat is made of wooden boards, old chairs and other fixtures.
The best for children
People don’t start swinging on the hanging swing right away. For kids who have just learned how to properly rearrange their bottom two, it’s just right to ride on a pendulum swing. Which, by the way, also develops motor skills and strengthens the musculoskeletal system. Parents who have built a children's pendulum swing for their offspring are soon convinced: abrasions on the knees and elbows, broken noses, roaring and resentment from both have noticeably decreased. Although, of course, it’s still not without it. But the swing will help children develop reasonable caution and common sense, avoiding serious injury.
It is known how a pendulum swing works. Shown in Fig. This option is interesting because it requires as many as 11 nails for metal fasteners:
Children's swing-pendulum
Parts marked (!) are made of hard, fine-grained deciduous wood - oak, beech, hornbeam, walnut. The ends of the pendulum axis do not need to be ground to a perfectly round shape: it is enough to plan them more or less evenly so that they fit into the sockets with a slight interference, and shake the board several times to get it to work in. If the fibers in the axle and support posts are oriented mutually perpendicular (which can be easily observed by cutting them from one board), then the swing will last for many years, and the rubbing surfaces will soon become mirror-smooth and durable, as if they were turned from steel on a machine.
The pendulum swing can be made portable so that, say, you can take it to the veranda for the winter. 2 ways to do this are shown there, pos. a and b. According to method a, the ends of the racks are concreted in an unusable tire; Method b is obvious and simpler, but both riders may fall to the side along with the swing. By the way, you can get a lot of other benefits from old swing tires; We will return to them later.
Swings for older children are made hanging, like for adults (see below), with some features:
Children's swings for schoolchildren
- The supporting beam of the swing is made of timber with an extension to which a ladder leads, see fig. on right.
- It’s even better, if there’s enough space, to put an additional lower support on the side, so that in addition you get a horizontal bar, see fig. below. In this case, it is preferable to make the entire sports corner, except for the horizontal bar crossbar, from a profile pipe, then the entire structure will be stronger, cheaper and technologically simpler.
- Suspension of a rocking chair for children who already know how to swing is best suited to the rope scheme 2-2 (see below). Then you can, without risking pinching or even breaking your finger with the chain, swing, it will take your breath away. And the right materials and design of the suspension will not allow you to “spin the sun” and dive down from its highest point, or turn into a projectile fired from a sling, unable to group for landing, like acrobats.
Children's sports corner made of profile pipe with swings
Note: when choosing or designing a swing, do not neglect safety precautions! When swinging at full swing, the speed of the rocker at critical points of the trajectory exceeds 50 km/h! Accordingly, the result of falling or falling from a swing will be equivalent to an accident at the same speed.
Swings for small children
There are also swings for newborns and infants. There are many benefits from them, but they are medical equipment. It is strongly not recommended to make such a swing yourself, but choose store-bought ones and use them only as prescribed by your pediatrician.
For babies from about six months old, whose eyes are already looking meaningfully (this means that their vision has developed and they see clearly), a children's swing for little ones will be useful, see fig. on right. They cost a lot, but making similar ones yourself is very easy from pipes, PVC or propylene, and cutting plywood, see video:
Video: baby swings for babies
Just don’t forget to cover the ends of the pipes with polystyrene foam: at that age, a finger can fit into a small hole, and you want to stick it there. They swing a child in such a swing, holding the suspension with their hands; In an apartment, the same plastic pipe will serve as a cross member; the weight is light.
Note: the swing is most often the basis of a children's corner. What else is needed for it, and how to put it all together, requires a separate description in parts. For example, you can watch the following video:
Video: children's playground with swings in the “Hacienda” program
Tire swing
When constructing a swing on a summer cottage, you need to show your imagination, especially if the area is planted with trees. After all, it is a thick, strong tree branch that can be used instead of a U-shaped frame structure. You can attach a seat in the form of a car tire to it on a chain or rope.
To secure it, you must first prepare the tire. To do this, we mark it in the form of a rectangle, cut out this piece of rubber, turn the tire inside out with the tread and attach a chain or rope to it.
A car tire gives a huge scope for creativity; you can cut out a child’s horse, a bike from it, or attach it like a bungee. This way you can get the simplest model of a children's swing for the garden, which does not require much effort.
Recommendations from professionals
To make swings for children reliable, experts advise adhering to the following rules:
- It is better to make the frame for the structure A- or L-shaped. This way the load on the crossbar will be distributed evenly.
- You can further strengthen the swing with a transverse A-shaped crossbar on both sides of the posts. It is welded at 1/3 of the length of the pillars.
- The metal structure can be portable if it has a square belt-frame underneath.
- You can also make the swing stationary if the pillars are concreted.
For reference: The U-shaped frame of a swing for children is considered the least safe.
Indoor swing - how to secure it correctly
Hanging swings are in great demand than ordinary floor swings, as they are much easier to make. In order to make a swing indoors, you will need the following: a strong rope, hooks screwed into the wall, a seat and available tools.
It is important to understand that when installing a swing indoors, not every design will be suitable. And it is important that the weight that they can withstand is limited, especially if the children's swing for the home is fixed in the area of the doorway.
We drill the hooks to the top of the opening, secure the seat with ropes and put it on the hooks.
Dimensions and drawings of children's swings
A special feature of the attractions for children is their individual sizes. A child differs from an adult in height, weight, and physique. The dimensions of the frame can be left as those suitable for a swing for adults. They don't play a special role. It is important to correctly calculate the dimensions of the seat and its hanging height. For a comfortable push-off, children should touch the ground with their feet, but at the same time not catch their feet when swinging. The height of the suspension is determined taking into account the height and age of the children. The table displays approximate data.
The size of the seat for a children's swing depends on how many children it is designed for. If this is a single-seat attraction, then a seat width of 40-50 cm will be enough. A bench for several children is made 1-1.2 m wide. Very wide seats for children's swings are unacceptable. They have a lot of weight. Children are not always able to swing a massive bench on their own.
Balance swing - construction technology
In addition to hanging ones, ground swings are very popular among outdoor swings on the site. Which are also easy to do yourself. Let's consider a typical scheme for installing a balancer, which is easiest to make from wood.
The following devices are used: wooden beams, logs, boards, wood processing products and paint or varnish. First, a lower frame about one meter long is constructed. Then support posts at an angle or struts are attached to it using self-tapping screws.
New Year's crafts from pine cones: decor ideas from pine cones for the New YearDecorative elements made of stone as an integral part of landscape design
Smartphone case: overview of the main types
After this, along the entire length of the balance board, 2-3 m long, two beams are installed in parallel, and smaller beams - about one meter - are fixed between them.
This structure is mounted using screws or carpentry glue. Seats and handles are made along the edges of the balancer. And a hole is drilled in the middle to attach it to the base.
Useful tips
To ensure that the swing brings pleasure to all family members, a few tips will help you create the structure correctly:
- If a chain is selected for hanging the seat, check the integrity of all links. They are connected to the eyes with metal rings. They have one cut. When the chain link and the eye are connected by a ring, the cut is welded.
- It is not advisable to make the seat back at a right angle. It is important to maintain a slight tilt or give it a semicircular bend.
- Polycarbonate allows light to pass through. When choosing the color of a sheet, you must remember that the light atmosphere created under the roof can have a beneficial or uncomfortable effect on a person’s subconscious.
Before starting production of the play complex, it is optimal to visit the park and playgrounds. In these places you can try out different swing options for convenience and see their design. The most successful option is easier to copy than to think through all the design components yourself.
Swing for little ones
The playground for children must have devices that are suitable for the different ages of children. Pendulum swings are in demand among children. It’s easy to make a spring swing for a playground yourself. You will need car springs.
The base can be a reinforcing cross, to which a metal anchor is attached by welding. First, a hole is also dug and the base is prepared for installing a metal structure. Then, just like in the previous versions, all this is filled with concrete.
A seat is attached to the spring, which can be made based on the imagination of the master. For a girl you can make a horse from boards, for a boy you can make a motorcycle or a car.
Curiosities, but to the point
Since we are talking about funny swings, let’s touch on some more of them, but they are quite suitable for their intended use. For example, hammock swings, on the left in the figure, although the hammock itself is already a recumbent swing. There is probably something about swaying with additional degrees of freedom that owners like. In any case, there will be no harm.
Children will probably like the device in the center, but it is impossible to name it without sinning against Russian grammar. A swing, not a swing. And the author posted a photo of the one on the right with a note: the easiest way to recycle an old car. The comment was in English, so it is quite possible - in many Western countries, delivering a car to a landfill or selling it for scrap costs a lot of trouble. And here the great inertia of the heavy rocking chair allows you to swing for a very long time, the canopy is created by itself, and the soft sofa will not reduce the comfort.
Basic requirements
Before you begin, you need to familiarize yourself with a number of requirements, compliance with which will allow you to create a high-quality product. Since garden swings are considered quite dangerous, it is necessary to take proper care to ensure that no funny situations spoil your vacation. All elements must be reliable. And during operation, there should be no objects nearby that could become an obstacle to the maximum movement of the swing.
As a rule, children love to swing. But sometimes adults don’t mind relaxing after hard working days. When deciding how to make a swing, you should definitely provide for high load capacity and maximum dynamic load. Having a strong swing frame is an important safety feature.
Depending on where the swing will be installed, you choose what to make it from. Most often they are used in the garden, outdoors. Building materials, accordingly, must have weather-resistant characteristics. Then they will last a long time. We should not forget about appearance. In order to give your homemade garden swing a neat look, you need to choose materials that are easy to care for.
After analyzing all the requirements and deciding on the parameters, you can choose the type of product. According to the installation method there are:
- Mobile. If there is no exact place for their installation, then it is better to opt for a portable model for the dacha. Then the swing can be moved to any convenient place.
- Stationary. When creating a swing with your own hands, the installation location is determined once, it remains unchanged throughout its entire service life.
According to the principle of the device, they are distinguished:
- Hanging. The seat is attached to the frame using hangers.
- Frame. They are characterized by a solid frame welded from pipes or made from wooden beams.
As for building materials, the most popular are DIY garden swings made of metal, wood, or a combination of both. All of the above designs meet the requirements to one degree or another. However, if you put safety first, then the best option would be a stationary frame swing made of metal. They have greater stability and load capacity compared to other options.
Last stages of work
All that remains is the work of attaching the seat on the stand-up parts to the crossbar of the swing. You need to buy 4 bearings with an internal diameter of 15 mm. The bushing is selected according to the outer size and one bearing is pressed into place on each side. The bushings are pressed onto a rod with a diameter of 15 mm.
It is necessary to bend the rod and weld the resulting bracket to the upper jumper. These nodes also need to be strengthened with additional scarves. Now set the seat at a sufficient distance from the floor and weld the pillar parts to the bushings. This joint of welded parts must be of high quality.
All that remains is to clean the joints with a grinder and use a file to remove all burrs. Metal parts are degreased and primed, and painted with oil paint for exterior use. After drying, install the wooden parts of the back and seat.
The garden swing is ready. Now children and adults can enjoy outdoor recreation. You can additionally equip the swing with a tarpaulin awning or simply install a beach umbrella.
