With both the arm and its support done they could be
assembled and attached to the swing.
That starts with a pair of countersunk pilot holes drilled into the
top of the arm for the screws that get run into the support. These holes are used to mark the pilot hole’s
location on the support. To assure the
holes are square I use the drill press.
Clamping the support to the fence keeps one face square to it while the
square aligns the other face with the table.
Once they are drilled it’s a simple matter of lining the
2” screws up with the just drilled holes in the support and running them in.
Next is to screw the back end of the arm to the back
brace. Since it’s not practical to put
the swing in the drill press to keep the hole square while being drilled a
simple guide is used. It’s just a scrap
with a hole drilled in it the same diameter as the finished hole made using the
drill press so it’s square. In use the
block (it has FOREST on its end) is held tight against the back support which
holds the drill in the proper position while the hole is being drilled. The same process is used to add the screws
attaching the arm support to the seat brace.
The last pieces, for now, that go on the swing are the
long supports that get screwed to the seat/back braces. Below they are shown in blue.
My plans for attaching the long supports were to install a
screw from the bottom into the seat/back brace per the X-Ray drawing on the
left. However, when the time came it
became evident that wasn’t going to work as I would have had the screw holding
the arm support on and the screw holding the long support trying to occupy the
same space shown circled in red. The
solution is shown in the right photo.
Bringing in the second screw in at a 15-degree angle from the back pivots
it so it does not hit the first one.
Below are a couple of tests I did holding the screw at
the same angle in both but changing the point at which the screw exits the top
of the long support. The left photo was
the first try and it looked a little close so I moved the exit point a little
to the right which gives more room between the screws. The problem is that because the screw goes in
at an angle, I was worried that the right example could cause the long support
to twist a little bit counter clockwise where the one on the left is more
centered and probably wouldn’t have that problem. Based on that concern the left example will
be used.
Here is the setup used to drill the angled holes for the
screws. Because the long supports are
well, long outriggers are used to support the ends of the piece so it won’t
move in the jig. The right support which
is closest to the camera is clamped to the table saw.
After drilling the angled holes the ends of the long
supports get ½” radius rounded corners.
If the piece was shorter the disk sander would be used but as the
supports are almost 5’ long they are too awkward to do that. To make them a high-speed pneumatic die grinder is
used to get the rough shape. That’s
followed by a rasp and then a ¼ sheet pad, sander all shown here. When done I ended up with a nice smooth
rounded corner. The photo shows the
tools used and the first one done.
With the edges rounded the long supports get screwed to
the braces with 2 ½” long screws. Here
the swing is all put together. It’s now
ready for disassembly so repair of any flaws and final sanding can be done prior to painting. I wanted to paint all faces of
each individual piece so there will be no surfaces exposed to the weather
particularly where pieces abut each other.
Also, if all faces are painted then as the wood moves throughout the
year due to humidity changes no unfinished spots will show up. After painting the swing will be
reassembled. 
The last thing done before disassembly is to verify the
seat height. This is because my wife is
fairly petite and frequently standard depth/height chairs or seats are too high
and too deep making them uncomfortable for her to sit in. Before starting we did some experimenting on
the seat depth ending up shortening it by almost 2” from the
original plans. We also made an educated
guess on the seat height for material estimating. Now that the swing is done, we did some
actual testing and the seat depth is just right which is good since it’s too
late to change that. However, when we
tested the height by adjusting it in roughly ¼” increments it showed our
estimation on height was about 1¼” too tall.
Not a big deal but I did have to revise the 3-D drawings accordingly so I would have accurate dimensions to work from.
Before starting to disassemble the swing, I numbered the
slats so they could be put them back on in the same order I took them off. Other parts that are the same like the
seat/back braces also get labeled.
Once the arms and their vertical supports were taken off
the screws holding them together were removed, that joint glued and the screws
reinstalled. To hide the screws, I had
countersunk them so now face grain plugs are cut using the drill press and a
plug cutter.
In this photo the left arm is ready to have the plugs
glued in and the right one has its plugs glued in.
Once the glue dried, the plugs were cut off just like the pins
in the seat/back braces and trimmed almost flush with a chisel. Last is to bring the plug flush with a
sanding block. When all done, they are
hardly noticeable and when painted probably will be virtually invisible.
Here the swing has been completely disassembled and
stacked up ready for me to go over all the pieces and fill any defects that
were missed earlier or have shown up then do the final sanding.
Next Up – Painting, Reassembly & Starting End Rails
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