Porch Swing/Glider - #8 Painting, Reassembly & Starting End Rails

A waterproofing sealer and solid stain requiring two coats is used for the finish.  Since there was not really a good way to hang all the pieces so all sides could be painted at once only half of each piece gets done at a time.  Giving them overnight to dry between coats means it takes four days to finish all the parts.  Here are all the almost finished pieces for the swing.  There is one end of each slat still unpainted because that’s where their location number is written.  While the slats are all the same except for two the location of mounting holes vary slightly.  With them numbered they can be put back on in their original location.

The slats are added to the seat/back brace in the same order as originally installed.  Here they are all in place ready for the numbered ends to be painted.

After mounting and screwing the long supports to the seat/back braces the numbered ends get two coats of paint.  While the paint dries the front and top rail get screwed on.  Last is to glue and screw the arms on.  Most of the screws used are zinc coated since they are protected and will not get wet except in extreme circumstances.   The arm attachment is different in that the heads of the screws will be exposed to the elements.  To reduce the chance of corrosion or staining of the wood the screws used have multiple anti-corrosion layers .  Fortunately for me I found some that are almost the same color as the swing’s finish.  The red arrows show the installed screws and the inset shows what the screw looks like.

Once the arms are installed the swing is complete and I can start on the base.

The base starts with the top and bottom rails of the two ends.  Those are shown in blue in the drawing below.  They were roughed out some time ago and have been waiting until I was ready to use them.  In checking they are all good except for one that has a tiny bit of a bow that I can work around.

Each part is made from two identical halves glued together.  This is the dimensioned drawing of one of the top and bottom halves will be used to make them.  There is one change from the original plan, the corners are rounded rather than clipped at a 45-degree angle.  I made the change for uniformity in design so the curve of the arms and the seat/back braces is carried throughout the piece.

First is to do the layout of the dados which when the halves are glued together will make up the mortises for the uprights.  Three of the four sets can be cut with the same setup since the blanks are all the same length.  However, the fourth set (in front below) is about an inch shorter than the rest so it will require a different setup.  It would have been nice if they were longer but there was not enough material in the 2x6 they came out of to make that happen.  However, when trimmed to finish length they will all be the same.

The dados will be cut with a stacked dado.  I choose not to rough them with a bandsaw since they don’t have an open end to cut from like the seat/back braces did.  It would be fiddly work and take more time than it’s worth to do that so I am just going to use the table saw.  In the top photo the rip fence (white) sets the left right distance the dado’s get cut from the ends.  The miter fence (black) keeps the piece square with the blade and is used to push the piece across the blade making the cut.  Also, you can just see the backer board next to the miter fence (red arrow) to prevent splitting when the dado exits the cut.  After the first cut the piece is flipped end for end and the second dado is cut.  The bottom photo has the first pass done.

After all the similar pieces have had their first pass made the rip fence is moved closer to the blade and a second pass is made expanding the dado.  The top photo shows one end with two passes.  The bottom photo shows the finished dados.

After all the dados are cut and the two halves stacked together the mortises are clearly visible.

Next is to route a slot for a spline that the center panel floats on.  The drawings below show the panel and splines along with where the slot gets routed.  Both the top and bottom rails get routed with the bottom rail shown.

Here is a closeup of the router table with the router bit and fence set for the cut.  Note that the right side of the fence is really close to the bit.  That’s to provide support to the wood fibers on the exit side of the cut which reduces the splintering and chipping of the edge.  

Here the top photo shows both halves of the base with the groove for the spline cut clamped together ready to be glued up.  In the bottom photo the pieces are lying flat with the surfaces to be glued up.

Gluing the pieces together is next and this photo shows the fit up in the bench vice.  To make sure the two halves align perfectly side to side there are two blocks sized to just fit in the dados cut and inserted in the assembly.  In addition, to make sure the two halves don’t slide around while gluing and clamping there are three screws run in from the face for alignment.  They will also provide some clamping pressure.  From here everything is taken apart, glue applied and things reassembled in the bench vice.  Afterwards the blocks are knocked out, more clamps are added and any glue squeeze out is wiped away.  The next day the clamps and screws are removed giving me mostly completed top and bottom rails for the glider’s end panels. 

Next Up – Finishing End Rails, End Stiles & Base Stretchers