HOW TO: Build a homebrew swing set

For our daughter's seventh birthday, we thought we'd surprise her with a swing set. So while she was away at her grandparents' for the week, we dodged summer thunderstorms and clouds of gnats to put one together.

We had a few pressure treated 4x4s left over from a temporary home-building project last year, so we put those to work as our A-frame swing set legs. We thought we were going to be able to connect the A-frame and the cross bar with joist hangers, but Lowe's didn't have anything that fit the bill. After much discussion with a Lowe's guy about how we could effectively cross two boards and still attach both a cross bar and support beams, we decided to cut notches in each of the boards, fit them together like tabs, and then bolt them together. I'm sure there's a carpentry term for this kind of joint, but it escapes me at the moment.

To begin, we laid the two boards on top of each other to mark the angle we wanted, and then we set the circular saw to a depth that would cut down exactly half-way through our 4x4. Then we cut a series of lines out in between our marks.

Using a chisel, it was a simple thing to break the sliced pieces of wood out, leaving this:

A nicely carved canyon.

Do this four times over, and you've got four boards that fit snugly into each other.

Next up, we used an auger to drill holes for the bolts that would hold the A-frames together.

Voila! We have our teepee-top for our A-frame.

Next up we cut out a channel for the cross beam to sit in, using a combination of drill, circular saw, and jigsaw.

Our cross beam is a 4x6, so while most of it will be held by our channel, some of it will stick out the top.

Into that cross beam, we bored more holes, then hammered through long, strong eye-hooks, from which the swings would eventually hang.

We added two boards to each A-frame, as you can see here, for stability. The higher of the two cross supports will eventually brace the angled supports we'll put in the corners. This is looking wobbly and tippy at this point--all we did was set the A-frame sides up and lay on the cross bar. Next we had to attach them and square everything.

We did use some minor joist joints here--angle brackets to help keep things in place. On the back side, which we apparently didn't photograph, we used a flat plate to attach the end of the cross beam to the A-frame.

Next up we cut angled beams to give the swing set some side to side support. These run from the upper A-frame cross brace to just before the swing eye hooks on the cross beam.

We had to add a second cross beam to help cover the length of the angled cut on the support beam. We also had to toe-nail the support beam into the cross bar, which is never fun.

When it was finished though, the swing set's upper corners were really sturdy!

And there you have it! A finished swing set frame.

We're in the home stretch. All we have to do is attach our swings. We used super-strength naval carabiners that hold something crazy like 1,500 pounds of weight, to which we attached a vinyl-coated chain. (Great for gripping, and doesn't get tangled up with long hair!)

The chains had to be adjusted for height by cutting away the vinyl coating.

Our seats were homemade too, although you can buy all kinds of swing set seat. This is a pressure-treated 2x6 with eye hooks in the ends, wrapped in an outdoor canvas we bought at Hancock's. Half a yard was all we needed for both swings.

And now it's play time!