Almost a Swinger

 

Funny how things just seem to get in the way. Late last fall, after putting the finishing touches on the greenhouse, my wife requested I make her a porch swing. When we added the addition onto the house, we added a covered front porch, something I have always wanted, and made plans to someday hang a porch swing, something my wife wanted. I couldn't very well say no to her though I did caution that cold weather was soon approaching and I might not get it done until next spring.

Cold weather did indeed put a halt to my gluing activities in the garage and so it sat collecting dust until a warm stretch earlier this spring when I was able to put some time on it and get it nearly assembled before running into problems. I intentionally made this project somewhat of a challenge by using cedar. Cedar is a beautiful wood and readily available for a reasonable price in the form of deck boards but it is brittle and not easy to work with. It is very light but can split over time when adding screws and such. I increased my chances by making the pieces thicker than called for to add more sustenance to them and have been pre drilling and filling in all the screw holes as I go with watertight plugs of wood and glue. But over winter, a couple of the support pieces underneath the arm rests both developed cracks that rendered them unusable. Long story short, it was my poor choice of some pieces with sapwood that caused the issue. But I had to remake some more and I eventually did.

Normal spring time activities such as garden planting, mushroom hunting, tiny house building, normal end of the year school activities, and a need for recovery and personal recharging got in the way and here it is already warming up nicely and my porch swing was still in pieces. Finally the stars aligned, the lawn was freshly mowed, no activities requiring my presence and my body was fully recharged, so I blew off the dust and got it at last completely together. All I have to do is attach the hanging hardware parts and hang it though that is a more complicated process than writing those words. Being a new covered front porch, I don't have preinstalled hangers and so must make my own.

It is doable and I plan to start doing just that as long as the stars continue to align. I just hope that the cedar doesn't fall into a pile a kindling with the first person that uses it. Time will tell on that.