Carry Around Swing

Hey,

For a course at my school ( i study industrial productdesign at howest in Kortrijk, Belgium) we got the assignment to design and build a swing that is light and easy to carry around .

So if you like to take long walks or just go to the park a lot and you feel like you're missing a swing, here is one you can build.

It can be used as a bag too (see one of the pictures above).

if you're interested in the process of making it here's a link to my blog

First we'll need some supplies.

For this swing you need :

tools

a sewing machine

a sewing kit

a drill, a 20mm drillbit and another one of at least 20-25 ( depends on the diameter of your rope)

a bandsaw

a sander or an abrasive belt (optional but comes in handy)

a piece of chalk

materials

- cotton, you'll need at least 1 piece of 100cmX120cm

- rope, i bought a 20m long thin climbing rope, make sure your rope is long enough 20m is enough for a branch at 5-6 meters hight

- cardboard, a few old boxes will do i think

- wood, a multiplex, 20cmX30X120mm cm will do i think

- some velcro(hook and loop) i used velcro with glue

To start we have to make templates, i made three, one for the bottom (bottom one on the drawing), one for the back(upper right one on the drawing) and one for the two sides.(upper left one on the drawing).

I wrote some measurements on the drawing, i'll explain it a bit too.

To start, the seat is easy its almost square, 44cmX45cm.

For the back you have to draw the bottom line 45cm, go 45cm up from the middle there and then draw a circle with a diameter of 10cm. Then you just conect the ends of the bottom line and connect them with the circle.

The sides are the same principle but you dont go up from the middle.

Use the templates and mark the outline on the cotton with the chalk, now you can cut them out but try to cut about 1cm from the chalk line.(you need to cut them out whole, not the seat and the other parts separately).

You will need two of these forms as you can see on the picture.

It's important to leave the chalk on there.

So the next step is sewing your two pieces together, put them exactly on top of each other both with the chalk lines facing up.

next, you want to sew the outline of the swing (marked in yellow on the picture).

Be sure to leave the bottom open !

for those of you who don't know how to sew(like me): here's a useful instructable on sewing.

Go over it a couple of times for a strong seam.(i think i went over three times).

After you turn it inside out it should look something lke this.

For the reinforcements you'll need the multiplex.

Draw out 3 squares 10cmX10cm, then mark the circles and cut them out with the bandsaw.

Next is drilling the holes, for two circles you have to drill a hole in the center with the 20-22mm drillbit. for the third one you have to put a hole in the middle of each halve of the circle.

After that you can round of the edges on a sanding belt, so you dont have a scharm edge that could tear the fabric.

The first picture shows how to place the reinforcements.

The two single holed ones go in the sides and the one with two holes (the holes have to be placed horizontal) in the back.

So put them inside and then try to sew them in as tight as possible, you can try to do this with the sewing machine but its hard and i can tell you that i broke a lot of needles by hitting the wood.

Then you have to sew the edges of the holes so you can cut them out.

Do this for all three reinforcements.

Next you sew in the seat the blue lines showed on the drawing.

Still leave the bottom open.

To close the bottom you just need cut the velcro to size and apply it on the inside.

This is a step that isnt entirely necessary, you can put cardboard in the seat to give it some strenght.

I just used a piece that i earlier used as a template for the seat, its possible you'll have to trim it a bit .

You'll also need something to keep your ropes together, this makes sure you can swing and your swing doesnt tip over.

To start mark a 4cmX12cm piece out of your multiplex, then cut the round edges (radius 2cm).

Next: drill 2 holes (shown on the drawing) and cut out the rest with a bandsaw .(the shadowed parts from the drawing).

Finish it by rounding all the edges on the belt sander.

Make 2 of these.

Congratulations! Your swing is now finished!

Here's a video showing how to set up the swing, if it's too fast just change the speed on the video.

I used a grinner knot.

Here's a last quick instruction on how to change the swing into a bag.

The foto's show how to do this step by step.

To close the bag i used some leftover velcro.

The knot is called a reef knot

If you want to carry smaller items it's best to put them inside the seat.

I hope you enjoyed this instructable and building the swing.

Thank you for reading!