Rustic ceder log swing

This is my first rustic swing project.

It’s made of eastern red aromatic ceder which I harvested and peeled here at home.
The larger pieces are small trees and the smaller pieces are branches.
I cut the seat and back boards out of a log with my chainsaw.
I then planed them somewhat flat with a chainsaw and followed up with a belt sander.

There are no screws in this piece. I built it with mortise and tenon construction. Every joint has both a wedge and a 3/8 dowel through it. In the future I think I’ll prolly stick with wedges and hidden screws.

It’s a bit heavier than it needs to be since I cracked the original lower rail in the back and instead of replacing it I just added a second set of rails along the bottom. I also broke the top left section of the top rail as well so I just added a crooked piece of branch there as well. It required that the hangers be placed further out so the chain would not hang up on the arm rests. The wider bottom rails ended up saolcing two problems in one.

By the time I taught myself how to build this thing and rebuilt the parts which I broke along the way, I had about 60 hours into it. The very first person I showed it to ordered a custom one to fit between two uprights on their porch. I figure the second one will take me about 2 days or 16 hours.

I am adding an unfinished shot of it hanging up on the stand during test assembly but I have decided not to sell these stands due to liability issues. Also there is a shot of it showing the detail behind the back board.

In the end I liked the way it came out. Most of my customers prefer the very rough look. Tool marks, rough shapes and wood defects seem to be a plus for them.

I would still like to find someone who knows better ways to layout and drill holes into this kinda stuff.

DAve

-- Failures are successes in training.