A-Frame Porch Swing Frame

I like a good porch swing. 
It reminds me of my Grandma Johnson. 
They always had a swing at their homes. 
Though the swing that Grandpa made at their Idaho Falls home was more like this glider.

When we moved last year we took the porch swing with us that had been hanging on our kids' swing set.  The new owners didn't want the swing set and we gave it away on Craigslist in about 2 hours after listing it, but the porch swing came with us.

On Saturday hubby and I made the A-frame for the porch swing.
I'm not going to show the entire process, but just a few to give you an idea.  We based it off of a couple plans we found.  I listed the links at the end.

 17 degree angle cut on the legs and markings of where the cross pieces will attach.

 Leg pieces

 We used a circular saw to cut the lap joints on the legs.

We could have just attached the 2 x 4 pieces with a butt joint but lap joints are stronger.

You just make a number of cuts between the markings down to the depth that you need.

Measure and adjust the blade as needed.

 Then hubby just used a chisel to bust out the cut pieces.

 Once the cut pieces are all out then you do a little clean-up with the chisel.

After you have all the cuts done we dry fit the pieces and take additional measurements of the cross pieces.  The larger piece on top is the beam placed there to determine the correct placement.

Then we just started assembling and screwing down pieces. 

The only cutting down of pieces were on the 2 x 4's.  We left all the 4 x 4's at 8 feet and the top 4 x 6 beam at 8 feet also.  We debated on cutting some of it down, but decided we liked it as is.  The bottom of the top beam ended up being 7 feet 4 inches from the ground once we were all done.

Porch swing is in place. 

It would've been nice to actually hang it on our front porch too;

however, there would not have been much room to actually do any swinging.

You can see the stump back left that we need to remove too. Here is the post on that tree. And then we plan on putting a garden back in that spot too now that it isn't covered entirely by shade.

 A little close-up of how hubby attached and stabilized the beam and frame.

We angled the legs out 10 degrees to prevent some rocking from side to side.

The little stabilizer block piece is cut 45 degrees on the right,

10 degrees on the left and is 6 inches long.

After some time decided to place the swing here so we could enjoy the view of the pond and sunsets. We eventually plan on putting in a permanent fire pit there in front of the swing.

I am really happy with how it turned out for us.

It already is a nice addition to our backyard.

Details:

• (4) 4 x 4 x 8 ft. green treated beams for support legs --$7.65 each
• Cut top of each leg piece at 17 degree angle.
• (2) 2 x 4 x 8 ft. green treated boards for cross support --$3.75 each
• (1) 4 x 6 x 8 ft. green treated beam for top post --$15.57 each
• Total Lumber $53.67
• Plans based off this frame and this frame.
• How to cut half-lap joints here.
• Swing hook kit hardware from Menards for about $9 for the pair.
• Bench swing bought at thrift store a couple years ago ($30). It'll be painting it next.