Sharon's custom porch swing...

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I bought the plans for Norm's porch swing. My wife didn't care for the size so I had to lengthen it and make it deeper. Break out the drawing board! She is visiting her Mom and wanted photos so she could show her the swing before Sharon returns home on Thursday. Did I mention....I miss her? It's been a long 3 1/2 weeks! So here it is in white oak.

The seat slats aren't attached yet. I will finish them separately from the frame and then attach them. You can see the pre-drilled holes in the seat slats. I will screw the slats on with stainless steel screws, plug the holes with oak dowels and sand smooth. Then apply finish to the plugs.

Notice the only hardware that will be visible are the 4 stainless steel bow eyes. Even their mounting hardware is recessed and the holes plugged with glued oak plugs.

All the joints are mortise and pinned tenons except....the two middle seat supports which are trapped between the lower back rail and the front seat rail.

There are 15 vertical back slats but only 5 are glued. The middle slat and two at each end. Even with slow setting glue, to glue all 15 would be nearly impossible for this old guy to do solo.

If my count is correct there are 50 mortise and tenon joints in this swing. I learned to dearly appreciate my General International hollow-chisel mortiser, a sharp hollow-mortise chisel and a sharp bit!

It was quite the learning experience!

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Beautiful Ken, you had me fooled on all accounts until i read your write up. :) Looked at pics first and was wondering how did you get the hardware on, then i got to the pic of the plugs and went ahh. ;)

You gonna spend some great time on that bench. Will it hang from a self supporting structure or have you a overhang to hang it from? What finish you got planned for it will it be fully exposed to the weather. I can see now this is not exactly a project i would want to tackle without a mortiser. Just imagine trying to keep all the slat mortises in a straight line and at the same time having a tight fit.
 
Thank you everybody for your kind comments.

Rob......I am using a marine spar varnish on it. I forget the name but IIRC it's made in Holland is held in high regard in the marine world.

The swing will be hung from the rafters of our covered patio. My wife has a CHEAP metal swing there now that is an eye-sore. I wanted it replaced and this is what we negotiated. I will be stiffening two existing rafters this week by adding 2 - 2x4's glued and bolted to 2 existing ones. I will use eye bolts through the center one of each group of 3 to support the swing.
 
Nice job on the swing! :thumb:

My BIL has made a few of those now. He scaled one down for my sister's kitchen. It hangs above the kitchen island as a rack for her flower, sugar, and other baking containers. I'll try to snap a shot of it sometime when I'm over there.
 
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