Skate board Swing

I saw such a great idea on pinterest the other day.  It was a skateboard swing.  What an interesting concept!  I fell in love with the idea and I immediately roped my sweet husband into making one for the girls.  As soon as the holidays were past and we both had a free day, we got busy making the swing. Here is the post that first caught my interest.

http://www.cedarworks.com/blog/2009/02/skating-the-summer-away

Since this site doesn't tell you how to make it, I decided to show any that were interested how we made our swings.  So here goes.

We found these skate board bases online at Amazon.com.  They were $18.00 each.  Since we have two girls we decided that we should make two.  Ok, I decided that Chris should make two.

 Lowes provided, for a price, the rest of the supplies for the swings.  We got a heavy duty rope that would hold almost 400lbs.  We bought two sets of rope ($26 each) but we probably could have done it with one.

 We bought one wooden dowel that was 1 1/4 inches by 4 feet.  This we cut into 4 peices.

 We bought 4 lag eyes for each swing as well as 4 stainless steel carabiners.  We bought 4 wire clamps for each swing and a roll of safety tape as well.

 Chris used a 5/8ths paddle bit to drill the holes into the skate board.

 After cutting the dowel into four peices Chris used a belt sander to smooth the ends of the dowels.

 We threaded the rope under the skate board and tied knots securely on the top of the board.

 Chris used the same paddle bit to make holes in the wooden dowels.

 Each rope was threaded under the board, tied above the board.  Then I had the girls stand on the board to see where the dowels needed to be placed.  Knots were made at the right hight and then the dowels threaded onto the rope.

 A strip of safety tape placed in the middle of the board, and they were ready to hang.

My little helper.

 
 The eye lags were placed 10 inches apart on either side of the support beam of our granny unit.  Then the carabiners were attached.  The rope from each side of the swing was threaded through and the wire clamps were put on the rope.

 My other sweet little helper.

 All set up and ready to go.  From the time we left to buy the parts to when it was hung, the project only took about 3 hours.

 Now the fun begins!  This is a great toy and so much fun.  The girls love swinging on their new swing as does mommy.  It takes a bit of balance and skill to swing.  This swing is competely unlike any you have ever been on.

 I love how the girls have found a ton of ways to swing on it.   Love how this is making them be so creative and intuitive.

 Easy enough for 3 year olds to swing on it.