Creating a Barrel Swing

My fiance Shellie has an incredible passion for her job as an early childhood teacher, her area of expertise is the outdoors and how children interact with outdoor spaces.

She had an idea of creating a big barrel swing, and sourced a big blue barrel as a starting point.

Once brought home to the forge we took it into the workshop dungeon to carve with the Jigsaw. First we took one of the ends off, this created a space where the children could crawl into. We then cut a window into one of the curved edges of the barrel. This window allows the children to hang their legs out of the barrel, to see out of the barrel, or even climb through into the barrel, and allowed the children to create the swinging motion by pushing against the ground..

Shellie cutting the front window out of the swing.

The next step was to drill four holes into what would be the top of the swing, rope will be tied through these holes so it can be hung securely at the Early Childhood Centre.
We also drilled a couple of holes in the bottom for the purpose of drainage.

Once we were happy with the shape of the swing we had to soften the edges. We scraped off as much of the rough plasctic shards as we could and then tried to sand the edges which clogged the paper, the next trick we tried was melting the edges so they were flat; we used a small blowtorch and guided the flame across the plastic edges this worked well.

Once at the Centre we used rope to suspend the swing. Using knots that would not slip or come undone we tied the barrel to hooks which were screwed into the platform above.

The swing in place at the centre.

The general reaction from the children at the centre was excitement at the new interactive piece of playground equipment, 

Animal Cutouts

An opportunity arose. I was asked whilst at the Petone Carnival about the animal shapes we had suspended from our Fire Sculpture. Someone was inquiring how much it would cost to purchase similar shapes from me.

For me this is big. HUGE. As a designer interested in D.I.Y. being given a job where I can spend a few hours playing with tools and making things is a dream come true. After the exchanging of details I planned how it would be done.

The Four animals I would be creating were a Kiwi, a Tuatara, a Morepork, and a Pukeko; this would end up in a kindergarten so they shapes had to be easily recognizable and safe to touch (no sharp edges). The Pukeko is a shape I'd not yet created before, this was going to be a learning curve.

I had to find an image of a pukeko and edit the shape to make the outline as recognizable as possible. I had saved the silhouettes for each of the other shapes from when I created them for the sculpture.

Using the same technique, I projected the image using a computer projector onto ply wood and sketched around the outline of all four animals in pencil. Making the most of the plywood I have; with the leftovers I'll be able to create more shapes (Hopefully for another client).

The oultines of animal shapes on the ply, seen resting on sawhorses ready to be cut out.

Tuatara Outline

Morepork and Kiwi Outline

Then it was out to the garage to cut out each of the shapes using the jigsaw. The process is one of time and precision. I need to move my body around the large piece of ply wood to find the best angle for cutting at. 

When cutting with the jigsaw, eye and ear protection is a must.

Finished cutting out the Pukeko

When all four pieces are cut out I am left with a large off cut which I put aside. The four animals are then sanded by a piece of sandpaper held in my hand. This ensures that no heavy tools will damage the shapes. For any areas that need sanding a little firmer, I use the multi-tool which has a triangular shaped sanding head, but is not powerful enough to damage the wood. The edges on each of the shapes were smoothed out making them safe for children to touch.

Pukeko cutout.

Morepork cutout.

Four Animal Shapes: Tuatara, Morepork, Pukeko, Kiwi.

The four native animal shapes were sold. This was a fun project for me, D.I.Y., craft, and working with power tools is something I am passionate about. I enjoy the creation process and I love knowing that my effort is going somewhere where it will be appreciated, loved, used, and built upon; such as a kindergarten. To the best of my knowledge the next step involves the kindy children decorating the animal shapes however they see fit. Brilliant, we are growing our next generation of D.I.Y.ers.