Swinging Weekend Project

[Tony Falotico]

Having coffee Saturday morning, LOML says 'Can you add another swing to the swing-set?' (We have four Grandkids and only two swings, You get the picture?) 'Certainly!" says I, figuring how hard could that be. Then LOML reminds me of her friend with a slide they no longer use, so I says 'You go get the slide and I'll go get the materials'. So off to the big box I go.

You should see all the neat stuff in the kids play-set section! The salesman asked if he could help me, I said 'Sure bring up a cart. No No not that one, the big one!' So we load one of these, two of those, some of them, a few of that, show the credit card, load it on the truck and off I go.

This is what I ended up with. The fort and two swings to the right were built last year, everything to the left of the fort is new. The monkeys are optional!


Gee, what now? Perhaps a second story for the fort with a spiral staircase ...............

[Kevin Gerstenecker]

Gee Tony, I want to be a kid again.............at YOUR place! The playsets the kids of today enjoy are so cool.............we wore out more than one metal swingset when I was a kid! I'll bet that keeps your Grandkids very busy! Thanks for sharing the pictures with us............by the way, how are the new digs coming along? :D

[Jim Becker]

Kewel! A new playset for the youngest folks and a new "playroom" for Tony! Not a bad year, this thing called 2003 at your place!!

[Tony Falotico]

Thanks Kevin & Jim, it's been a good year in Lake City. The only problem with the kids stuff is I get to having too much fun and tend to go overboard. Happened a couple years back when I made my grandson's train table. Got into making buildings, water tower, working crane and on and on. I had as much fun as he does!

The contractor is waiting on the 12 ft roll up door to be delivered, then he's through with his part of the shop. He has been delightful to work with, there are still good honest people out there to do business with. I'm totally satisfied with the work he has done. I plan to begin wiring this weekend.

Jim - been looking at your miter saw counter, think mine is going to model yours pretty closely. Main difference will be mine will probably not cantilever off the wall, think I'll have more support to the floor. I picked up the 12" DeWalt compound slider this weekend, one of the smoothest saws I've ever used. I'd like to somehow make a 'slot' to put my 12" thickness planer and utilize the same counter, but haven't quite figured that one out.

Thanks again for sharing in my fun, Tony

[Jim Becker]

Jim - been looking at your miter saw counter, think mine is going to model yours pretty closely. Main difference will be mine will probably not cantilever off the wall, think I'll have more support to the floor.

The disadvantage to the cantilever design is the extra work in building it and the fact that once it's in place, it isn't going to move anywhere! (Good space planning is essential) That being said, there is a huge advantage to the design in that it provides totally unencumbered space utilization under it since there are no supports in the way. I use that area for extra lumber storage, for example. But building a top that is similar, no matter how you support it can be quite useful and flexible. The fences (keyed) and saw are removable on mine which means I could convert it quickly to work surface should that be needed. A simple insert to close up the saw area makes for an entire 8' wide benchtop.