Children's slide?

[andrew whicker]

Has anyone made a slide out of wood? What did you do to make it slippery and cost effective? Customer is asking if I can make one...

Thanks and cheers,

[Lee Schierer]

Making the sliding surface from wood, isn't going to work long term, as the finish will fail in a short period of time. You need to cover the wood with plastic laminate or metal for it to remain slippery over the long term. Kids will not only slide down, they will also walk up the slide. You can restore the slipperiness by waxing the surface. Back when I was in grade school, our lunch sandwiches were wrapped in waxed paper. By placing the waxed paper under our bottoms at the top of the slide we could achieve much higher speeds going down the slide. These were the old metal surface slides.

[Al Launier]

Making the sliding surface from wood, isn't going to work long term, as the finish will fail in a short period of time. You need to cover the wood with plastic laminate or metal for it to remain slippery over the long term. Kids will not only slide down, they will also walk up the slide. You can restore the slipperiness by waxing the surface. Back when I was in grade school, our lunch sandwiches were wrapped in waxed paper. By placing the waxed paper under our bottoms at the top of the slide we could achieve much higher speeds going down the slide. These were the old metal surface slides.

Now that was old time ingenuity! Great!

[Dan Carroll]

There is a wood slide a few miles from here that has been in place in for decades. It was an old railroad park and it is still open. Covered at the top and built into the side of a hill. Folks use seats of burlap and flannel under there bums to go down. Just finish it well, get it smooth and sealed. Add wax and use some kind of seat. And I do remember the wax paper trick from school. Worked real well on a warm day. By the time two or three kids had gone down on wax paper, the slides would be so fast that it became a dare to go down.

[William Fretwell]

We had a metal framed wood slide as a kid. I think it was plywood. It lasted many years. Use a diluted varnish to penetrate well to start.

[vince dale]

I would be worried about slivers if it's wood. A metal slide would be more durable. Though metal gets very hot in direct sun.