Thread: Building a playground

It would be massively expensive to build it out of hardwood. Nice, but seriously over the top. Hardwood also splinters more

Look at design pine - it is a pre-primed treated pine product tht comes in many sizes and would be cheaper and much easier to work than hardwood. I dot think any treated pine is cca anymore - tht treatment has been banned. With a couple of coats of paint, there shouldn't be any contact between the kids and the pine. Use hardwood for the decking if you re keen. I used design pine for a pergola and deck I made and it s easy to work, is straight and true and is much lighter and more manageable that hardwood. No affiliation with the product, jut a happy user.

Keep in mind that this would be an expensive thing to build, no matter why timber you use. Just buying the slide is an expensive proposition.

In terms of tools, a normal 10" sliding compound saw would be the most useful tool to build this. In fact, it would almost be essential. None on the timbers would need to be tht big that you would need a 12" saw. A cordless drill and impact driver would also be crucial (18v would be ideal).

Trav

Thanks Trav, I was running some of the numbers on doing it out of hardwood and it was certainly adding up. Even with design pine its going to be expensive with all the additions.

I figured the compound mitre saw was going to be the tool of choice - if I have this do you think I will still need a circular saw? I imagine there are situations where the versatility of a hand held circular is going to be more useful than the accuracy of the compound.

Also if I was to mix hardwood and treated, is there any lessons to be "learnt" / mistakes to be avoided?

CCA timber is still available, and unless your kids are going to be eating it by the handful, it's probably safer (or at least it has 70+ years of research and study) than the alternatives (which haven't been on the market all that long, and, just like CCA treated pine, haven't been proved safe).

And assuming that hardwood is any safer....well, has any research been done on what chemicals keep naturally durable timbers naturally durable? It's not kept free from termites/borers/fungi by fairy kisses and unicorn dust - there's a few million years of biological arms race involved in creating the nasty chemical compounds required to stop the timber being a food source...

one other question - a normal 10" sliding compound saw would only cut 85mm deep right? If i'm trying to cut 4x4 posts, or 100mmx100mm i won't be able to do this using a compound saw right?

Originally Posted by mje

one other question - a normal 10" sliding compound saw would only cut 85mm deep right? If i'm trying to cut 4x4 posts, or 100mmx100mm i won't be able to do this using a compound saw right?

If you need to cut timber that is bigger than the capacity of your saw, you will need to do it in more than one cut or use a hand saw. What I find is that the finished cut is not 100% perfect and you can see where the second cut was made. I have used my Festool TS55 to cut 100x100mm posts this way. The secret is to mark on all sides the cut line. Make one cut, turn the piece 180^o, then make the second cut.
Depending on the compound saw you may be able to make cuts the same way. Sometimes it is a matter of trial and error.
Another way is to do it by hand, or if a rough cut is acceptable, use a chain saw!