Wood for indoor jungle gym - your thoughts

[tool-me-up]

Me and the missus are toying with the idea of building a small indoor jungle gym for the kids ( give them some thing to climb on other than radiators and furniture ) .

For the timber I was thinking about using round fence posts but after looking at some better pics most of it it seems to be cracked, and have splits and i was a bit dubious about its strength with so many cracks in it.

So the question is does anyone know of a place that can deliver the round smooth used in playscapes and playgrounds etc or am i better off just using bog standard 4x4 and planing the corners off?.

Cost is a concern at present too as I have hardly any power tools left - they have broken / died over the years and never been replaced.

This project will already be costing me a belt sander and electric planer

I want to make this quite structural as it will have monkey bars, ladders, possibly a slide and will be climbed on by kids and probably me too cos im a big kid at heart.

 

[undergroundhunter]

As regards the cracks is there not a fence supplier local to you where you can go pick your own posts? That way you can use non cracked for structural and ones with cracks for non structural. Why do you need an electric planer? I was bought on 3 years ago, I have switched it on once my No 5 jack is much more useful.

Matt

 

[tool-me-up]

Just because Im lazy and it would be faster than hand planing - I dont have a hand plane so that would be a big learning curve too - id imagine id be left with 2x2 once I has 4 square sides :lol:

 

[Spindle]

Hi

Are you able to join cylindrical members together with your limited tooling? square or rectangular sections will be a lot easier to join.

With regard to the splits in round fence posts - they are normally only shrinkage and will not greatly affect the strength of the post - if in doubt support it at each end and stand on the middle, I'd be very surprised if it breaks

Regards Mick

 

[heatherw]

What I'd be worried about with those fence posts is the treatment they have. Don't know what they use in playgrounds, but I would have thought the tanalising treatment was particularly noxious.

 

[Stu_2]

What about using the slightly smaller fence posts? Not sure what the dimensions are, but they seem only slightly smaller than the standard 4x4 ones, and also seem to have rounded edges, as well as looking fairly smooth.

 

[joiner_sim]

Searching google for playground timber posts brings up a number of results that you may find useful.

https://www.google.co.uk/#q=playground+timber+posts

 

[williams1185]

what about using 2" round mopstick handrail has a small flat on the bottom you can get that in long lengths

 

[tool-me-up]

Thanks input, i think ill go with square timbers for ease of construction lol

 

[owen]

I would go with pse timber but instead of buying a plane I would buy a cheap router and round over bit. Just run that over all the edges it'll be easier than planing it.

 

[MMUK]

If you want something rounded, have you considered using stair handrail?

 

[tool-me-up]

I have but for things like monkey bars where they span a 3 metre gap I think they may be a bit thin. especially when you got two of the older kids sat in the middle.

I will use rounded stock for the climbing parts and square for the structure I think.

 

[John Brown]

You should change the thread title to "Hartlepool monkey bars".

 

[carlb40]

I have but for things like monkey bars where they span a 3 metre gap I think they may be a bit thin. especially when you got two of the older kids sat in the middle.

I will use rounded stock for the climbing parts and square for the structure I think.

You can now get eased timbers for studding etc - so us chippies don't get splinters during construction. :roll: :roll:

That could save you some time / effort etc