Hanging swing- a mini feat of engineering lol

[Kiwibird]

I came across this swing which used to be in Kiwi's cage up in our attic. I thought "Perfect! I'll just hang this in my new 'closet office' to save space an it'll be a nice easy task...." HA! Turns out the perch had not held up well and now spun but being custom made for the swing, I had to repair rather than replace. I ended up using rubber gaskets, which when all the way tightened stop it from spinning. I also had to re-wrap the rope and re-glue into the ends. Then there is the fact it is rather.... impractical to have a parrot hanging overhead with no tray below. Beyond struggling to find a clear tray of the right size, I also had to figure a way to add bottom hangers and attach to said tray. All the stainless chain I have was welded links, meaning I could not pry them open. Took a lot of piecing together stainless rings and quick links to get a bottom attached as close to the swing bottom as possible but still leaving space for his tail. Then it slid around since I opted not to drill the acrylic (have not had luck with that in the past) so I used clear beverage tubing as a spacer between the links. The top loops were welded on crooked with one slightly shorter than the other, so hanging it on the ceiling where it wasn't lopsided was challenging as well (more to my visual benefit than Kiwi caring ). I also had to carefully measure that the wood shelf supports behind it were out of beak range while keeping it as far back as possible because I'd hit my head on it if it was closer to the middle of the hanging space. At the end of the day it took probably an hour and a half for me to complete the seemingly simply task of hanging a swing:30:. But I know my little buddy is going to love having a nice hangout spot in here with me while I'm drawing, so it was worth it

 

[Flboy]

Sweet! For chain, have you ever looked at what HD and Lowe’s carries?
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Blue-Hawk-1-ft-8-Weldless-Yellow-Chain-By-the-Foot/4222697

A trick for drilling plastic or acrylic, run the drill backwards!

 

[Betrisher]

WOW! Just, WOW! That is a work of engineering brilliance! I do love a clever solution and you've got several in that excellent swing. I must say, I do envy you the pipe bells. I've only got one and haven't seen any for sale in ages. Then again, the Beaks are pretty disinterested in theirs. I might donate it to Rosetta and see what she makes of it.

I do love your poo-catcher tray! I had something similar to that for my Dommie, who liked to poke his bum over the edge of the fridge to poop. Since he wasn't much of a fibre chewer, I was able to use nylon rope to hang it. I understand why you need to use chain, though!

Check out your local hardware stores for plastic chain. It can be cheaper and a bit easier to work with than metal and it has the added bonus of connecting links that can be added where needed. I found some good plastic chain on ebay and the 'hardware' chain was a LOT less expensive than the stuff sold expressly for bird use by petshops (even though it's the same stuff).

 

[noodles123]

COOL! Smarty pants!

 

[SailBoat]

Well, here we go again. I'm going to have to change all the passwords so that Julio cannot contact his buddy late at night. With hope that will last a couple of days, just long enough that he will have to search for this Thread.

Well done!

 

[buurd]

I came across this swing

Was there a pic here, before?

 

[wrench13]

THat chain is hanging from our ceiling from Saltys cage to his day time boing and play area. Its his highway around the room. All sorts of toys hanging on it, it works great and is too tough for his Amazon beak to shred.