How to Assemble Play Yard Equipment

Assembling play equipment is easy, but requires care with nuts and bolts so that no one gets hurt later.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Swing Set
• Nuts And Bolts
• Socket Sets

1. Take everything out of the box. Separate nuts and bolts, beams and crosspieces, swings and any slide equipment.

2. If there are any directions in the box, read them.

3. Lay out the large pieces of the set in the play area.

4. Arrange the pieces in the way they will be assembled, but do not bolt them together yet.

5. Make sure you have all the nuts and bolts you need. If the play set is plastic, make sure the joints fit together by testing the fit of two small pieces.

6. Make sure no part of the play set must be sunk into the ground. If anything does, such as a sliding pole, be prepared to get a posthole digger and a bag of cement, or buy a less complicated swing set. This is rarely necessary, fortunately.

7. Attach two of the uprights together at one end. On a traditional swing set, the uprights will form an angle of about 35 degrees. Bolt them together with the fasteners provided.

8. Attach any bracing to the uprights. The bracing will likely attach halfway up the poles.

9. Place the crosspiece, usually a long metal tube or heavy piece of wood, so that one end meets the top of the uprights where they are attached. Make sure any holes or hooks in the crosspiece's middle are facing the right direction - so they'll be facing down when you're through. You will attach swings and slides to these.

10. Get your children and all of their friends to hold the crosspiece upright.

11. Bolt the crosspiece to the uprights with the fasteners provided.

12. Build the second triangle from the remaining uprights.

13. Assemble your children and all of their friends along the uprights. Count to three. On three, lift the uprights. Hold the crosspiece firmly and lift as the children raise the uprights.

14. Raise the remaining two uprights on the far end of the crosspiece. Bolt the crosspiece to the remaining upright. You should now have something that looks like a pole sitting atop two triangles.

15. Attach the swing(s) to the hooks provided.

16. Attach the slide.

Tips & Warnings

• Have some extra nuts and bolts on hand. You'll probably lose a few in the process.
• Don't try to do this yourself. You won't have enough hands.

on 11/22/2005 When you are trying to put together the plastic jungle gyms, and they don't want to slide together, try putting Vaseline along the slots. We tried this after a hard day putting a Little Tykes set together, and the pieces just slid right in. If only we had done that to start with!