Homemade Monkey Bars

Children enjoy various activities that monkey bars can provide.

Monkey bars can be a fun and healthy addition to a backyard for children and their friends. A set of monkey bars can offer young, small children a physical challenge while inspiring them as they watch their older peers zip across in a breeze. They also offer the opportunity for children to experience the use of muscles that they're not used to using as they climb, hang, swing and eventually try to do pull-ups. Building a permanent set of monkey bars can be done in an afternoon.

Things You'll Need

• Post hole digger
• Pencil
• Cement mix
• Tape measure
• Level
• 4 Green-treated pine boards, 4 inches x 4 inches x 8 feet
• 2 Green-treated pine boards, 2 inches x 6 inches x 8 feet
• Drill/screw gun
• 1 1/2-inch drill bit
• 8 oak dowels, 1 1/2-inch diameter x 27-inches
• 16 wood screws, 2 inches
• 1/4-inch drill bit
• 8 lag bolts, 3/8 inch x 4 inches
• Wrench

Instructions

Preparing the Foundation

1. Dig two 1-foot diameter holes with your post hole digger that are 2-feet deep with the centers 2 feet apart. Dig another set of holes in the same manner with their centers 8 feet away from the centers of the first pair of holes dug. The centers of these four holes should form a rectangle that is 2 feet x 8 feet.

2. Set your 4-inch x 4-inch boards in each hole. Mix your cement and pour it in the holes around the boards. Use your level to make sure they are truly perpendicular, and use your tape measure to be sure that the outside measurements of the boards are 2 feet x 8 feet.

3. Check the boards while the cement dries to ensure the measurements stay true.

Building the Bars

1. Lay your 2-inch x 6-inch board flat in a horizontal position. Starting with the upper left-hand corner, measure 2 inches from the left edge and 2 inches from the top edge. Drill a 1 1/2-inch hole at this measurement, and continue drilling these holes with the centers spaced 12 inches apart. You will have eight holes total. Repeat this process with the other 2-inch x 6-inch board.

2. Lay the two 2-inch x 6-inch boards on their edges, parallel and 2 feet apart. Place a dowel in each hole and screw through the edge of the board into each dowel. The inside measurement between the two 2-inch x 6-inch boards must measure 24 inches to fit around the 4-inch x 4-inch boards.

3. Drill two 1/4-inch holes at the end of each 2-inch x 6-inch board. The holes should be 3 inches apart, and 2 inches from the end of each board.

4. Lift the monkey bars up and around the 4-inch x 4-inch boards with two people so there are 4 inches of wood on the 2-inch x 6-inch board between the dowels and the ground. The two holes on each 2-inch x 6-inch board must be centered on the 4-inch x 4-inch boards. Be sure the top edge of the 2-inch x 6-inch board is flush with the top of the 4-inch x 4-inch board. Use your wrench to drive in the lag bolts in each of the eight holes that you drilled through the 2-inch x 6-inch boards.

References

• Action Climbing Frames: Monkey Bars Climbing Frame
• Scholastic: The View from the Top