My wife showed me this cool idea on pinterest:

She picked up a slightly damaged tire for free from a tire shop so we could make one, too. I've departed from the original design a little.

Step 1: Tools and Materials

Tools

Jigsaw
Router
Angle Grinder
Utility Knife
Drill
Hack Saw
Tape Measure
Paint brushes
Forstner bits
Sand Paper
Socket Set

Materials

Wood: 2x10 inch x 8 feet dimensional lumber, 2x4 and 2x6 scraps
Scrap Tire
Paint
Exterior clear finish
Lag screws
Washers
Conduit or other metal pipe cut to 8 inch lengths with the hack saw
Deck Screws

Step 2: Cut the Tire

Trickier than it looks- you have to cut through about 30 steel ropes inside the rubber. For the sidewalls, a knife works well. For the steel, I used an angle grinder.

Step 3: Cut the Wood

The grid behind the pieces in these photos is in inches. I made a pattern with the curved shape shown in the first photo, then marked it on the large board on both sides of each end and cut it with my band saw, although a jigsaw works, too. After sanding away the saw marks, starting with 60 grit and working up, I put a 1/4 round bead on the edges with my router.

The other pieces, I cut with a miter saw. The pieces in the second photo also have pilot holes in the center of the edges around the outside for the lag screws. These will be screwed to the bottom of the long board to hold the tire, which will wrap around them.

I bored the holes for the handles about 1 inch deep with a forstner bit in the pieces shown in the 3rd photo.

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Step 4: Paint

We had fun painting with leftover paint from inside the house. After we painted, I added some polyurethane, which I do not recommend for outdoors. Since then I have had better results from an acrylic exterior clear coat, listed earlier.

Step 5: Assemble

I put the handles in their brackets and located them as shown in the first photo, then attached them with deck screws from underneath.

I flipped the board upside-down, centered the tire and marked the locations for the pieces that go inside. Then I attached them to the board with deck screws and then attached the tire with lag screws on each side and the ends as shown in the second photo.

The third photo shows where I attached pieces of leftover sidewall with drywall screws. These serve as pads for the seesaw to land on, instead of scraping the wood.

Step 6: P.S.

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