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Build - Kwat AKA opening Pandoras magic box of kite fabric

Sun Jun 19, 2016 1:57 pm

I was asked what I would like for Fathers Day and I asked for a day flying kites. Unfortunately the wind decided to feck off so rather than stand staring at a motionless tree I am giving myself the rare treat of a day of building. It's been 2 years since the sewing machine last saw daylight.

I'll post up as the day progresses but here is my criteria:

A) its a build that I doubt I'll ever use, expect anything from, have much desire to fly
B) it has to be built from my scraps
C) it comes from a book you may own
D) it doesnt have 2 lines
E) it is completely for a laugh and is a build for builds sake

So here is the starting point.
Image

I'll drop more clues soon.

Oh and I may show you some of my very best build tips along the way (if I can remember them).
Last edited by honchoboy on Thu Jun 30, 2016 11:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Build thread - Opening Pandoras magic box of kite fabric

Mon Jun 20, 2016 9:36 am

Ok then. Let's get started.

I will be having to post this thread in short blasts due to looking after twin 2 year old boys. If I break off its because they are up to mischief. Therefore I apologise now if the post jumps around a bit and there could be some delays.

I am also going to hold off for now revealing what kite I am making. At some point it will become apparent but let's see if anyone can hazard a guess before the reveal.

I have absolutely no idea what the end result will be like, I've never seen one flown, read flight reports, put thought into colour schemes etc. There is a strong chance it will be a real turkey, but as mentioned earlier I really do not care. If you do care then maybe you might want to hold back on building one of these until I have finished and flown it.

The kite I have started to make comes from this book.

Image

This book should be on your bookcase if not already. It is an oldie but a goldie. You can track it down relatively easily and even my local library has a copy of it. I suppose i should point out now that if you want a kite that can do all the 'latest' tricks then your not going to find it in here! Go and grab yourself a modern opensource plan if that is what you are after. There is a plethora to choose from.
Last edited by honchoboy on Mon Jun 20, 2016 12:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Build thread - Opening Pandoras magic box of kite fabric

Mon Jun 20, 2016 10:53 am

ah, a dutch classic

mine is worn out, read it over and over again as teenager :)



i think i know what kite wil appear


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Re: Build thread - Opening Pandoras magic box of kite fabric

Mon Jun 20, 2016 12:45 pm

krijn wrote:
i think i know what kite wil appear


Krijn


Hopefully one that will fly :?: :biggrin:


Before we get into the build I just want to put down a few thoughts on how I go about kite building. Whatever I am making I more or less go about it in this way.

First off - if you think that making a kite will be cheap then think again. Not only in material cost but also the cost of your time. It takes me hours and hours and hours to finish a build. Admittedly I am the harshest critic of my own work and could cut a few corners but do yourself a favour and put the most effort you possibly can into your builds. Building should provide 2 pleasures and if your lucky a bonus third. Number one and two are the process of building the kite and then being proud of the final result and the latter should be flying/enjoying it. Do not take the latter for granted. I have built a few kites that are horrible to fly and never see the light of day. Do I regret it? Hell no, I learn something knew in every build I have done - usually via a mistake. Embrace mistakes, they give you the opportunity to think of a fix. Fixes open up new processes or just simply teach you to take notes so you do not do it again.

Secondly - never throw anything away. I am on the point of obsessive about this. Every scrap of material I have had left over, every broken spar, every bit of "ooh, what's that in the bin, a nice piece of transparent plastic...that could be used for cutout/wing reinforcment", every bit of snapped line gets put into the magic box of kite bits. You will be surprised just how often you will delve into this box. Every part of this kite is being built out of these scraps and off cuts. If you get in the habit of doing this then it will go towards keeping the cost of your build down and you to can be a 'tight Yorkshireman' like me.

Thirdly - and perhaps the most importantly - Always, always, try and keep your work area and hands clean. A clean work area is a clean build. It also helps to keep the loved one off your back when you have to leave half-builds lying around. I have sworn very loudly in the past when I haven't followed this advice and put a dirty oily finger mark onto nice white icarex, cut through completed panels with a soldering iron, got blood on a sail because I left the scalpel out, cut the end of my finger off with a soldering iron that I hadn't replaced in its holder. You get the picture, try and be organised. You'll never know when you need to break off and rejoin real-life.

Fourthly - before building anything do a bit of research. What is it you are trying to accomplish, how have other people gone about it? Can you have a go on someone elses first? Is it worth it? Are there materials you don't have - sometimes they are a real pain to source? Do you have all the tools needed (chances are outside of a sewing machine you have already got everything you need). Think through the build and read the instructions until you can almost memorise them. I build every kite in my head first as it helps me to identify possible problems I could have. Then, and only then, do I start the build.

And my last point - enjoy it. There is no right or wrong way to build a kite. There are ways and there are better ways. Find what works for you. All my techniques have either been stolen from someone else, come from fixing previous mistakes, or laying in bed at night endlessly thinking about the smallest details. Every builder will have parts they are good at and other parts that fill them with dread. For me this is often cutting the standoff holes into the sail (i once cut through a leech line and it still brings tears to my eyes when i think about that day). For others it is often the nose. I spent about 3 weeks solid playing with pieces of card trying to come up with my method of building a one piece no-snag nose. It can become obsessive and you will never look at a kite in the same way again.

Next post i'll start breaking this build down into sections. But first... :-D lunch
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Re: Build thread - Opening Pandoras magic box of kite fabric

Mon Jun 20, 2016 6:55 pm

That was one long lunch. I tend to call it the Benson lunch. It takes a long time to arrive but always worth the wait :-*

I promise we will get back to the build soon but let's take another slight detour and break a build down into its core parts and the order I tend to do them in. I'm certainly not reinventing the wheel and most builders tend to do it the same way.

1. Research and material sourcing
2. Producing usable plans and templates
3. Cutting of fabric
4. Laying out sail pattern (this section is the one which contains tips that may change your life forever ???)
5. Stitching of the sail
6. Adding reinforcement as necessary
7. Cutting and making up spars etc.
8. Bridling
9. A nice kite bag
10. Having a beer and admiring your hard work.

There are plenty of other fantastic threads that detail the above more than I plan to. I intend to skip through a few of these sections and try to show you some things that you may not have tried/seen before.

For example, this is an old school kite so we are going to join panels the 'old-fashioned way' and use flat seams.

OK, I can hear mischief so I'll be back shortly and I'll show you some of the tools I am going to use and specifically the sewing machine that I cannot rate highly enough.
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Re: Build thread - Opening Pandoras magic box of kite fabric

Mon Jun 20, 2016 8:54 pm

I really do hope that you can come away from this either having learnt something new, put a seed of innovation into your head to mull over, or at the very least find it interesting and laugh from my many evenings of sitting in the loft tinkering with Icarex and then not being able to sleep with thoughts along the line of 'why oh why do i ALWAYS put the top rub patch in before sparring up!!! Arrgh'. Seriously, do it after, they are never, ever in the right place. That one pisses me right off. Anyway I digress ::)


Next clue... I really like triangles.


Anyhow, on with the show.


Prior to stage 1
-------------------------
Before you can do any building you are going to need a sewing machine. But cool men don't have sewing machines I hear you say. Correct, that is because all the really, really cool men own them. Trust me, I'm currently sprouting a handlebar mustache so I know what I am talking about.

Now not all sewing machines are the same. Some are just plain &%#*. And its not about how much money it costs. Just my opinion but every modern machine I've tried has been &%#*. The older the better is my advice. Anything pre-60s is where you want to be. Why? Cause I want old-fashioned simplicity, metal gears, and a weight which would put a smile on a power lifters face. Not my advice, my grandmothers. Her reasoning makes sense to me, prior to this sewing machines were used in the home not as a hobby but as a necessity. Repair not replace. Clothes and linen had to be repaired, work clothes needed repairing, socks darning, trousers knees sorting out. They had to work over a wide range of jobs and fabric and earn there keep. They may be simple but they couldn't break down. You may disagree but hey ho. All mine happen to be Singers. Three in fact.

The one we are going to use for this build is my favourite. It was my Grandmothers and the most basic. It has 2 stitch choices. Straight forward and straight reverse. That's it. But my god she does it well.

Bear with me....
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Re: Build thread - Opening Pandoras magic box of kite fabric

Mon Jun 20, 2016 9:20 pm

Does it begin with K ?
Keith B
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Re: Build thread - Opening Pandoras magic box of kite fabric

Mon Jun 20, 2016 10:31 pm

Image

Beautiful isn't she? The Singer 201K number EJ671645. Built in the 50's. The thing has a smell to it that I cant quite describe. It is a mixture of oil/toxic plastic/engineering factories/being old. Seriously, it fills the room with a strong odour which smells of machines. I find it lovely as it reminds me of my Grandmother sewing away when I was a kid and visiting her.

This is the underbelly - for no other reason than I like the photo

Image

I very rarely get to use this machine. It does occasionally get pulled out for kite bags and some straight stitching on reinforcements but as most of my builds use a zig-zag stitch it often just sits in the shed patiently waiting for me. I love this machine for a number of reasons but two reasons beats all others. It has never once dropped a stitch on me (I may talk about this later as it is another one of my peeves) & secondly it produces a stitch so straight it makes a ruler jealous. Simple as that.

Ok lets turn around this detour and get back on track.


misterbleepy wrote:
Does it begin with K ?


Top of the class Misterbleepy =D>
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Re: Build thread - Opening Pandoras magic box of kite fabric

Tue Jun 21, 2016 12:06 am

1. Material sourcing

Where you get your materials, what you use is up to you really. Try and buy local if you can. Kite shops and part suppliers in the UK are few and far between. I feel bad that I can get Icarex far cheaper incl, shipping and quicker from France than the UK. Think outside the box if you need to. I struggled to find good nose material for my trick kites and ended up emailing a fabric supplier to motorbike outfit makers. A curious telephone call back from him and he sent me loads of free offcuts of various thicknesses.

But one particular material I will not be swayed on is in the following photo

Image

Please do yourself a huge favour and buy good quality thread. Not that stuff that has been knocking around in the bottom of your mums sewing basket. Just my opinion but i hate the Coats Duet stuff, it just seems fluffy, clogs the needle, and breaks far too happily. Ended up straight in the bin. I have found Gutermanns thread to be the very best for my machines and I thoroughly recommend it. Not only is it good but I can get it easily and it comes in a whole range of colours. This latter part is important to me. One of the things I think elevates a build from a great build to a great build with 'just that extra' bit of attention is colour matching thread to panel colours. We will be doing a bit of that on this build.

The other thing not to compromise on is the sewing needle. Do not buy the cheapest ones in the shop. Buy the best you can get (there still only pence anyway). I like the brand pictured in the photo. I wished I had learnt to talk to the ladies in the sewing shop earlier than I did. The amount of dropped stitches and frustration I could have saved myself. And be aware that if the needle just wont go through that nose material then maybe you need a bigger needle?

This is important. If you are having any problems with your stitching then a lot of the time it will be because of the needle. Trust me on this. First thing I always do when I hit a problem is change the needle. And do not think that just because it is a brand new one it cant be the root of your problem. I've been caught out by that one more than once.

I'll end this section for now and give you this photo as your next clue.

Image
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Re: Build thread - Opening Pandoras magic box of kite fabric

Wed Jun 22, 2016 11:29 pm

I'm off to Filey, UK tomorrow for the NMKG fly weekend and I need my sleep :mrgreen: This post is going to be a pretty short one, but i'll continue when i get back from 4 days of flying yes I am very excited, its Monkey Eve.


Your needle choice is important. You don't want to make your kite look like a sieve when you hold it up to the light, if it does try using a smaller needle. But likewise, too small and your likely to have problems, such as thread snapping, not getting through the material. So what size to use?

I stick to the following;

Icarex to Icarex = size 11 ballpoint needle
Icarex to anything else = size 14 universal needle (sometimes I will use a size 11)

Yes, I did say ballpoint needle. IMO they are excellent with Icarex. I switched to these far too late and I wish I had done it sooner. It improved my stitching and removed niggly problems. Rather than piercing the fabric threads it pushes them apart. You can even hear that it makes a different noise as it passes through the fabric, it sounds smoother with no tear noise.....this reminds me, pay attention to the noise of your needle. If it starts sounding a bit like 'plop, plop, plop' then change your needle. It has gone blunt.

Please give them a go if you are not using them already and my guess is you will like them. A lot.


Next post we will start with the plans and template making.

For now go fly your kite this weekend or practice your straight stitching. We are going to need it for this build.


Here is your next clue. Or should I say half a clue :?:

Image
Last edited by honchoboy on Thu Jun 30, 2016 8:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Build thread - Opening Pandoras magic box of kite fabric

Thu Jun 30, 2016 2:47 pm

Apologies for the delay. The Filey weekend absolutely knackered me out, added to the shock of Brexit :shock: WTF?

For those who have yet to figure out what kite I am making I will now let the cat out of the bag.

It is called 'Kwat' and is a 4-liner.

Image

This is a complete departure from what I am used to building/flying so I am becoming increasingly intrigued as to what I am going to end up with. I must say though that I have been forging ahead with the build since the weekend and it is starting to look pretty cool. I have foreseen 2 problems to date though, one being I need to get some handles/line to fly with and the second is as I have never flown a 4-liner before it's going to be interesting when I get it in the air. Apart from that, it is all good.

Anyhow, on with the build thread. We've got some plans and templates to produce and that is where we will start with the next post. Let's get typing....
Last edited by honchoboy on Thu Jun 30, 2016 8:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Build thread - Opening Pandoras magic box of kite fabric

Thu Jun 30, 2016 8:44 pm

2. Producing usable plans and templates

Most modern opensource kite plans these days come as downloadable digital files that you get printed out and then use as necessary (i'll come back to this).

However, as this kite plan comes out of a book we need to do it the old-school way and make our own out of a pencil, ruler and graph paper. Luckily for us this is going to be super easy as this build only requires us to produce one template that we will use for the whole sail, including reinforcements. For one used to building dual liners the thought of a single template is heavenly.

I really do not want to come across as patronising on this tip so I'll only say it once. Whenever you need to use a pencil on your build make sure it is sharp. Accurate plans help to make an accurate kite.

The plan asks for a triangle wherein each side is 39.5cm. I needed to know one further measurement in order to plot this onto the graph paper. The observant reader may have noticed in one of my clues some maths, namely Pythagoras' Theorem (remember it from school? A2 + B2 = C2 ). A few taps on the calculator and it tells me that I need to draw a horizontal line 39.5cm and then make a mark half way along this (19.75cm). At this point draw a vertical line straight up measuring 34.2cm. Now I can join the top of this line back to each end of the horizontal line and hey presto, I have a triangle with each side at 39.5cm, as in the following photo:

Image

Now one thing we need to make sure to do is plot on the plan another line to take into account the hem that we will be adding to each side of the triangle.The book suggests that if you want to add a single hem then add to each side 7mm, or 15mm for a double hem. I am going to go with single hems.

The following picture explains better than I can the differences between hem styles:

Image

Here is another photo which shows a bit clearer the 7mm hem allowance that I drew around the original triangle:

Image

Once this has been drawn we need to get it stuck down onto some card and cut it out to use as the template. I normally use mounting board for the card (this stuff is pretty expensive but it lasts and I tend to keep all the templates I have ever produced) when making dual liners but as one of my criteria was to use scraps I had to try something new. The only card I had to hand was a large piece of cardboard 5mm thick that a fridge had been delivered in. I really was not expecting much from this, but I was quite surprised. I'm not sure I would want to use the stuff for future dual line builds but it held up pretty damn good for this template (it doesn't like soldering irons I found out but nearly all of this kite was cold cut with a knife). I also tend to use a spray adhesive to stick my templates onto board, but I hate the stuff - it makes a mess everywhere, and costs a small fortune. For this reason I just decided to KISS and stick it down with a gluestick and smooth it out nice and flat. It worked fine:

Image

Then it was a simple case of cutting the template out. Mind those fingers now. Seriously.


Image

It was at this point that I decided to take a closer look at the scraps of Icarex I had and realised that I could make much better use of the scraps avaialble if I cut this template in half, thereby doubling the amount of triangles in the final build. The plus side being that I can make the sail look a bit more interesting, the downside being adding way more work into the build. If you happen to be building along to this thread then make a choice which way you want to go. It should still make sense to follow if you choose to go with the sail as it is in the book. If you decide to go down the route I am taking then please note: we need to add a 7mm hem allowance back in to the vertical edge but we will do that when cutting the panels.

Here is the template now cut in half:

Image

Now do not throw either of the templates away. We are going to need both later on to accurately make reinforcements.

That is pretty much it for the template production, simple isn't it :) , the next stage being cutting out of panels.


But, before that stage I just want to briefly return to something I mentioned above; digital plans and introduce an aspect I am super anal about....build creep :evil:

PS. If anyone is planning on building along to this please drop me a PM.
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Re: Build thread - Opening Pandoras magic box of kite fabric

Thu Jun 30, 2016 11:39 pm

Ok lets take another side step and start to discuss what I like to call build creep.

You may have started to pick up that I like to build as accurately to the kite designers plan as physically possible. If the kite is supposed to be, say, 245cm wingtip to wingtip then that is what I want, not a little bit less or a little bit more. I acknowledge that this is easier to say than to do but that is what I strive for for a number of reasons. The way I see it is

    1. The designer has put in hours and hours and hours (more like months/years) of pain-staking work and tweaking to come up with a plan that they are happy with. And then they have the absolute generosity to release those plans for free to us lucky people to go and build a version of our own =D> . I owe it to those designers to stay as accurate as possible to their intentions. For those who have an interest in the design process of a kite build I really suggest you take a look at this fantastic interview with Mark Clements of JoE fame regarding how his Trident & Talon kites came about. It is one of my favourite kite related reads I have ever come across.

    2. If the sail is off in terms of size then this is going to lead to furthur problems in the build, such as spreaders not sitting in the right place, unexpected stress placed on materials, sails being too taut/baggy, and just odd flight characteristics. Anyone who has built a kite and played with its percentage size will know that you end up with different kite. In some cases a completely different kite e.g. Sixth Sense vs an 85% Sixth Sense

    3. It can cost you money. Sticks are not cheap and you will swear like a trooper if you build the sail, then cut the spars, then put it together, and then discover...shit...this spar is too short..how has that happened.?...the plans must be wrong....
.

But no one is going to build a kite that is the wrong size are they, i hear you say? Well no, not intentionally (well maybe I suppose) but that is why I call it build creep. A few mm here of inaccuracy in the plans, a few mm there in the panel layout, a few mm there in the stitching and so on. Hopefully you get the picture...when you add all those few mm up they come in as a much bigger number. Then consider symmetry between the left and right side of a sail, if these are out of sync to each other you can end up with a kite that just doesn't behave no matter what you try and tweak.

Have you ever had the experience of building your own version of a kite and then had the opportunity to fly someone else's build of the same kite, to discover that they are very different in characteristic? I bet you a large part of this is down to build creep.

I mentioned I would return to digital plans in the previous post and this is a great example of how build creep can materialize without you not even starting to build your kite. The plan is your starting point, your reference guide, everything stems from this. Now there shouldn't be any problem whatsoever with the digital file itself. The build creep though can become introduced as soon as you go about printing the plan.

Top tip: If the plan doesn't already and you are able to add one I beg you to drop a 10cm x 10cm grid onto it with grid spacings at 10mm intervals for the following reason.

I used to use Office Depot to print off my plans as it was the closest place to where I work. I don't now. On 3 occasions I have had plans printed and returned home eager to start the build and when laying my ruler on the grid have been shocked to discover that the grid is no longer at 10mm spacings. They were about 8-9mm spacings. Now this doesn't sound too much does it, but think about it. For every expected 10mm I am losing 1mm, or in other words 10mm=9mm, 20mm=18mm, 30mm=27mm and so on. Now consider a kite that should be, say, 245cm. I will be way off if I were to use this plan (someone else can do the maths :badgrin: ). That parts not my fault. And that is before I have even started to build the thing. Then I may get even more creep from cutting, layout, stitching, etc.

I now use a digital printers that specifically cater for plan printing for engineers, architects etc and 10mm means 10mm. And the surprising part? Its cheaper than Office Depot.

For this reason I really try and encourage you to stay away from making your plans on A4 paper on your home printer as I used to when first starting out. They really can be a pig for introducing build creep. Not just in the printing but also in the piecing back together. Fair enough if that is all you have available to you/can afford, I would much rather you went ahead and tried your hand at building a kite then stressing over build creep but IMO in the time alone in piecing together A4 pieces of paper you could probably have taken your file to a wide format digital printers, returned home, started on your build and be further into the process of sail making.

Build creep is difficult to completely eliminate (unless your name is Tim), so dont lose sleep over it but do have a think about it. Hopefully some of the tips I will be showing you will reduce these down to the elements that are just out of your control.

And please do chime in with any you have that can help self-builders squeeze every last drop out of their ability!

Tomorrow we will return to the Kwat build and start to cut out panels. One of my favourite parts. :biggrin:
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Re: Build - Kwat AKA opening Pandoras magic box of kite fabr

Thu Jul 07, 2016 1:04 am

I've spent the last few evenings putting time into the kite rather than updating the thread. It is now at the point where it is 90% done - sail made, bridle made, all reinforcements done, sticks cut, but I have had to order a piece of 6mm carbon after realising one of my intended sticks had a split running down from one end - it is lucky I spotted this as I am certain it would have failed very early on. If I am reusing old sticks I have a habit of sticking a smaller diameter rod into the tube and giving it a wiggle to see if I can see any splits. It is the first time that this habit has proven beneficial.



So where were we? That's right we are at the point of cutting out the panels. I'll split this part into two as I am tired and am in danger of falling asleep whilst typing this :!:


3. Cutting of fabric


I like cutting out panels, it is the first time I get to feel like I am making a kite. I find this part stress free, quick, and allows me to start really thinking about what techniques I want to employ in the following build steps. I have tried a few different ways to do this over the years and I now stick to what works for me.

First off I cut Icarex with a knife. The way I see it is that if the material can fray then I will hot cut with a soldering iron. If it doesn't fray then I don't bother (Mylar being an exception). Now be a bit careful here....I said Icarex. Some ripstop definitely frays, so if you are using something other than Icarex then spend a few minutes getting to know the material prior to doing anything with it. Secondly, where you work and on what you work may make your life a whole lot easier. I cut and layout on glass. The surface is exactly what I want. It's smooth, doesn't burn, easy to keep clean, doesn't cut up with a knife, and just perfect for a technique I will shortly be showing you.

I think my first 2 builds were done on a table I custom made for building and although the table was perfect I used hardboard as the table top surface. I found this to be less than ideal for cutting out - using a knife just put gouges into it, hot cutting on it left a brown furry edge on the outside of the sail panel and it got dirty pretty quick. It is fair to say I would take this over the family dining table anyday but it did have its negatives. When I finally changed the top for glass it made all these problems go away. Now you don't have to use glass par se, you can get away with old shower screens, old discarded windows etc. Just don't use perspex. I tried and the soldering iron made a right mess of it and the fumes stank bad with a capital B.

But for this build I was really keen on showing you that you don't need to have a dedicated workplace. You can get great results with a minimal amount of space. I therefore used a small mirror measuring about 40cm x 60cm (Don't go using that lovely one above the fireplace. I am not responsible for a disapproving partner lol, it shouldn't damage it but you need to keep your loved ones sweet and not on your back whilst doing a build). and my patio windows. Yes, I did say patio windows. They are simply amazing for laying out. Who needs a light table when you can use the power of daylight.This is one of my top tips and I have yet to find anything better. And by the time we have finished your windows are going to be cleaner than they were when we started, so we get extra brownie points.

In this picture you can see what I used to cutout on. Simple isn't it; a mirror placed on two workhorses.

Image

Prior to cutting anything take a look at your material. We want to make sure we cut it in the correct orientation and not skewed. This part is important as we need to try and minimise fabric stretch. A lot of modern plans tend to have on them a small grid on each panel section indicating which way the fabric should lay and it is a case of ensuring the 'grid' on your ripstop runs in the same direction as the panels grid. If it doesn't then a rule of thumb is that the ripstops 'grid' should be squared to the kites nearest outside edge. It is not always so clear if a panel is in the middle of the sail as to which direction it should run so if unsure just ask the question, take a look at build photos, or lay in bed till the early hours of the morning arguing back and forth with yourself. Once you have got your head around it you can then start to cut :)

So we want the Icarex to be nice and flat prior to cutting (remember build creep). If you are cutting on your kitchen table (your going to be in trouble with your loved one  ::)) then it may be your only option is to use masking tape to lay it down. You may find that you can just rub the Icarex down with your hands (best way is to hold your hands as if praying and then separate hands apart using the side parts to push the fabric out) and rely on static to hold it there but it can have a tendency to move/not be perfectly flat. 

Therefore I really recommend you try a bit of glass or a mirror for this part and pay heed to my next top tip. It could be my best. We are going to use it throughout this build.

It could change your life......(or maybe not if you are already using it :oops: 8).



We are going to use a liquid that leaves no gluey residue (heck it even cleans up as we go along), is impossible to use too much, you will definitely have access to, costs next to nothing, sticks ripstop (and other materials) like you wouldn't believe and removes any need for tape whatsoever (ok sometimes I might use tape. IMO tape is bad, but we'll address that later). It so bloody superb that at the end of this build I am going to celebrate by drinking it and it will do my body good.

What is this wondrous liquid then? Here is a photo of it in a small spray bottle

Image

It is quite simply....


water.


That's it. The best ever multipurpose temporary adhesive. I adore using the stuff. I will discuss throughout the thread how many times I have found a use for it but every build I find there are lots more. It's the gift that just keeps giving.....

Hi Ians fingers here..he is asleep now so think on and I'll get him to continue typing when he wakes up :wink:
Ian
Northern Monkeys Kite Group

UK STACK Freestyle Champion '18
 
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honchoboy
Topic Author
Posts: 247
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2011 12:54 pm
Location: Leeds, UK

Re: Build - Kwat AKA opening Pandoras magic box of kite fabr

Wed Jul 13, 2016 3:19 pm

Life keeps getting in the way of updating this but I will try and find time to do a big update over the next 48 hours.

As we now getting to the stage of cutting panels out I have realised that if anyone ever plans to build this kite then they might appreciate a materials list. This is it as copied out of the book (you may find you can reduce some quantities, specifically the ripstop if you are using a 140cm width BUT please double check first :!: ).

Materials required


    1.6m spinnaker nylon (NB. I am using Icarex)
    4 x 6mm carbon tube @ 82.5cm
    1 x 6mm carbon tube @ 150cm
    1m Dacron @ 6cm width
    10 x 6mm end nocks (I am using Exel nocks)
    12m bridle line @ 50kg break strain
    4 x bridle clips @ 75kg break strain (NB. I am not using these and will instead use pig tails made from bridle line
    2 x 6mm c-clips/end caps with end chopped off

    Optional
    10 x 8mm vinyl end caps (these are not listed but help to protect the end nocks
    Small piece of mylar roughly 10cm x 10cm
    3 x small piece of cordura (or equivalent) roughly 10cm x 10cm


I have also put together 2x colouriser templates for the Kwat. You will need to download the fantastic coloriser software that my good buddy Narcis developed. It is a great bit of software to be using for your builds and I for one thank him yet again for putting this out for free use =D> . Please go and check out this thread to read how to use the coloriser and get the download link.

The first template is the 'original' layout as specified in the book. The second is the 'updated' layout I am using for my sail. Hopefully, you should just be able to right click on either image, choose 'save image as' (save it to your computer and use a memorable name) and then follow the instructions in the above thread link to load the template in and start playing with colour layouts. It works fine on my computer but please let me know if you have problems.

ImageKwat_original

ImageKwat_updated
Ian
Northern Monkeys Kite Group

UK STACK Freestyle Champion '18