HI kiters, made a new page about working with bamboo, tools etc. Just
have a look in and give me your comment...if you miss something etc. http://members.aol.com/woinem1/index/bamboo.htm
Thanks for your efforts!!
Good winds
Uli
Great Job Uli!
I've recently returned from a trip to Japan and can verify that under
the right conditions you can see bamboo growing. You can hear it
growing, too!
I saw people working with special knives for
splitting/shaving/trimming and can testify that it's an art. I've tried
with with dried bamboo that has been soaked to soften it but all I ever
get is bloody fingers. The true artisans prepare their bamboo while
green and do only the final trimming/shaving after it's dry.
I'm always amazed when I see someone working with ancient materials.
See you in the sky,
Dan
I've just added a Flash animation to my web page on 'How to make a
Sled Kite'.
Got to www.reeddesign.co.uk/kitemake.htm
and follow the link from the diagram.
It might be useful for schools projects although maybe less so for
people on this newsgroup.
Must fly
Roy
In the latest (Winter 1999-2000) issue of Kitelines the "Last
goodbyes" article mentions a 10 foot x 20 foot double parasled.
(See pages 42-43).
Would anybody have information on this and perhaps a pointer to
dimensions? I'm looking for something big, easy to build and easy to
store.
Thanks,
Jim
if you are looking for plans,
check out Peter Peters site, I have it as one of my favorite links on
my web site. he has plans and dimensions, and then with your calculator
you can up sale or down scale it any thing you want :-)
I have built 3 of them one 42" front to back, and two of them
54" front to back. (seem that is the size of my material) & all
fly very very good.
they are very easy to make....all straight sewing...all you need a
little glue stick to keep the material from sliding around while you are
sewing.
the 54" (4.5') pull very hard in a strong wind. and I would
imagine that if you made one that was 10' it would pull almost 5 times
as much, it may be wiser to make a smaller size and the BIG ONES will
have a termendios amount of PULL. also you mention easy to
store....there are rods/stiffeners that run from front to back.. and10'
one's are not easy to store, so they would have to have connectors. BUT
BIG is impressive but also requires more materials $$$$$$$
they do make good SKY hooks and will hold up a lot of stuff.
also make sure you leave the trailing edges of the tubes open, I saw
one that some one made and she sewed them closed, and it was un stable
:-(
one of the nice things about this kite is there are a lot of pieces
and they can be of different colors, but red/white/blue & stars are
nice.
tom A>
I continue to look for ways to sew an an absolute straight hem. Any
ideas. As I sew a hem, if the width fluctuates, the result is a wavey
edge. Having two sides of a kite with slight variations results in
instability...sometime subtle, sometime obvious.
Any thoughts on making straight hems would be appreciated.
Jeff
What material are you using - ripstop ?
I always used a pencil and straight edge to mark the hem and then
used an iron to turn the hem to the marked line.
Regards Peter
Hoi
See www.xs4all.nl/~pdj/seams.htm
and get yourself a sewing guide...
Regards, Peter
Hi Jeff, hi folks.
Here is how I do it (I use a simple 10 mm hem as an example):
1 - I draw a line with a straight edge and a 3B lead pencil (works
great on ripstop) at 10 mm from the material edge.
2 - I fold the material so the edge coincides with the line (I crease
the fold with a finger nail)
3 - I glue the hem with water soluble paper glue in tube (Pritt or
equivalent)
4 - I sew the hem ASAP so the glue remains viscous and still hold the
material.
For a double folded hem I draw two lines at 10 and 20 mm from the
material edge.
Wind or no wind, fly for fun :)
Jean (Johnny) Lemire
Kite Plans database
It was anounced for the 21st of february, but things have gone very
fast and it's ready now. Check it out at:
http://vientocero.tripod.com/kpb/
(hope you like it)
Nilo Vélez
I posted original plans for a double box kite at: home.nc.rr.com/crokett/dbox.html
feel free to download the plans. if you download them, please send me
an email. Also, I am putting the finishing touches on the design and
will have the updated plans posted by Sunday (I hope), so you might want
to wait until then.
Hallo,
look at my new Homepage over Tetrahedron KITES; i describe my
Kite-System and the TetrahedronKites from willi Koch. Momently only in
german language, english version will follow.
http://home.t-online.de/home/g.bott/index.htm
Have look and fun
Gerd (FlyShogun)
The kite handles pass on. When Terry Sansom asked for folks to take
over the AKA Fund-Raising Project, Ohio Society for the Elevation of
Kites stepped forward. Coordinator for OSEK is Nancy Lockwood. Other
club members will help with sewing line, installing spars, adding tails,
and maintaining this web page. =
We encourage all of the "rec.kite makers" who submitted
kites for the 1998 and 1999 arches to do it again! And we are
encouraging AKA affiliated clubs to participate as clubs. OSEK will
sponsor trophies for the club, and the individual, submitting the most
kites for the Arch 2000. In addition, all persons and clubs
participating will receive certificates. We are defining a
"club" as an AKA affiliated group, or an organized group, such
as a retreat or workshop where all the participants make arch kites and
submit them as a unit. 1999's arch had 399 kites flying in the air at
Muncie, Indiana. Sold in units of 40 to 50 kites, the whole arch
produced about $3200 for the AKA. =
We really hope you will send a kite or few this year. A few changes
in procedure are noted here: CERTIFICATES: Every person who sends us
kites for the Arch will receive a certificate of thanks from OSEK. =
TROPHIES: There will be two. One for the KITE CLUB that sends in the
most, and one for the INDIVIDUAL who sends in the most. We HOPE to award
them at the AKA Convention =
DEADLINES: We are pegging AUGUST first to get sails in so we can test
fly the Arch at Dayton, Ohio over Labor Day. It's called the
Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum Kite Festival, and is co-sponsored by
half a dozen regional kite clubs. Big Event. It's also where the 2003
AKA Convention will be held. The dates this year are Sept. 1-2-3 (Fri.,
Sat., Sun, Labor Day weekend). Come if you can! =
TAILS AND THEME: Since this will be the Chinese Year of the Dragon,
we're going to do tail colors in red and gold. We encourage you to think
about doing a dragon like design, if you appliqu=E9 designs on your=
kites, either as one design on one kite OR as in a set of kites with
the dragon spread along the several kites. According to a calendar we
have, the Dragon is a good fortune symbol. "Full of vitality and
enthusiasm". Of course, if your ideas lean towards floral or smiley
face designs, that's good, too. And we NEED plain, UN-appliqued ones,
too! They add significantly to the total Arch because they separate the
designed kites for better visibility. =
GOAL: Terry tried so hard to reach 500 kites in 1999 and came up with
399. Let's clear 500 this year as a gesture of his faith in us. His
concept of a kite made by folks all over the world to come together, fly
together in a single place, and then raise needed funds for our national
organization has been a great success. It has also brought together
folks who never knew each other before this team project. Let's hope
those who not own parts of previous Arch Project kites fly them
everywhere for One Sky, One World (October). Those units of kites now
span the globe. =
SAME PATTERN: We continue to use the same pattern you've used before
for the kite skins. If you don't have it, it is posted on the OSEK Web
Page and several other places as well. If you can't find it, e-mail me
and I'll send it to you. Please send 25 cents with each kite that will
defray the costs to OSEK for spars and tails and would be much
appreciated. =
Finished sails should be sent to: =
Nancy Lockwood (Coordinator for OSEK) 10228 Winthrop Rd. Streetsboro,
OH, 44241 (USA) =
Contact us at: 330-274-2818 E-mail: flyinfre@apk.net
OSEK web page: http://junior.apk.net/~flyinfre
Hi flying experts! I'm working on transfering a pattern from
Photoshop and Illustrator to a kite sail. The pattern is very complex,
my partner (the kite~squid) and I would like to keep all the colors and
tonal values in the electronic files. We initially thought we'd cut
masks and spray Designmaster Spray Paints like an airbrush artist would
do. The pattern's simply too complex, we'd be working on it for a
thousand years! So I had a test screen made for a silk screen
application again using the Designmaster paints but having the screens
made through a photographic method. That worked out for crap also! So
I'm reaching out to the experts for assistance.
Has anyone tried to print an image out on a dye sublimation printer
(or any other kind for that matter) and then made a kite skin out of the
output? You know the kind of printer,.... they do great big outdoor
signs on vinyl using process colors (Cyan, Magenta, Process Yellow and
Black). We need the material to be as light as possible as our objective
is an indoor kite.
I certainly would appreciate an experiences which you've encountered
being shared. Thanks, Paul LaMasters
The "great big outdoor signs on vinyl using process colors
(Cyan, Magenta, Process Yellow and Black)" are made using pigmented
ink jet inks on large format ink jet printers (Encad, CalComp, HP,
Epson, etc.) Dye sublimation printers typically use a resistive head
array that produces heat to transfer the dye from the donor media to the
receiver. I am not sure of the temperature at the print head. I have
heard that others have been successful with ink jet T-shirt transfers.
Good luck with your design.
Gene
Not a flying pro, but in the textile design/print bussiness.
Ink-jet is the only printer which can handle this, >From my
experience the Encad printers (1500TX) is the best to do this, But they
are costly, $24000. But 160cm wide. Another printer, Mimaki.
Furthermore, the ink recipy must be adjusted. For bonding and to come
close to the original design colors. The company I work for and another
dutch company work together for a software color correction which fits
the ink recipy. At this moment you would need $50,000 investment to do
this. So for the moment no real solutions for the home market jet. Just
for me :>
Success,
Aernout
I'm not a silk screening expert, but silk screening onto ripstop
certainly does work, and with quite complex designs. I was talking to a
guy this evening who was having a few kites made with a silk screened
design on them. The name of the paint used was 'Nyloglob' or 'Nylogob',
I think. If you're using a polyester fabric, I don't know if it would
work as well, but theres surely something out there that will. I've also
seen some really nice photographic images/designs silk screened onto
kites a few years ago by a guy from a local art college, so it can be
done.
MdeR
Thanks to everyone for your input, We've done the first round of
testing and everything came out super,...... except for the thickness of
the material. We're currently working with Tyvek (9 mil thickness), so
we've got to come up with something thinner than that!! Geeze, we could
only use this if we were considering a kite to fly from the back of a
pick-up truck on I-95. The material is being output on an ink jet
printer and the image is spectacular. But I am afraid it will have a
higher wind range than the I'm willing to accept. It's more like body
armor than a kite sail. The tyvek comes out of a roll that's 54 inches
wide and it has a coating of a product similiar to starch. The image is
very durable. So my next question for the reader is: Just how thin a
material would be available with a compatible coating so the ink jet
process will adhere?
Are there any more insights/comments which I should be concerned
with?
Thanks, Paul LaMasters
