FAT EDDY
How to Make an Eddy Diamond Kite
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"Fat Eddy"
is my variation on the popular Eddy diamond kite design. Eddy's are great
flyers that are both easy to build and easy to fly. My 18" x 18" design
incorporates features found in other kite designs, and unlike the typical two
point Eddy bridle, it uses a three point adjustable bridle that includes a
top yoke, tow line and tow loop. The fully adjustable bridle allows Fat Eddy
to be flown with or without a tail. I've flown Fat Eddy's in 3mph zephyr
breezes and 15mph gusty winds, and it flies just great. With a streamer tail,
Fat Eddy can even be used in Tail
Touch kite fighting!
Sail - Any lightweight plastic film or fabric or paper
will work out well - plastic films such as 1 mil thick polypropylene gift wrap
works great and is quite cheap. I get 20" x 100' colored rolls from PaperMart for less than
$6 plus shipping - one roll will make from 50 to 70 Fat Eddy kites. Spine - A 1/8" x 18" diameter wood dowel works
just fine. Most hardware stores and lumber yards sell this doweling in
36" or 48" lengths. You could easily substitute 1/8" square
wood such as spruce or pine or fir, as well. Spars - I use bamboo BBQ skewers. They're about
3/32" in diameter and about 12" long. It takes two to make one
kite, as each wing spar is 9" long. Available from just about any
supermart. Dihedral Joiner - This is a commercially made plastic unit that
slips over the kite spine, and has end fitting holes for each wing spar. The
joiner is angled at 15 degrees for each wing spar - this is what gives an
Eddy kite great flying stability. Most any online kite store sells these
little joiners, and I use the 1/8" size. I get mine from Kite
Builder. NOTE: the spine hole in the 1/8" dihedral
joiner is a bit less than 1/8" in diameter (it was meant to be used on a
special extruded plastic kite spine) and needs to be reamed out to 1/8"
diameter, using either a drill bit or just stick in a small screwdriver blade
and twist! Photo Corners - These are used to hold the spine and spars onto
the sail. They're available from most any photo, school supply or convenience
store. Bridle Line - Heavy, waxed dental floss, or 15 to 20 pound
test Dacron fishing line. Clear Tape - Use 2" clear tape to reinforce the sail at
the spar ends, and 3/4" clear tape to reinforce the sail at the bridling
points. CYA Super Glue - It's important to glue all the bridle knots! I
use "Krazy Glue Advanced Formula". It works very well.
Fat Eddy Template - Use heavy poster board, or artists foam board to
layout the template. Refer to the template image above! Cut it out using a
straight edge and a sharp razor knife or single edge razor blade. Cutting Board - A piece of wood or very heavy cardboard that's
at least 10" x 20". It must be a hard surface - soft cutting
surfaces will make it tough to cut the plastic sail material. Sharp Blade - Either a single edge razor blade or a razor
knife. Abrasive - Sand paper or emery board to sand the ends of
the spine and wing spars. Large Sewing Needle - Used for kite bridling Hold Downs - Clamps or weights (a brick will work!) to hold
down the sail template so it won't shift or move during cutting. |
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A 20" wide roll of 1 mil polypropylene plastic
film on top of an 11" wide pine cutting board. Fold over the film to
double it up for about 11". Press down on the fold to crease it.
Lay down the Fat Eddy template over the film and
either clamp or weight the template so that it won't move around easily.
Now using a SHARP razor knife or single edge razor
blade, use the template as a guide to cut out the Fat Eddy sail - it's
important to make one continuous cut on each side, don't stop moving the
blade 'til the side is cut!
Remove the cut sail and template, pull back the
remaining cut film, and trim it close so that the film roll is ready to cut
another sail.
Now we have a nicely folded Fat Eddy sail ...
... that unfolds to full size! In this pic are the
sail (with the crease on top), a 36" length of 1/8" dowel (for the
kite's spine), a box of photo corners, a coarse emery board, a toothpick, a
1/8" plastic kite dihedral joiner, and some cutting tools.
Here's a look at one end of the 1/8" spine
dowel - it's nice and squared off, but we need to fix that!
Sand a nice long angle on one end of the 1/8"
spine dowel.
There's a nice flattened spine end.
Here's a box of photo corners - these are black, so
they'll show up in the photos, but you can also get them in clear!
Put the flattened spine end into a photo corner.
And stick down the photo corner right at the very
top of the kite, right on the crease.
It's very helpful to use the point of a bamboo
skewer or toothpick to open up the "mouth" of the photo corner.
Lay the 1/8" dowel spine down on the sail's
centerline crease.
Put a mark on the dowel where it meets the end of
the sail.
Use a sharp blade to score all around that dowel
mark.
Snap the dowel at the scored mark.
Put a flattened tip on the cut off dowel end, NOTE
- both flat spots on the dowel ends must be on the same side of the dowel!
Put a photo corner on the spine's bottom flat spot.
Slip the plastic dihedral joiner over the spine,
push the top of the spine into the photo corner that's already on the sail's
top, and stick down the spine's bottom photo corner onto the sail.
Use a toothpick to place a photo corner on one wing
tip.
Place a bamboo skewer into the dihedral joiner, and
mark the skewer where at just about the end of the photo corner.
Just as was done with the spine dowel, score and
break the wing spar at the mark.
Sand in a flat spot on one end of the wing spar.
Put the squared end of the bamboo wing spar into
the dihedral joiner, and slip the flattened end into the photo corner - use
the pointed end of a toothpick to open up the photo corner before attempting
to put in the wing spar end.
Put the other skewer wing spar into the joiner, and
mark where it just about meets the end of the sail's wing tip.
Cut and flatten the end of the second wing spar,
put it into the joiner, slip the flattened end into a photo corner and ...
... stick the photo corner to the sail's wing tip.
Hey, we've made a kite! Well, almost!
All the photo corners need to be reinforced with
clear tape. Use 2" wide clear packing tape. Tear off about a 2"
square piece.
Place the piece of tape right over the spine's
bottom photo corner - the toothpicks show the position of the hard-to-see
clear tape.
Using a sharp blade, trim off the excess tape close
to the edge of the kite sail - it's not a problem if you nick some of the
sail, too
Now use your fingers to press down and rub hard all
around over the reinforcement tape, to make a good tight bond.
After all four photo corners have been clear tape
reinforced, flip over the kite so the front of the kite is facing up, and put
clear tape reinforcement on the spine top and bottom, trim off the excess -
same as was just done over the photo corners.
Another image of the nose front and the reinforcement
clear tape.
Almost there! Now we need to bridle the kite!
With the kite facing front up, put about a 2"
long piece of 3/4" clear tape right over where the dihedral joiner is
underneath the sail.
Flip over the kite so that the dihedral joiner side
is facing up, and put a about a 3/4" square of clear tape right on the
sail, underneath the where the skewer wing spar meets the dihedral joiner -
do it to both sides of the joiner.
Press down and rub on the tape to secure it down
tight.
Using 12" of thick, waxed dental floss or 15
to 20 pound test Dacron fishing line, thread one end into a large needle.
This is for the bridle yoke.
Flip the kite on it's back so the front is facing
up, stick the needle into the sail, on one side of the spar, where it meets
the dihedral joiner.
Push the needle up through the sail, on the other
side of the wing spar.
Push the needle back down into the sail, on the
other side of where the dihedral joiner meets the other wing skewer spar,
then back out again on the other side of that spar.
And this is what the bridle yoke looks like so far.
Tie each loose end with two simple overhand knots.
The completed bridle yoke.
Now we'll make the tow line. Measure off about 2
feet of bridle line, and make a simple 1" to 2" loop at one end.
Slip the tow line end loop under the yoke, and put
the other end of the tow line into the loop - this is a simple larkshead
knot. It will allow the tow line to be moved left or right on the yoke - this
is how the kite is adjusted for left/right movement.
Pull the larkshead loop tight.
Put the remaining end of the tow line into the
needle and push the needle into the sail, on one side of the spine, at the
bottom of the kite.
Pull the needle up through the sail.
Lay out the tow line as shown - this insures that
kite's wing tips won't get caught in the tow line.
To insure that the knots won't come undone, I use
CYA ("super glue") to lock the knots in tightly.
Knot the tow line at the bottom of the kite spine,
and put a drop of glue on the knot.
Place a drop of glue on all the other knots - but
not the larkshead yoke knot!
Glue the knots!
Fat Eddy! |
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OPTIONAL SPINE TIE DOWN
The following is completely optional! - tie in the dihedral joiner to the sail.
Tie in the dihedral joiner to the sail.
Tie in the dihedral joiner to the sail.
And when completed, glue the knot on the inside ...
... and the line on the outside. |
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