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How to Make a Barn Door Kite
Step by Step—Page 1 of 3
The MBK 1-Skewer Barn Door
This set of instructions on how to make a barn door kite assumes you know absolutely nothing about kite making.
MBK 1-Skewer Barn DoorYou might already have some of the simple tools and materials required. Anything you don't have is easily bought.
If it's not exactly what I used, then at least something pretty similar!
These instructions on how to make a barn door kite might look a bit long, but each step is quite simple to do.
Just steadily work your way through from top to bottom, skimming over any detail that you don't need.
At 29 cm (11 1/2 in.) from tip to tip, the MBK 1-Skewer Barn Door kite is a rather small barn-door, with dihedral and a simple one-leg bridle.
The little barn-door is a fine light-to-moderate-wind flier.
As a bonus, these instructions also show you how to string several of these kites together in a kite train!
On this site, there's more kite-making info than you can poke a stick at. :-)
Want to know the most convenient way of using it all?
The Big MBK E-book Bundle is a collection of downloads—printable PDF files which provide step-by-step instructions for many kites large and small.
That's every kite in every MBK series.
How to Make a Barn Door Kite
Sail
Now's the time to read up on the tools and materials required for making a skewer kite, if you haven't already.
The template shown above represents one side of the kite sail. You will now transfer these measurements to the sail plastic.
NOTE: Don't worry if your sail dimensions don't look exactly like the photos below. Just stick to the template measurements, which were used for my most recently tested kite.
Like to see a video clip? Just scroll down to near the end of this page.
- First, take a light plastic bag that will fit the entire template shape within one side, and lay it flat on the floor.
- Mark dots on the plastic, corresponding to the corners of the template. There is no need to use a T-square, since any small error will be duplicated on the other side of the sail.
- Using the marking pen, rule lines between the dots as in the photo.
- Flip the plastic bag over, and trace over all the black lines using your marker pen and ruler.
- Cut out a rectangular section of the bag containing the kite sail; open it out, and lay it flat on the floor; you can now see the complete sail outline as in the photo.
- Cut along the black lines with scissors to create the sail.
As mentioned earlier, there's more kite making on this site than you can poke a stick at. :-)
Want to know the most convenient way of using it all?
The Big MBK E-book Bundle is a collection of downloads—printable PDF files which provide step-by-step instructions for many kites large and small.
That's every kite in every MBK series.
