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How to Make a Delta Kite
Step-by-Step—Page 1 of 3
The MBK 1-Skewer Delta
These instructions on how to make a delta kite are fairly detailed. However, the reward is a great little light-wind flyer! Just the thing for a gentle evening breeze. About the only tool required by these instructions is a pair of sharp scissors.
MBK 1-Skewer DeltaAny other materials you don't have are easily bought from local shops. If not exactly what I used, then at least something pretty similar!
The pictures should make things pretty clear. Just quickly work your way through from top to bottom, skimming over any detail that you don't need.
The MBK 1-Skewer Delta kite is quite small at 1.0 SL (29 cm, 11 1/2 in.) in length, but copies the full-size deltas with a floating spreader and triangular keel.
The little skewer kite flies best with several skewer-lengths of tail.
A tiny bit of extra plastic taped to one wing tip can correct a turning tendency, but this might not be necessary.
If a 20-pound Dacron line sags too much, you could try polyester sewing thread instead. That should get the kite up to 300 feet :-)
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 Delta Kite
Sail
Now's the time to read up on kite materials and other things needed for building 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.
Like to see a video clip? Just scroll down to near the end of this page.
- First, take a bag that you want to use for the sail, and lay it flat on the floor.
- Mark dots on the plastic which correspond to the corners of the template. Any small errors in position don't matter since the sail will be symmetrical.
- Using the marking pen, rule lines between the dots.
- 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.
- Lay down clear sticky tape along all edges of the sail except the long edges of the two tabs. The yellow marks represent the tape in the photo. To save weight, try to put only ¼ of the tape's width inside the sail outline.
- Cut along all the black lines, with scissors.
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.
