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How to Make a Diamond Kite
How to Make a Diamond Kite
This set of instructions on how to make a diamond kite assumes you know absolutely nothing about kite making. You might already have some of the simple tools and materials required.
Anything you don't have is easily bought. If not exactly what I used, then at least something pretty similar!
The Dowel Diamond is a fairly large tailless kite, inspired by the famous Eddy design. However, it will still fit into nearly all road vehicles, ready to fly—either just in front of the rear seat or flat in the trunk (boot).
This design is a great very-light-to-light-wind flyer.
The template represents one side of the kite sail. You will now transfer these measurements to the sail plastic. (You will notice that the photos show a slightly different shape—but stick to the template measurements!)
Firstly, take a large 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. For lines longer than the ruler, just add a few extra dots using one of the dowel spars as a ruler! Then it's easy to connect the dots. It's probably best not to rule the whole line with the dowel, since it bends easily.
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.
Use a single length of tape for each line. Hold it out straight, touch it down to the plastic at one end, then at the other end, dab it down in the middle, then press down all along its length.
Lay clear sticking tape along all the lines, letting it overlap at the corners.
With scissors, cut along all the black lines. This will leave most of the width of the sticking tape inside the sail outline. See the photo.
For this diamond, you need two long lengths of 5 mm (3/16 in.) wooden dowel—at least 1.0 DL (120 cm, 48 in.) each. They are easily cut to the length required with a small hacksaw.
Lay down a dowel over the center crease of the plastic. Mark it at the exact height of the sail and cut off at the mark. Round off the tips with a wood file. This is the vertical spar.
Cut off a very short length of dowel, 0.01 DL (1.2 cm, 1/2 in.) in length. Round off the tips with a wood file. You can use thinner dowel than this if you have some laying around. This will be used as the bow-line toggle. I use 4 mm dowel for toggles.
Lay down some more dowel across the left and right corners of the sail, mark it at the exact width and cut off at the mark.
Round off the tips with a wood file then add a bow line so the depth of the bow is 0.08 DL (9.6 cm, 3 3/4 in.). With the kite flat on the ground, that's how far the tips should be off the grass. This is the horizontal spar. The photo above shows it with the toggle unattached, plus the vertical spar.
Prepare six lengths of electrical insulation tape, each one about four times longer than it is wide. Stick them by a corner onto something handy like a table edge. You can remove them one at a time as needed.
Spread out the sail, with the edge tape facing upwards.
Lay down the horizontal spar over the sail, so it would bow away from the sail if you attached the toggle. With the toggle unattached, line up the tips of the spar with the left and right corners of the sail.
Cap one tip of the spar with tape, by sticking tape down on the dowel and plastic, then folding it around the tip and under the plastic to stick on the other side—a bit tricky, take your time!
For added strength, put another piece of tape at right angles to the first. See the completed cap in the photo up there.
Now do the other tip of the spar similarly, using another two pieces of tape.
Finally, cap the top and bottom ends of the vertical spar, with one length of tape in each case.
Lash and glue the spars together where they cross, using a short length of flying line. Fix the knot with a drop of glue so it can never come undone.
Dacron line in 50-pound strength is ideal for these Dowel Series kites.
All the construction details for the bridle are contained in the large photo below. But to summarize:
At the top of the photo there is a 90 cm (36 in.) length of line tied to the horizontal spar at left and right.
One end of a 180 cm (72 in.) line is tied to the middle of the 90 cm (36 in.) line with a Prusik knot.
The other end of the 180 cm (72 in.) line is tied to the vertical spar; see the bottom of the photo.
Finally, the 24 cm (9 1/2 in.) line is tied to the middle of the 180 cm (72 in.) line with a Prusik knot, but will need to be slipped upward until the bridle looks like the side view in the diagram below the photo.
Secure the slip knots onto the dowels with enough wood glue to ensure the knots can never slip along the dowel. They won't loosen either.
Once your kite and bridle looks like the photo up there:
Hold the short bridle line up so all the bridle lines are straight, with the kite laying flat on the table or floor.
Make sure the Prusik knot closest to the kite is adjusted to the middle, right over the vertical spar.
Referring to the diagram below, shift the other Prusik knot to the shown position. It's not necessarily the perfect position for your individual kite, but it should at least fly on the first attempt! Later, you can experiment with shifting the position toward or away from the nose, a little at a time, to improve how high your kite flies.
Make up a flying line and attach it to the bridle with a Lark's Head knot. See the photo, where the Lark's Head has been left loose.
Now, drop the rigged kite so it floats face-down toward the floor. If it tends to drop its nose and glide forward, add weight near the bottom corner of the sail until the gliding stops. For example, wrap some extra tape around the vertical spar near the tail end.
Firstly, if it's very windy outside, stay home! This is a light-wind kite and won't like being launched in a gale. The picture shows the original Dowel Diamond on its first outing, hovering at around treetop height in a dying late-evening breeze.
The Prusik knot on the bridle line can loosen off a little over time. If necessary, pull on all the lines to tighten the knot up before a flying session.
Assuming there is some breeze outside, just dangle the kite at arm's length until the wind catches it. As long as you feel the kite pulling, let out line slowly by taking loop after loop off the winder. Be cautious about letting line slip through your fingers. If a big gust hits the kite, the line could burn you! For any kite this big or bigger, it's a good idea to wear a cloth glove.
Another approach is to get a helper to hold the kite up and let it go, on the end of maybe 15 meters (50 feet) of line. This way, the kite soon gets high enough to make it easy to let more line out.
Have fun flying, and I hope you've enjoyed learning how to make a diamond kite!
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