Potter's box kite

The following materials are required to make a kite of Potter's design.

Rails of square or round section with a thickness of at least 15 mm are made of dry straight-layer pine without knots. Fabric or paper for covering, threads and glue. To reduce the mass of the kite, the rails are gradually narrowed towards the ends, since the main load falls on the middle of the rail. Rails are carefully trimmed with a planer and sandpaper. To protect against moisture, it is desirable to soak them with oil.

The entire construction process consists of three main operations: the manufacture of the frame, the manufacture of the sheathing, as well as the assembly of parts and the installation of struts and bridles.

To facilitate the processing of spars and spacer bars, you need to take a straight-layer board. Its thickness should correspond to the cross-section of the rails. If, for example, rails with a section of 15x15 mm are needed, then a board with a thickness of 15-20 mm is taken. It is cut crosswise into pieces equal to the length of spars and spacer bars. Then the pieces are sawn lengthwise.

If there is no lumber of sufficient length at hand, then to obtain a rail, two shorter pieces are cut "to the length" and joined at the cut place, wrapping them with threads.

It is best to plan the rails in this way: put it on a long and flat table, holding the front part with your left hand, and then start planing from the middle. After planing, the rails are carefully cleaned with a small rasp and sandpaper. It is very important that all spars and spacer rails have the same cross-section and mass.

For a kite, you need to prepare rails of several sizes:

- four rails for spars with a length of 1016 mm and a section of 10x10 mm (round rails with a diameter of 12 mm can also be prepared);

- two large spacer rails with a length of 990 mm and a cross section

8×8 mm (or 9×9 mm);

- two small spacer rails with a length of 660 mm and a section of 8x8 mm (or 9x9 mm).

At the ends of all spacer rails, feet are made. To do this, I wrap the thin strips glued on them with a strong thread, which is then impregnated with glue.

The tree is able to absorb moisture, change its mass and warp. To prevent warping, spars and spacer rails are impregnated with oil. To do this, take pieces of cotton wool, wrap them in gauze and dip them in oil, which is rubbed into the pores of the wood until the rails are almost dry.

After making the spars of the spacer bars from fabric or paper, they make a covering for the frame of the kite. As you can see in the picture, the lower box of the snake is equal in size to the upper one, which makes it possible to make common patterns for the lower and upper boxes. To make the patterns, leave an allowance of 10 mm on all sides along the length and width for bending when attaching to the thread (lyktros), which is pasted into the edges to create greater strength. The ends of it at the corners extend beyond the sheathing by 60-70 mm for attachment to the spars. Lyktros should be glued so that it does not stick to the lining, otherwise the edges will have wrinkles after drying.

To install spacer rails, first make a tab at one end of each rail, then cut the spacer rail to length so that it fits tightly diagonally into the box. After that, the foot is strengthened at the other end. At an angle to the first spacer rail, a second one of shorter length is placed. Rails of equal length in the upper and lower boxes must have the same mass. For greater rigidity of the kite frame, each pair of spacer bars in the center is tied with threads.