make a kite yourself
kite making set
at present here's the original urban ninja ultralight as a kite building set, including the flying line. other kits for making a kite are in the pipeline.
components and materials
kite building supplies
this portfolio of light materials is specializing in ultralight kite construction. all parts and materials are long-living and, except for chikara, resistant to saltwater, uv and snow. no deforming due to temperature or humidity. such standards enable spectacular and consistent zero wind flights. specials for ul kite building: innovative standoff-clips for stunt kites, fine graded wrapped fiberglass, acrylic adhesive coated icarex, adhesive dacron and ul-kevlar. for spectra flying lines please check out our light wind equipment page.
ordering materials
you can order light products and materials for kite making at our kite-lab. less expensive, heavier kite building materials for normal to high wind kites like 6 mm or 8 mm carbon or fiberglass tubes, wooden spars and tyvek are available at your local kite store.
some of these parts or materials are not used for manufacturing our kites and may not be in stock. please order the following products by e-mail and ask, if they are available now.
hardware specials horvath.ch
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delrin balls as end caps: are the efficient solution instead of vinyl |
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standard hardware for kitemaking
these parts are also connectors and spare parts for light stunt kites:
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fsd plug: connects 4 mm carbon tubes into skysharks or skinnies |
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carbon tubes and rods
p90, connector horvath.ch and 2pt
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pultruded carbon tubes with optimal wall widths, round and straight, |
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fiberglass rods
one of our specials: wrapped fiberglass with a smooth and clear look. fine grades of diameter allow for a precise tuning of weight and resilience. we ship these flexible rods rolled, but store them straight.the dimensions 2.2 and 2.4 mm are suitable for flexible standoff-solutions on lightwind stunt kites. european champion stefan furter is using our fiberglass to setup his kites for light breezes.
these fiberglass rods come in a lenght of 2'000 mm, prices are for one piece of 2 m:
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fiberglass rod, wrapped, 1.5 mm, 3.6 g/m |
euro |
6.60 |
fabrics for kites
icarex: tear resistant kite cloth, light, hydrophobic, dimensionally stable. rather a polyester-fiber reinforced polycarbonate-film: roll width 1.40 m, 36 g/m2 weighed:
icarex . . . . . a kite . . . . . in the air
special colors:
icarex . . . . . a kite . . . . . in the air
all colors:
icarex color palette 2013
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icarex pc 31 - 31 white, per running m |
euro |
17.80 |
ventex would be a sleek polyester kite fabric with nice flying characteristics: unfortunately, due to the limited color palette and the random availability of the colors we are not able to offer this fabric.
mylar laminate and pe-film: not all zero or lightwind kites fly better with lighter materials as our white 20 g/sqm or 24 g/sqm pe-films. a word about 21g/sqm laminated mylar-films: when you see such films in so called indoor quality, the effective, measured weight will be 25g/sqm to 38(!) g/sqm. in the latter case, icarex is the better choice for a lightwind kite or glider.
we can provide white translucent hdpe-films of 20 g/m2 and 24 g/m2 on demand. hdpe-films are convenient to stick and sew at building small kites. these films behave soft and floaty in the air. clear mylar-film of around 25 g/m2 discontinued.
adhesive reinforcements
a small sheet of adhesive icarex: round sail reinforcements for the like a rolling stone flow have been cut by our mimaki plotter and ul-kevlar on icarex in about triple scale.
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adhesive Icarex: coated with uv proof and humidity resistent acrylic |
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kite construction lines
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bridle line 650 n: 65 dan-kg, 140 lbs, level one, a popular bridle line |
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weight of material and kite
fabric like icarex
all weights of the kite building materials and parts in the zerowind kite store are weighed and all dimensions are measured. normally the weight of the kite cloth icarex pc31 is declared as 31g/sqm, that's because of the measurement methods and used units of the textile industry, where e.g. the sailmaker ounce is used commonly. such specifications are related often to the gross weight of the fabric, that is before the coating process. icarex is a sail cloth coated with polycarbonate on both sides, resulting in a measured weight per unit area of around 36g/sqm.
carbon tubes
due to the piece by piece production technique using prepreg sheets, tapered carbon tubes as e.g. the skyshark 2pt may show considerable differences up to plus-minus 10% in weight. for critical applications we provide pairs of measured skysharks. applied on a precisely balanced symmetrical kite, it may look like this: the tubes in the wings or the leading edges must be balanced, the central spine tube is less relevant.
apparently it's easier to manufacture pultruded carbon tubes within smaller tolerances. but we noticed, that this is only true within the same production series. there are very similar tolerances between different production lots to the wrapped tubes or spars. pultruded carbon tubes show an additional effect: they have the tendency to be out of round, which results in different stiffness depending on how it is turned. for the spreaders of our synergetic active kites this is not critical, because the spreader will turn itself to the right position along its longitudinal axis.
weight of the kite
the weight of a kite, wether it's a lightwind, standard or even a strong wind kite, plays a relevant role for the flying characteristics like stability or the useable wind range. in general we observe: the lighter a kite, and this is true for the rather heavy box kites too, the less it will be exposed to undesired phenomenons like oscillations or even resonance in flight. the ideal no or low wind kite is extremely light, but sturdy and highly warp resistant in stronger winds.
kite making and workshops
kitemaking and copyright
building a kite is thinking about flight. test x times, fly prototypes in unusual conditions, give up fond ideas and analyze the process several times. find the appropriate and simple measures to implement the concept with consistence. of course you may not build one of our kites, except for the urban ninja, which is made public as a kite plan for non commercial, strictly personal use.
kite workshops
if you plan a kite building workshop, we would be glad to help you in choosing the adequate materials, give you tips on kite building techniques and discuss kite specific questions. we can also coordinate the providing of the right materials for you, to ensure best results. after all, the kites should fly beautyfully, depending on the built model, even in low wind.