Tools and Supplies 

 
 

Tools
   I sew on 4' x 6' bench I made and use an old sliding glass door (less the framing) for a surface.  Let me say right now, a razor blade will scratch the surface of the glass and over a period of time make it nearly impossible to cut on as the fabric is not always cleanly cut when the razor blade passes across a previous scratch.  I have stopped cutting on my 'new' sliding glass door with razor blades and now use the hot cutter exclusively.  I find the 4' x 6' bench almost big enough but I have it in a corner and that is entirely unacceptable.

     I have a Pfaff 1171 sewing machine, the dual feed is wonderful but I don't think it is a 'must' for sewing kites. I use a wood burning tool as a hot gun, it is small, has a very sharp tip, and I can hold it quite close to the hot end for ease of control.  For measuring and cutting straight edges I have a 4' heavy aluminum ruler, a light 18" stainless steel ruler and a 4' heavy aluminum 'T' square that I cut a foot and a half off of so it wasn't so long and so I had a shorter heavy aluminum ruler as well.  The heavy aluminum rulers are tools carpenters use when cutting sheet rock.

    I cut templates for the kite panels and I normally cut templates for appliqués that lend themselves to drawing from a template.  The sail piece templates are made of formica as I will be using the hot cutter against them.  The appliqué templates are made of thin plywood.

    A Dremel tool for cutting spars, 6" scissors, appliqué scissors, a stitch ripper and a hole punch just about rounds up the rest of the tools.  Oh and razor blades... all over the place.
 

Supplies
    I rarely sew layers of cloth without first gluing them together.  I have found that it is easier and faster to glue, then sew.  On seams I use seam stick (double back tape) and on appliqué I use Duro All Purpose Spray Adhesive.  The Duro is cheaper than the 3M spray adhesive and doesn't stick nearly as well.  I have found the lack of bonding ability of the Duro spray adhesive to be a large bonus in the appliqué process.  After all the sewing is done I use Goo Gone to remove any residue of the glue.

    I use Quick Tite Super Glue.  It comes in a 5 gram clear plastic bottle so you can see how much is left and I've consistently been able to use the entire bottle of it without it drying up or gluing itself shut.

    I use a quilter's pencil from Dritz for marking on the kite and drawing the appliqué.  It is a light gray color and shows up well on everything but white and light gray.  It washes off quickly in warm water and erases with a gentle eraser if you need to correct something while you are drawing.
 

Kite Supplies
    The sail cloth we are using is 3/4 ounce Porcher rip stop nylon.  Porcher is a soft, uncoated, 62" wide sailcloth resembling Carrington.  The nose of the kite is 3.9 ounce black dacron with a kevlar.  The leading edge tubes and the trailing edges are 1.5 ounce rip stop nylon.  The frame is AVIA GForce UL with APA leading edge fittings, JACO standoff connectors, .098" mcr for standoffs, and a .2100" AVIA pultrude upper spreader.

    All the kite materials except the Porcher rip stop nylon are available through Kite Studio.