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kiteguy · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 1:24 am Post subject: Special fittings

All the fuss over making a simple tinker toy for the center of a double star kite. I was wondering if one could be made from oak? It would be cheaper than the plastic, wooden it? (Bad pun) Embarassed

I wonder how quickly could Tony come up with a fitting for a kite like this one? It reminds me of some work I saw on an Eddy kite that was at Ft Worden. It was in a 25 cents per ticket raffle. Shocked

And who would like to make the kite that the fitting was made for. Wish I could find another picture. Found these on some gallery posted on some site in Europe. Not sure where. So, I can not give credit where credit is due.

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Dave Ellis
Kites + Kids = Education

CJQ · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 2:05 pm Post subject: Special fitting

Oh wow , that is a fitting and a half. I love working with wood and metal and have made fittings of both materials . Looking at the fitting on that airplane shaped kite I know that took mucho hours to fabricate. Paying old man tony Min. wages to make some fittings like that ,he could retire a second time. Too bad that there is not a big market for that fitting as it is a good part to extrude in aluminum. I can see that a milling machine was probably used to make the part we see. With some of the square corners they could have used cutting wheels on the miller. Even with the proper tools, lots of time.
Kiteguy I like the kite and also would like to see more pictures , if you come across any please post would ya .

CLIFF

KiteSquid · Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 7:19 am Post subject:

That is one winner of a fitting!!!!!!!

WOW

BTW I don’t think a wooden fitting would be cheaper than plastic as there is not a big difference in the cost of materials for such a small piece.

The key is getting the angles between the spars right, or close enough. Smile

Tony's indexing head is the Bee's Knees when it comes to drilling precise holes in a plane.

I wish I had such nice tools at my disposal!!!!!!

As in the photo above there are other ways of joining spars to spars... If you want to go the budget route, take Vinyl tubing from the hardware store and just zip tie some lengths together... or poke a hole in the middle and thread the center spar thru the whole bunch of them... Glue a stopper on both sides of them and go from there..
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VR/
KiteSquid
AKA TakoIka
AKA Harold
King George VA

P.S. Yet another post by the Squid..... Shocked

Doesent he ever shut up???

P.P.S. The wind is like the air, only pushier.