How To Make A Barn Door Kite

Complete Instructions For The MBK 1-Skewer Barn Door

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!

These instructions on how to make a Barn Door kite might look a bit long, but that's because they are so detailed. Just steadily work your way through from top to bottom, skimming over any detail that you don't need.

At 29cm (11 1/2") from tip to tip, the MBK 1-Skewer Barn Door Kite is a rather small Barn Door, with dihedral and simple 1-leg bridle.

It's a fine little light to moderate wind flier.

As a bonus, these instructions also show you how to string several of these kites together in a kite train!

Now, just in case you have actually made and flown this kite at least once already...

Ever Made This Kite?

You've probably read a kite-flying story or 2 of mine, after they appear under the "what's new?" link on this site. I sometimes wonder if anyone else has made and flown this particular design...

I can only accept stories of at least 300 words. But that is so easy to do if you just cover the following points...

• What was the weather like?


• Describe any differences between your kite and the one in my instructions


• Describe how you launched it


• Describe its behavior in the air


• How long did it stay in the air?


• How much flying line did you let out?


• How did you anchor the flying line?


• Anyone else watching?


• Anyone else flying?


• Anything interesting happen?


• Any close encounters with curious birds? (the winged variety!)


• Which kite are you going to try next, and why?

How To Make A Barn Door Kite - Sail

Now's the time to read up on the 'tools' and materials required for making a Skewer kite, if you haven't already.

The template shown above represents one side of the kite sail. You will now transfer these measurements to the sail plastic as follows...

NOTE: Don't worry if your sail dimensions don't look exactly like the photos below. Just stick to the Template measurements, which were used for my most recently tested kite!

• Firstly, take a light plastic bag that will fit the entire Template shape within one side, and lay it flat on the floor.
• Mark dots on the plastic, corressponding 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.

• 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.
• Cut along the black lines with scissors, to create the sail.

How To Make A Barn Door Kite - Spars

For this Barn Door, you need three 30cm (12") bamboo BBQ skewers. The photo shows them laid over the sail, before being snipped to length with scissors.

• Lay down 2 skewers over the sail, lining up the non-pointy ends with the top corners of the plastic. Snip off the pointed ends so the skewers line up with the bottom corners of the plastic as well. These are the diagonal spars.
• Lay down another skewer across the left and right corners of the sail, and again snip to length, removing the point. Then make an easily-seen mark on the skewer at the exact center-point. This is the horizontal spar.
• Using a sharp corner, perhaps a blade of the scissors, make an indent in the bamboo, at the center-point you marked.

How To Make A Barn Door Kite - Attaching Sail

• Lay down one diagonal spar skewer over the sail, and wrap a short length of clear sticky tape around each tip, securing the skewer to the top and bottom corners of the sail. The top photo shows the top left tip in close-up.
• Lay down and secure the other diagonal spar, in the same way.
• Lay down the horizontal spar skewer and attach its tips to the left and right corners of the sail, in the same way.
• Bend the horizontal spar in the middle, until it starts to crack at the indent! Carefully increase the bend until you can get the kite looking like the one in the middle photo. If you want to be precise, each wing-tip is 0.15SL (4.4cm, 1 3/4") off the table top.
• Dribble some wood glue on the spot where the horizontal spar has cracked. Also glue the places where the 3 skewers cross each other. See the bottom photo over there.

Wait for the glue to dry. Maybe start another one of these kites, so you can fly them together in a train later on!

How To Make A Barn Door Kite - Bridle

• Cut off some 20 pound bridle line to a length of 1.0SL (29cm, 11 1/2"), and tie a very small Loop Knot into each end. See the top photo.
• Poke a hole in the plastic sail, right over the bend in the horizontal spar.
• Tie the middle of the line to the horizontal spar with a simple Granny Knot. See the bottom photo.
• Poke one end of the line through the hole in the sail, just above the skewer. This end may be used to attach a short flying line to another kite.
• Secure the the Granny knot with a small dob of glue, or it will come loose!

How To Make A Barn Door Kite - Tail

• Cut out a long thin rectangle of colored plastic for the tail. Mine is black, to contrast with the orange sail. Make it 6.0SL (170cm, 70") long and 0.15SL (4.4cm, 1 3/4") wide.
• Tie one end around one diagonal spar, and the other end to the other diagonal spar, as close as possible to the bottom tips. Make sure there are no twists in the tail. See the photo. A single Half Hitch will do for each knot, since there are very low forces on the tail in flight.

At this point, you've finished making the 1-Skewer Barn Door!

This design seems to need a little tail-weight for stability, so stick a couple of strips of sticky tape along the whole length of the trailing edge. That is, the edge of the sail between the lower tips of the 2 diagonal spars.

To attach the flying line, just Lark's Head the flying line to the bridle line as in the photo.

Now for the cool bit... If you have made 2 or more kites, each attached to their own flying line, you can hitch them together in a train. Just put a fair-sized Loop Knot into both ends of each flying line, and then it's easy to attach and un-attach the kites.

How To Make A Barn Door Kite - Flying!

Firstly, if it's very windy outside, stay home! This is a light-to-moderate wind kite and won't like being launched in a gale.

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.

Another approach is to get a helper to hold the kite up and let it go, on the end of maybe 10 or 20 meters (around 50 feet) of line. This way, the kite soon gets high enough to make it easy to let more line out.

The picture shows this latest version of the 1-Skewer Barn Door kite flying in a fairly light breeze. The video below was taken on the same day, after letting out a little more line.

Have fun flying, and I hope you've enjoyed learning how to make a Barn Door kite!

New! Comments