How To Make A Barn Door Kite

Step-by-Step - Page 1 of 3

The MBK 1-Skewer Barn Door

This set of instructions on how to make a Barn Door kite assumes you know absolutely nothing about kite making.

MBK 1-Skewer Barn Door

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 each step is quite simple to do.

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.

The little Barn Door is a fine 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!

Prefer to work off-line or from printouts? ...

Making Skewer Kites is my handy download of printable step-by-step instructions. This design and all the other 1-Skewer, 2-Skewer and 3-Skewer designs are covered.

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, corresponding 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.

Step-by-step DIY
Printable

Step-by-step DIY
Printable

Making Skewer Kites is my handy download of printable step-by-step instructions. This design and all the other 1-Skewer, 2-Skewer and 3-Skewer designs are covered.

Continue to page 2

FREE E-Book!

I'm referring to Simplest Dowel Kites, my popular kite-making download. It's a printable PDF file. Make a diamond, delta or sled. Each kite is capable of flying hundreds of feet up for hours on end.

Could you do me just a small favor though?

Please sign up for my free monthly publication, "Tethered Flying". No other emails will be sent, and your details are safe with me. You need to be at least 16 years old. There's...

• A huge "photo of the month" (via a link)
• 3 "tips of the month" (one each for beginners, parents and the more experienced)
• A "flight report of the month" (selected from my own flying logs)

Need winders, reels, flying line?

We earn a small commission if you click the following link and buy something. The item does not cost you any more, since we are an "affiliate" of Amazon.

Click here to buy anything you need. Just use the Search box in there if you need different weights or lengths of line, for example.

P.S. Keep an eye out for books by kite author Glenn Davison, a prominent kite person in the USA.

What's New!

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   Writing up the instructions for the 'printable' version of the Indoor Sled was easy. But only after ironing out all the wrinkles of this new approach while perfecting the Indoor Diamond instructions…

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