How To Make A Dopero Kite

Step-by-Step - Page 2 of 4

The MBK 1-Skewer Dopero

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How To Make A Dopero Kite
Spars 

For this Dopero, you need four 30cm (12") bamboo BBQ skewers for the spars. The photo shows all the spars laid over the sail, before being snipped to length with scissors.

• Lay down 2 skewers vertically over the plastic, lined up as in the photo. Snip the bottom end of each skewer to length, so they line up with the bottom edge of the lower sail. These are the vertical spars.
• Lay down another skewer across the left and right corners of the upper sail, and snip to length, removing the point. Also make an easily-seen mark on the skewer, at each point where it crosses a vertical spar. This is the upper horizontal spar.
• Using a sharp corner, perhaps a blade of the scissors, make an indent in the bamboo, at the crossing-points you marked.
• Do those last 2 steps again, over the widest part of the lower sail, to create the lower horizontal spar.

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How To Make A Dopero Kite
Attaching Sail

• Lay down the vertical spars over the sail, and wrap a short length of clear sticky tape around each tip, securing them to the top corners of the upper sail and the bottom corners of the lower sail. The photo shows the top tip in close-up.

• Lay down the upper horizontal spar skewer and attach its tips to the upper left and right corners of the sail, in the same way.
• Lay down the lower horizontal spar skewer and attach its tips to the left and right corners of the lower sail.
• Fold down the flaps over the lower horizontal spar, and secure with short strips of tape on each side. In the photo, I have drawn yellow rectangles to show where the tape goes.

• Bend the upper horizontal spar at an indent, until it starts to crack! Carefully increase the bend until the wing-tip stays at 0.08SL (2.3cm, 1") off the table top. Do the same for the other indent as well.
• Do exactly the same for the lower horizontal spar, cracking the bamboo at both indents.
• Dribble some wood glue all around where the skewers cross each other, for both horizontal spars. See the photo. Use enough glue to make the bent part of the bamboo strong.

Be careful that the horizontal spars don't slip up or down the vertical spar while the glue is still wet.

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How To Make A Dopero Kite
Sail Tethers

20 to 50 pound strength Dacron line is suitable for all the Skewer Series kites.

( If you purchase the kite line recommended below I may receive a small commission - at no extra cost to you )

Do you need some kite line? This 3-pack of simple winders with 300ft lines from Amazon should be ideal. They are all ready to go with 50 pound line. This strength is good for bridles and flying lines for all the MBK kites up to the 1.2m (4ft) sizes.

My instructions for connecting a flying line don't mention swivel clips, but the swivels included in this product are good and strong. So go ahead and use them if you want to :-)  Otherwise they can just be snipped off.

• Cut off a piece of flying line of length 0.75SL (22cm, 8"). Tape one end to a corner of the upper sail, as in the photo. See how the tape points to the tip of the lower horizontal spar. Excess tape can be trimmed with scissors or folded back on itself.
• Pass the other end of the line around the tip of the lower horizontal spar. Pull most of the slack out and tie off with a couple of Half Hitch knots. Using the Half Hitch makes them easy to unpick and re-tie later, if any adjustment is needed to make the kite fly straight.
• Repeat the previous steps on the other side of the kite.
• Snip off some of the excess line if you want to, but leave enough for adjustment purposes.

The kite should now look like the photo.

 

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