When I saw my first foil in the sky, watching it pull some guy down the beach, I was not thinking I need to learn how to sew !!! Now that I have been in this for a few months and searching around on this forum I see I'm going to have to learn how to sew. Man, I cannot believe it. If you want a nice sleeving job, you need to learn to sew. If you want to build your own huge npw, you need to learn to sew. So long story short I'm going to learn how to sew. Am I crazy am I jumping the gun is this not necessary or what ?:puzzled:

Not necessary, but its nice to fix ones own foil, or a hole in your jeans, or shirt, just general stuff, ya know...

Learning to sew opens up a hole new world. If you are intrested in nasa winge sewing your own is the way to go. I have made a lot of them.

Susan

... and if you want a foil covered in smiley faces, then that's about the only way as well :singing:

If you decide to take the plunge... might want to read up over on kitebuilder.com as well

Thanks everyone for the responce. I will check out kite builder. I think I will start out with sewing some sleeving and see where that takes me.

Do you have a sewing machine? If not look into picking one up. Just make sure it does zig zag stiches and such. They will let you know over at kitebuilder. Also dont use cotton thread get some heavy duty polyester. And you can learn how to use a sewing machine in 15 mins. Its like driving a car and feeding the fabric in, really easy. The harder part is learning how to work your machine, stich width, winding a bobbin... etc..... Its very worth it though, epecially if you want to make some kites, not just sew sleeving. You will want to start with NPW's and then you will start to look at foils, much like i did, then I found pansh and i just went that route.

I don't have a machine. I'm going to ask around from friends and family to see if someone has one. i want to try this before I buy one. I just looked them up on walimart. What all do I need it to do ? I see them from $70 - $700.
Pansh is so cheap I wouldn't even bother with trying to build a foil. It would be cool to make a big npw or huge single line delta, so my daughters can hang a bunch of stuff from it.

be careful with those cheapies from walmart...I bought a brand new singer and it was broken in five minutes....that was a quick refund for 150 bones...then I checked e-bay..and found a vintage singer from 1963 refurbished in great condition...and its all metal...there is nothing fancy about it but it looks cool and in will sew through nylon webbing and vinyl...I made a new seat for my buggy and its plush....does any one have plans for a giant nasa wing?

Go to http://members.shaw.ca/kiteman/Downloads.htm and download the vulture calculator (NPW9b) Its the best model yet. You can make up to a 95 meter kite. That would be sick!! There is also a plan on there for some people you can sew and hang from an NPW, or any other kite. One kite i have wanted to make for a while is the original NPW as a stunter or single line gear marker.

http://open-site.org/newsletter/batboy/images/aviation/paraw...

Looks like that but without inflatable struts, held open by just bridles. An unbreakable delta wing.

dlish89 -

If you're in the market for a sewing machine for kites, I'd recommend you look for a used, older Pfaff machine on Ebay. I have a Pfaff 362 made in the early 60's. These are precision home zig-zag machines made in Germany with a full rotary bobbin hook as opposed to an oscillating hook. Cast iron body, and smooooth - never misses a stitch from 1/2 oz ripstop to heavy Cordura.

If you search around, you may find many kitemakers prefer the Pfaff 1222 or a variant. These are vintage 70's and 80's, with an aluminum body, but they have a walking foot option to help keep the top layer of fabric feeding with the bottom. Minimizes pinning and taping seams.

Many of the older Pfaff machines like the 130, 230, 360/362 are used as portable machines by sailmakers or are even fitted into machine stands with larger motors. You can get by with about any machine if you're willing to constantly fiddle with it and aren't so concerned about stitch quality, but find a nice older Pfaff or Bernina and you'll never regret it.

krumly

it looks like those pfaff are going for around $200 - $250 is that about right ? And thanks NPWfever for the sites. It would be cool to build your own 20m+ npw.

I paid about $325 for my Pfaff 362 in mint shape, but I was looking for that particular model and it took awhile. One for $200-250 in good shape is a good deal.

It really jsut depends on supply and demand - you know how sometimes people go crazy on Ebay. If you wanted a 1222, I've seen those fetch upwards of $600, but sell for as little as $300 for a decent looking machine.

In any case, it's money far better spent than on some new flimsy piece of junk. I've sewn and repaired a lot of kites with mine, made a new buggy seat, boat covers, etc.

krumly

The "Buster"9.0m² just had a set of velcro strips (two 2" long) sewn just inside the LE, 1 cell to the L & R of the Center of the kite for bridle line storage, & keeping em from getting tangled & such... Just like the RushII 250, only the "Buster" has 2 instead of 1... Plus I figure I'll need about 5 cans of "Orange" fabric paint to get its color back, to Pumpkin (Just the top side)... Will Post pics when thats done...