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Looking for stunt kite plans



In article <1992May28.150706.9430@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> bcb2@po.CWRU.Edu (Bryce C. Burba) writes:
>
>     Along these same lines, what is the typical price range for building
>your own kites as opposed to buying them pre-assembled?  Is there that
>much savings involved?

It depends on what kind of price you want to put on your time/labor...;-)

In terms of _parts_, I pay about $3-$4/yd for fabric (my club buys bulk
from a company in CT; it isn't _great_ cloth, but it's pretty good).  Call
it 3-4 yards/kite with lots of scrap left over for applique, patchwork kites,
banners, practice, etc) -- $12-$16 in fabric.  I pay $2.25-$3.00 for AFC 
spars.  Your average kite takes 8 sticks, so call that $24.  Other bits only 
cost pennies for kite (for instance, a kite might use 4" of seatbelt webbing 
that costs $1.65 for 36"!).  Vinyl is cheap at your local hardware store.
Ferrules you can often get at local archery places--they'll just give you
scraps of aluminum arrows.  All in all, maybe $45 for a kite.  Just about
_any_ kite, whether a Spin-Off or a Phantom or a Pro or a Big Brother.  
Obviously, if you want to use better spars, you'll up the cost--I spent
$40 just to spar my Pro with Easton 3-30, so I doubled the cost of framing.

Obviously, though, you can save tremendous amounts of money this way.

Jeff




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