Bell Tetrahedral Kite

Step 7 Attaching Sails

Using a tiny bit of craft glue (Sobo, Elmer's, etc) secure the sails to each cell, folding the material around the bottom taped edge. Though a bit counter-intuitive, the kite flies with the sails oriented like a flock of "V"s. Trim any access sail material for a good, tight fit.

Comments

[Juananz]

Definitely: shoving a 3D environment into pictures won't help at all in understanding the design, specially if you only upload one of the finished thing. I remark it would be useful if you uploaded many more pictures from the previous step and this one...

[BoondockSaint]

It's not that difficult of a design. If you're actually making this, lay your first flat of half pyramids out in a triangle form. If you have a base of four half pyramids then ultimately you will need 10 half pyramids to complete the triangle. After wiring these together at the vertices that are adjacent to one another, you should end up with a "sheet" of half pyramids. Create one more of these "sheets" the same size. Once you have done that, lay one sheet on top of the other such that the upper vertices of the bottom sheet (the ones that are pointing up) are touching the bottom vertices (the ones that are flat or horizontal). You should end up with a top sheet that is slightly staggered to the left or right, but forms a level bottom with the other sheet. Wire the vertices at which the two sheets touch. Repeat as desired. Or, you could just hold your first "sheet" up to the computer screen and orient it to be the same as the photograph... "I remark" that anyone with a bit of spatial awareness and a passing mark in Geometry should be able to figure it out.

[bucklipe]

I used a low temperature hot glue gun to attach the sails. At first I used a high temp glue gun but liquid napalm oozing out and getting on your finger will deter your enthusiasm for kite assembly...