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a little coney but it works

Spike has already been a fun project. It's mostly been planning, preparation and cutting, but tonight should bring lots of sewing so visable progress may be accomplished soon.

I really need a bit more time to comment, so I will just leave more pictures for now, but I promise a full report soon.

Ok, I'm back ... Here's what I have been up to.

Like previously mentioned, my current sweing project is "Spike". You can see his plan here at the kitebuilder.com's spike plan page.

If you look at the plan you will see that I am building a much smaller spike then the plan suggests. This is because I am learning and want to start small but in hindsight I probably should have started a bit larger. I had sewn five hexagons to a pentagon in my first sewing project, just to get me started sewing things together, and i used those hexagon templates to start making the full spike. So I am using a smaller size than I might have, but no biggie.

Now the plan, created by Phil Womack in 1994, says that building spike "smaller than a 10cm side gets a bit fiddly!". That would be slightly less than four inches, my sides are about five inches, so I'm not going to worry about size.

Rob Banks is building a spike with 26 inch sides! I definitly want to see that spike when he's done.

So, after staring at the spike for a few days, and trying to sew it together, it became clear that I didn't have the experience to sew the spikes on the way the plan suggests. This is probably due the small size of the spikes, but I cannot seem to fold and edge to sew the spike from the top (or outside) of spike. So I decided to sew from inside spike, by cutting the spike (or cone) so that it can be spread out and attached to the pentagon.

I also decided that I would need a ring to lay over the spread out flanges. This construction seems to work ok, so that's my plan.

The next problem seems to be aligning the spike to be vertical and for it to remain in that position while I am sewing it in place. Very tricky. I found it very hard to keep things where I wanted them to be while sewing. I could do it, but it took lots of fiddling, and I am sure each spike would end up positioned slightly different than the next. So after a bit of thought I decided i needed a three dimensional template to hold everything in just the right way.

So, I sewed a spike and filled it with birdseed and taped it shut. This fits perfectly into the spike i am building and holds the spike vertical in the petagon and since the cone if full, i can use it as a guide as I make the first trip around it with the sewing machine. This works fantastic. For each pentagon / spike needed, I can place the parts together, and sew them in place in about 5 minutes. Perfect.

The only problem I have now is that the red flanges that are spread out to hold the spike in place, can be seen through the material. This may end up looking quite ugly, so I have decided to change from a blue/grey ring, to a red one. That way it may be seen, but will look a lot better than the ragged way it is looking now. The last picture on this page shows what can be seen through the petagon.

On to tomorrow where I hope to solve this issue.

WARNING: FIRE HAZARD.... BURN HAZARD ! ! !

if you are trying to hot cut using a soldering iron, exercise extreme caution. Soldering irons can easily reach five hundred degrees or much much higher. It is very dangerous. Very! Please be safe.

WARNING: FIRE HAZARD.... BURN HAZARD ! ! !

if you are trying to hot cut using a soldering iron, exercise extreme caution. Soldering irons can easily reach five hundred degrees or much much higher. It is very dangerous. Very! Please be safe.

Kites Flown:

Kites Flown:

iFlite I vented by Patrick Tan (#854)

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Wednesday March 20th, 2013

Seed For Thought

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