K107 - Breeze #21
I have not built a Breeze in about 4 years. So, I donated one of mine (K43) to the auction at the 2024 Windless Kite Festival. This is a new Breeze to replace the donated one.
Leading Edge
This is the first Breeze with a nylon leading edge. All Breezes up to this point have had dacron leading edges. I didn't feel like I had a good reason to be using dacron, so I could get away with using the ligher nylon. I am still using dacron to reinforce the wing tips and where the leading edge meets the vertical spars. I did have a bit of trouble keeping the nylon in place while sewing it, and I ended up taping both sides of it, rather than just taping one side and holding the other in place manually. Other than that, it went relatively smoothly.
Sleeve
This is the first Breeze with an embroidered sleeve, so I had to go and put together that illustration and embroidery digitization. The Breeze bag is a bit thinner than other kites, so I did cut down the embroidery size a bit to make room.
Fittings
The endcaps on the bottom wingtips are made from Armadillo, a rigid plastic, but I transitioned from Armadillo to a 95A semi-flexible TPU just for the tips. Because both filaments are TPU, they will melt to eachother. So, I ended up with some very clean endcaps with softer tip for traction. I've done this in the past, but did so by printing the cap and the tip separately, then gluing them together. Transitioning filaments during the print is a bit less convenient when making many caps, but I think it turns out a bit cleaner.
