This is my favorite pose when I am flying a kite and the wind is not messing around with me. I call this "the Zen of Kite Flying." My wife painted the scene (above) using a different angle (and flying a different kite) and it looks cool, I think. Notice the spools of line I am holding. They are unique for sure, generally not available commercially, and the parts needed for construction are not expensive. The wire spool itself is often free for the asking in hardware stores (empty wire spools often get thrown out or recycled). The wood dowel for the handle usually runs less than $5.00. I have used many types of line holders for single-line kites (not the really big stuff) and this one is by far the easiest, for me, to manipulate. Plus, there's the additional bonus of knowing that you made it yourself (which has to count for something).
The next event on the calendar is the Cogswell’s Grant Kite Day on Saturday, September 13.
How to make a Kite-line Spool
Wire spools are commonly made from metal or plastic and either type will work. This spool is roughly 6 inches in diameter, so a bit on the larger side and good for heavier line. It's made from metal. A 5 inch diameter spool is perfect for line weights around 100# and 500 feet in length.
The greater the line length on the spool, the harder it becomes to spin it all back onto the spool. It is a matter of weight. Since most of my flying is done kind of close to PWM airport, I put 500 feet of line on my spools and I have not yet come anywhere close to the end of the line while flying a kite.
When you find a spool to use, also find a thick wooden dowel and match the dowel diameter to the hole in the spool hub. This spool hub hole happens to be slightly larger than 3/4 inch so the wooden dowel measures 3/4 inch. The finished dowel handle can be whatever length you like as long as it is long enough to handle the full spool with comfort (think weight and balance), and not so long that it becomes unwieldy. For this spool the dowel will be 18 inches long but could easily be 22 inches. I happened to have an 18 inch one on-hand.
Alternative spool source - not free, slightly larger, but not that expensive either: https://www.circlecsupply.com/dare-empty-spool-only.html
The wooden dowel is too smooth and somewhat too small to be comfortable when hand spinning the line back onto the spool, so I encase the dowel with cordage which gives it some grip, so-to-speak. Most any cordage will work if it is not too thick. The picture here shows paracord in orange and white, and some 3mm cord I will use for decoration. If the cordage you have contains internal core elements it helps the beginning and ending wrapping process if about 6 inches of the internal elements are first removed. Slide the outer sleeve down the cord to expose the inner elements, cut them off, then re-expand the outer sleeve.
It will take more length of cordage to cover the wood if thinner cord is used. Thicker cord requires less length, but the tradeoff is increased weight of the finished line spool. It is wise to have more cordage to start with and unwise to begin covering the wood dowel with an insufficient length of cord. An easy way to determine if you have enough cordage is to wrap the cord around the dowel without doing any gluing first. If you have enough then proceed, remembering to have some extra for easier handling. For this dowel wrap I am using approximately 30 feet of paracord and about 2 feet of the 3mm cord.
After figuring out how long you want the dowel, cut it to length. Slide the dowel through both holes of the spool hub. It'll look something like this photo to the left.
Drill two holes (to match the screw size) into the hub of the spool at roughly 90 degrees apart from each other and a few inches apart along the hub. I used two #8 by 1.5 inch screws here. Ideally the screw will be long enough to go all the way through the wood dowel but not pierce the hub wall on the opposite side. Insert the screws into the holes and through the wood dowel, being careful to maintain a perpendicular approach of the screw to the wood. Ensure that the screw hits the dowel in the center of the wood, not off to either side. It is strongly recommended you use a power drill here versus just a hand screwdriver.
Snug the screws down but do not over tighten, especially if the spool is made from plastic.
At this point in time you should have a line spool that looks like the one in the picture to the left. Give it a spin, see how it feels in your hand.
The next step is to adhere some cordage to the wood dowel. I use a hot-glue gun to stick the cord to the wood. Squirt some glue, wrap the cord. I recommend working about an inch of wrapping at a time, lest the glue become cool and useless as glue before you get the glue all covered. An alternative is to use Elmer's glue or similar liquid glue but I've never done that. The goal is to have the cordage firmly bonded to the wood dowel without the glue getting all over the cordage. Excess glue (hot or otherwise) will squeeze out with wrapping and make a mess.
Before gluing, determine what, if any, fanciness you want to introduce to the handle. I don't think it's necessary to get real fancy, but as a for instance - you may want to cover the end of the dowel with something colorful before beginning the wrapping process.
The pictures below follow the sequence for wrapping the dowel. There is no need to get fancy with the ends but if you have a good imagination you could end up with the coolest line spool on the field.
You can start from either end. This picture shows placement of cords which helps to hide the bare wood end surface. I put some hot glue on the wood, then placed the cords. Totally unnecessary, that's just how I work.
This shows the start of the wrap. There's no particular correct way to do this, the goal is to adhere the cord end and then start wrapping. Put some glue down around the wood before wrapping the cord. Not too much glue though, otherwise it can weep through the cords.
This shows the wrap continued down the wood dowel. Glue - wrap, glue - wrap. Work with patience here but remember, if using hot glue, get the cord applied before the glue cools and hardens.
This shows some glue on the wood waiting for the cord to be wrapped. Keeping a slight amount of tension on the cord, as you wrap it around the dowel, helps the cord adhere to the glue/wood surface.
Finish up the wrapping wherever you want. Here I carried the cord around the hub to cover the gap between wood and hub.
The wrap is finished. I use the glue gun heat to smooth out any glue bumps on the cord.
The other end of the dowel gets covered as well. Same process. This spool is being recycled, thus you see the name Ged painted there. That's a character (hero, wizard) from a story I read a while back. I became fond of the character so I named a kite line spool for him.
This shows the finished wrap. Start to finish, with all pieces at hand, this wrapping took about 1.25 hours.
This spool will be filled with 100# line, 500 feet. When filling the spool with line, tie the line to the hub, then begin spinning the handle with one hand while guiding the line with the other hand. The line should always go straight onto the spool versus rotating the spool onto the line (that introduces a line twist - not good). Evenly spread the line across the hub. When launching your kite. allow the line to un-spool straight off the spool versus over the spool rim (which will add twist to the line). Bring your kite back to earth before spinning the line straight back onto the spool. This eliminates the buildup of excessive pressure on the spool hub and is much easier and faster than trying to spin the line onto the spool with tension on the line. Click this link to see spool winding in action (no audio).