Fabric for Hand Wing Strut

[OzBungy]

I shredded the strut on my hand wing and would like to replace the torn section and do some other customisations.

I am having trouble finding the specifications for the fabric or a source for a small quantity at a reasonable price. Has anybody been able to source suitable kite/wing suitable dacron in small quantities?

The nearest I can work out is it may be 150gsm, 210D polyester. There's any amount of that available on the internet but it's all for shade sails and boat covers and patio furniture upholstery. Nothing says it's suitable for boat sails or kites or anything suitably techie. There's some yacht sail fabric but costs $1000 a roll.

Plan B is to visit a local sail maker and beg/buy some scrap or the remnant of a roll. Twenty years ago I did that with a spindle of bonded polyester thread and I'm still using it for repairs and projects.

[RTL78901]

This supplier specializes in kites and has a wide variety of products including dacron, and various ripstop fabrics. I've purchases from them for several years. Might take a look and see what they have, or contacts them and see what they recommend.

https://www.flymarketkites.com/

[OzBungy]

Thanks. I found this which gives some plausible specifications. https://iyusailcloth.com/Kites.html

and a local site that sells "Industrial Polyester Ripstop Fabric" which has similar attributes and is not too expensive. It'll either be suitable for the job or I'll use it to make other stuff.

[OzBungy]

I bought some ""Industrial Polyester Ripstop Fabric" but decided not to use it. It lacked the coatings and stiffness of proper sail cloth. It'll be useful for other projects.

I ended up doing a conventional tape and sew repair of the strut. That involved unpicking the damaged strut section from the canopy, opening up the strut, taping the torn sections on both sides, oversewing the edges and sewing it all back together. It was surprisingly easy to do. While everything was unpicked I replaced the foam inside a handle with some higher density foam.

For self-education I took the opportunity to weld the burst bladder using a hot iron. Again, surprisingly easy and effective. The welds look a little ugly but they hold air at pressure. I had to track down a very slow leak and I have sealed that with a little urethane glue.

[rtz]

They have more then just this:

https://www.sailrite.com/Dacron-Sailcloth-4oz-Black-60

[OzBungy]

Thanks. Sailrite charge US$50 for shipping anything, even a pack of needles. It would be cheaper to get the local sailmaker do the repair.

I once bought a few things from Sailrite when they were having a sale and the postage was relatively cheap.

The best source I have found for sail making threads and fabrics is to visit a sail maker and buy some offcuts or the end of a spool.

[OzBungy]

I continued my search for Dacron for struts and things. Many manufacturers use Dacron from Dimension Polyant. I made contact with them and found the products are all custom produced to order and not kept in stock or sold retail. The two most commonly used are 175LL and K-PE165.

I'll keep searching for a suitable and available fabric. In the meantime taping and oversewing works fine. The only real negative with taping both sides is that when you get to a folded edge seam you can be sewing through 6 layers of cloth. It's easy enough to sew but it looks a bit thick and can mess with fine tolerance sewing.