looking for less than 1/4 mil polyester film.

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[John Welden]

Does anyone know of any less than 1/4 mil polyester film that I could buy? 1/4 mil is .00025" thick and that's actually a lot thicker than I'd need for my miniature single line kite project.

Thanks,
John

[mikenchico]

hmmm     .06 mil mylar was available which is .00006" thick. I see it talked about but didn't find a source in a short search.

Charlie Sotich used to make his own films, maybe it was in one of the old Kite Lines magazines? He floated the chem's on water to form a film and let them harden, I didn't find a web source for his materials & methods in a quick search either. Maybe you'll have better luck if you want to pursue that method in more in depth.

I'm sure you've found this site http://miniaturekiteguild.org/main/ but I'll post it in case you've aroused anyone else's interest in miniatures with your posts. I see some articles by Charlie Sotich and SusieJo Skinner right off. They have a forum too but it isn't very active.

Good luck.

[indigo_wolf]

How much do you need (length)?  What width do you need?

Will any of these do?
Microfine Polyester (Mylar®)  is 0.00024" (6.0 µm)
Ultra-thin Polyester (Mylar®) is 0.00014" (3.6 µm)
Microfine Polyester Film (Mylar®)  is 0.00010" (2.5 µm) 

ATB,
Sam


                                                 

[ae]

What would be interesting is, how much do these film actually weight per square meter.
anyone got numbers?

[mikenchico]

What would be interesting is, how much do these film actually weight per square meter.
anyone got numbers?

Takes a very accurate scale and a pretty good size piece to figure that out. Below is from Charlie Sotich in an article at Miniture Kite Guild linked above

Material                          Thickness (in.)               Weight (oz. per sq. ft.)

Tyvek ® Type 10               .004                                  .139
Plastic trash bag                .001                                  .080
Tissue paper                      .0014                                .059
.5-mil. Mylar ®                   .0005                                .059
Frozen food bag                 .0004                                 .040
Condenser paper                .0002                                 .014
.06-mil. Mylar ®                 .00006                               .007

[John Welden]

I freaking love the internet and forums! Thank you everyone for the replies, I really appreciate them.


Ultra-thin Polyester (Mylar®) is 0.00014" (3.6 µm)
Microfine Polyester Film (Mylar®)  is 0.00010" (2.5 µm)  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sam,
I searched for those terms and found a couple of sources. Looks like I might need to buy a whole roll, but whatever, it's worth it.

 I'm so pumped for this micro kite project! The material I'm using now is like burlap compared to those thin mylars. Even with relatively heavy fabric my prototypes have been performing great. They will be insane with .0001 mylar.

I'll post some pictures of my kites when they're done.  I've got a scale here at work that goes out to eight decimal places so I'll be able to weigh these suckers very accurately.

Thanks again for the help.

[mikenchico]

Still looking forward to seeing some pic's when you can. After seeing your workmanship and design on the ring you posted I'm curious how those talents transfer to these miniatures.

[tpatter]

I'm excited.  If you are looking for test flyers, I'll be happy to sign any sort of NDA in order to try a new kite. 

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