A Quick History of the Strato-Spool:
Way back in the late 70's, I dated a woman who had
a couple of one-line kites and a primitive diamond stunt kite. She had
her line on one of those flat winders with handles on opposite corners,
and I found it really tedious to wind line in with that device.
I'm a carpenter and cabinetmaker, and an inventive sort of person, and
soon built a spool reel that looked real nice, but didn't have any way
to stop the line from pulling out, and nearly lost a kite first flight.
I started musing on the problem, and within a month or so had designed
what became the Strato-Spool. My first prototype, which I still have, is
the same general size as what turned to be my smallest production model,
but otherwise very similar in shape and operation. I built a few more,
still for my own use, and tested them to destruction, modifying them as
I went. After 4 or 5, I built a larger one with heavier materials.
At this point, I was a regular customer of a mail-order kite shop called
'Into The Wind' (this was back when one still sent a check and an order,
and got a package 2 weeks later....), and wrote them a note and enclosed
a photograph, describing my reels, and asked if they knew of anyone
building such a thing. In due time, they asked if they could perhaps buy
one, they wanted to try it out themselves. All that led to a commitment
to produce them in quantity and the smaller (No.8) and medium (No.16)
being put in their catalog. During this time, I built a set of jigs and
fixtures that allowed production runs of the components and standardized
their sizes, so they could be small-scale mass-produced.
After a few years, I developed and began producing the larger No. 24
reel, and they included that one in their catalog, too.
At each order, I would make a large batch of one or two of the
components (there are 7 in each size reel) and take from stock the
others needed to assemble and complete the reels. In the end, as I said
above, the financial reality of the wholesale pricing system caught up
with me, I tried to raise my price, but they thought the increase would
kill sales, and in the end, needed to put my time into things more
profitable. Also, after nearly 1000 of them, I was a bit tired of
looking at kite reels.... and barely flew one-line kites for years
afterward, having myself, as did many others, switched to stunt kites.
I still have all the jigs, and a dim memory of how the setups worked,
and indeed some parts still in their boxes, though some supplies need to
be re-sourced, and nowadays with the internet available as a sales
medium and paypal available to allow customer purchases, and my getting
closer to retirement age, and still needing something less demanding
than home construction and restoration to do to keep groceries on the
table, the idea has come back to me to 'test the waters' and see if
there is indeed an online market for the reels.
Photos:
Below is a photo of an early reel, the first three No. 8 reels, and the
first two No. 16 reels I built:
Following is a current generation #16 reel:
Last is the first spool built:
Small kite spool information will go here soon.