[TheForge] How to layout an oval

[Steve Smith]

The tool is two nails and a piece of string. Say you put the two nails one foot
apart, and your string is tied into a loop maybe six feet in circumfrence (so
the loop when stretched is three feet long). Put the loop over the nails, and
stretch one side with a pencil. You now have a triangle of string running from
the first nail to the second, and to the pencil. Now draw, keeping the string
taught. The long axis of the oval will be in line with the two nails, the short
axis perpendicular. I don't know the formulas offhand for plotting the ellipse
you want, but you should be able to get there with a little experimentation.

Steve Smith

Larry Zoeller wrote:

> To all,
> In the near future I am going to make a Dinning Room table with a 52" x 90"
> oval table top.  My question is how do you layout the oval table top.  I
> know that I have seen this done on a woodworking show one time, but I can
> not remember how they did it.  It seems that I have seen some type of tool
> that you can use to do the layout. Any help with this would be greatly
> appreciated.
> Thanks in advance
> Larry Zoeller
>
> _______________________________________________
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/theforge
> theforge mail list group photo site is
> http://www.photoaccess.com
> Login:  blacksmithblacksmith@hotmail.com
> password:  anvil
> ___________