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How to draw a perfect oval??

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rdagger:

I marked a half oval cut on my cab using a clear plastic refrigerator water line.  You just mark the 2 end points and place the plastic hose over those points.  The hose will lie on a smooth curve.  Then you just feed or remove hose to adjust the height of the oval.  Once I got the curve just right I secured the line with some masking tape so it wouldn't move when I traced the cut.

Avery:

Woodworkers often use a piece of thin stock with a hole drilled in either end and string through it.  You keep tightening the strink until you get the curve you want.  This gets you an even curve, but you won't get those near 90 deg curves at the end that a true elipse has.

You could divide your span up into a couple sections and readust that setup to give you something very close to a true elipse, if that's important to you.

bjk7382:

Back when I was in 8th grade they had us draft a perfect oval for one of our first projects. Actually figuring it out with only a compass and a ruler will yeild a perfect oval with the dimensions that you need. I really liked drafting on a board and making true blueprints with the machine that smells like amonia. Using AutoDesk and a plotter took the fun out of it. :)

Ed_McCarron:

"true blueprints with the machine that smells like amonia."

Diazo paper?

DrewKaree:

An old-fashioned mimeograph?  Wait, is that redundant, or do I have to say it again for it to be redundant twice?

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