Laying out an Ellipse Kevin Boyle explains how to properly lay
out an ellipse Laying out circles in the shop is an easy task
when you've got your compass, a centerpointâstrike a circle no
problem. But laying out an ellipsis is a little trickier. Today
we're going to show you a way of doing that with a framing
square and a shopmade trammel. Now what we're going to start
with is basically laying out the size of your ellipse: The two
main factors are your major axis and your minor axis. (Major
axis being the length of your ellipse, minor axis being the
width). I've laid those out; now it's time to make a trammel. A
trammel is made of scrap stock that is roughly 3 inches longer
than half your major axis. Start by drilling a hole one inch
from one end that fits your pencil snugly. Drive two 4-penny
finish nails into the stock, one is half the major axis, one is
half the minor axis. The other thing you want to do is file down
the tips of the nails after you've driven them through. Okay,
now we're going to lay out t