How to Draw a Perfect Oval Any Size 

Blown away by how simple but accurate this is!

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge! Without people who are thoughtful enough to share like this I would have done so much the hard way. Now off to make my oval/elipse!

Hats off to you and your father, Scotty. You helped us overcome an obstacle so we can complete a project. Thank you.

This method definitely works. It took me a few minutes to figure it out because I couldn't really see the string, the oval, or how he tied it up, but once I figured out you make a triangle and just remove the top point, it worked like a dream. Tried it on a small board for practice, will now use it for a 6'x9' oval flower bed in the front yard. Good tip.

Thank you thank thank you. Been a woodworker for going on 30 years and this is the easiest oval I have ever seen. I wish I had this in my pocket when I was younger.

Thank you; did the trick nicely. If I was to reshoot this video, though, I'd use a felt-tip pen so the oval would be visible to viewers.

You know I just got done watching 5 videos showing how to draw an ellipse with a compas and I love math especially geometry. BUT, I just stumbled onto your video which I do have listed on my favorites list and I remembered you right off the bat when I saw you come up next on the showings. Every day and all day long give me that good ol' country boy and they will cut through all the garbage and show you things that we all walk away saying to ourselves: "Did you see that? How in the heck did he do that?" As I was watching these other drawing videos of ellipses I was thinking of the guy (you) that showed me how it is done with some nails and a string, no matter what the size. And there you were. I will never forget you for that very good peace of simple down home commonsense problem solving methods. BRAVO to you Sir.

Awesome tutorial!!!! I’ve been searching EVERYWHERE for LARGE oval templates and was stumped! Everyone seems to think 8”x10” is large!!!! Thank you!!! You saved me $$$ and time!

Truly impressive way to draw an oval. All these years and never thought it could be that easy. Thank you for the lesson!

you are the ONLY person on RU-vid that specifies how to use specific measurements which is what I need to use so thank you very much for the re-education of something I used years ago, but forgot how to do it!

That's an amazing piece of folk engineering!

Legend. Thank you. 45 years and never knew this trick! Works great

Thanks so much for sharing this. So easy. Well done your dad xx

Thanks! You just helped me with a mural!

Thank you so much for this - really helpful, and it worked beautifully, so now I have a perfect large template for a glass top for a table!😃

Pretty dang cool trick. Neat how measuring your half-lengths from the top nail gives you the correct length string to make the oval of the correct dimensions.

thank you sir!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i have been stressing out on how to cut a curved frame and i think this is the answer.

Man is quite clearly a genius. Thanks from the UK.

Thanks for your video Scotty! That was way easier than all of the other videos I had watched on making an oval for my diy project. 👍🏻

Just what I needed to finish up my project. Great job of explaining the process!! 😎👍🏻

Thanks Scotty. That helped a lot.

Thanks for laying out the steps! I knew the two nails and string trick, but I couldn't figure out how to get the exact dimensions I wanted.

thank you for sharing Sir, so simple and easy tutorial, i can do many ovals now for my projects❤❤❤❤

thank you so much. i was trying to layout an oval 24" by 60" today to make a template and i just couldn't get it to look like a geometrically correct oval. thanks to you now i know how.

Love this! TY. You make this so simple!

absolutely brilliant

THANK YOU for the information. Elegant simplicity; and I never would have thunk that up :-)

Now that is a nifty trick, and one I can use in my studio to make template ovals....yeah!!!!! Thanks I will keep this informations...your Dad rocked!!!!!:)

What a really handy trick! Thanks for sharing that.

Thank you to you and your daddy. Just saved me a lot of time. Will have to remember this one. Just had to draw a 30ft oval :)

Ah!! This is wonderful!! Thank you so much!!

Thankyou, one of the good things about the internet, you can learn how to do something in just a few minutes. Thankyou for taking the time to share that. Now I have the perfect oval..

Excellent...thanks for posting!

Thanks for this instructional video!👍😎

Thank you for sharing your little smart tricks !🤗🤗

Thanks a lot,I had the diagram of that technique from a sign painter but he failed to explain it,this will make life a lot easier.

Very well demonstrated.

Truly impressive, Thanks

Very neat- if you do something like this again, please use a colored string or substrate for visual contrast. Thanks

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS VIDEO! I am making papier mache frames and my ovals were coming out pretty bad. Now I can do it!

THANK YOU! This is JUST what I needed! Whew. I thought it would be much more complicated than that. LOL! :)

Wow! That was short and easy. Thank you Sir for sharing that to us! I was wondering how to do it..I was so complex until I saw this video.

Oh no ! I cannot see the drawing it was to bright to see.

Wow thanks so much it was really helpful! 👍

great instructional video.... fast and to the point

Worked great

Thanks i almost was going to buy a compass (math is hard). Appreciate your tutorial :)

Thanks for the trick 👍🏻

Not only is that an oval, it’s actually an ellipse (a very specific type of oval)!! Brilliantly and quickly drawn; with great accuracy I might add. The key is that the length of the string is fairly constant (ignoring a bit of inevitable stretch; use solid core wire if you need greater accuracy!). Since the string length is constant, the sum of the distances from both foci (the fixed nail locations) to the edge of the ellipse is constant. That constant sum forms one of several mathematical definitions of an ellipse, in fact! See:

Nicely done. Thank you

That was neat!

Magic. :-) Thanks!!!

Brilliant!

Thank you ever so much for this!

this was so helpful thank you very much! :)

Thanks for posting!!

Great job

Now I can design my new table top. Thank you!

Thank you!

Great idea, thanks.

Very good . Thank you

Thank you so much! Very helpful!! : D

Thanks for sharing that with us.

Thanks so much! It really worked!! :)

That was cool, thanks!

The 21" was the Hypotenuse, so half your width is actually 23.7" giving you a total width of 47.4". Should have measured 21" from the center point out.

THANK YOU!!!

Thank you !!!

Great trick. Now here is a question on my task I am trying to do. I have a straight bar I am bending into a expanding oval. From the center mark of the board I am cutting it starts 8 inches to the right 4" down, 9" to the left and 5" up. Now it expands 4" right and left and 2" down and up. How do you draw this and make nice smooth arks.

thanks a lot!!! it went perfect :-)

this is so sick, i wanted to do it on paper but im going to attempt it anyway. wish you used a different coloured string though

Great! Show us more.

Nice! Thanks!

great trick, thx for sharing. Funny thing is, that I neither see the cord nor the line you drawn. To cite a famous Queen song: "It's a kind of magic” ;)

great expanation thank you

would be nice if he help up the board so we could see the finished oval.

Thank you so very much......You are awesome

Thank you Scotty. Helped me out with a custom chandelier! One note - Try to use string with the least amount of stretch you can get. Also, using uneven tension on your pencil while marking, can throw your dimensions off slightly. Depends on how picky you are with your dims. Great trick though!

Thank you:)

Great video

Nice! :D

Thanks!!!

Thank you! but i have an question i need an oval the size of 21x 8 1/4"x7"

Thank you so much

@iamzid oops your right i guess it does make a 42*22 oval

Nice !

Super

Brilliant

This is why we need the lightning network at massive adoption....so I could send this guy $5 for helping me out! Thank you!

Many thanks !!! :-))))))))

Thanks

I'm going outside to try this now and if it works, I just might have to swear!

thumbs up for the cars in the background

It would be easier to see on video if you did it with a darker colored piece of string and used a darker pen/marker to draw with. It is hard to see in this video because of the colors.

I'm sorry to tell that it ain't an Oval - it's an Ellipse "The locus of points for which the sum of the distances from each point to two fixed points is equal." Eggs are Oval - Ova, see - it means egg shaped.. My Daddy was a carpenter and he taught me this trick too.

❤❤❤

How would you use this technology to draw an oval on paper. Any idea on how to create the fixed points on paper? I'll probably figure it out before anyone sees this. The video was helpful and makes an oval so simplistic.

Cool

Ellipse different from oval?

Great effort! Use of a colored string and a Sharpie would have been a much better visual for viewers. A white string and piece of chalk on a black background would have worked, too.