The Challenge Of An Elliptical Beam

We have glued circles, spirals, and manufactured beams with holes in them. We have also glued an ellipse. This ellipse had a very tight curve – tighter than the tightest radius that we can glue with nominal 1″ material (that is 7′.) So, we had to work carefully with material we planed down to make this ellipse. 


This photo shows the two ellipsis halves being fabricated together so that they will fit as a complete ellipse on the jobsite. We took the extra time to match them, rather than just cut them individually, to be sure they would fit.

Besides the tight curve and fabrication, the other challenge was shipping this project. It shipped in two pieces but we could not lay these on their side on the trailer because the shipment would have been over width. In the end, the best solution was to ship the pieces upright using a cradle on the trailer.