creating a tapered ellipse

[marcros]

How would I go about creating something like the picture below. I want to make a few, so am open to suggestions to do it by hand or machine. The only method that I have to rule out is offset turning because I have neither the equipment nor the skill to do that. The points can be more rounded than the picture looks if necessary.

I was wondering about marking it out using a couple of templates and using a rasp or tilting the bandsaw table and cutting it out using a 1/4" blade.

Any suggestion on grain direction, either up and down or side to side should have plenty of strength I would think.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

They're not very large, so if the batch isn't too big (say 20 or so) just make 'em by hand methods. Rough out with a coarse rasp, finish with finer files and abrasives. The first will be quite slow, the second quicker, and by the time you get to the fifth, you'll be knocking them out like shelling peas. You could waste a lot of time and materials coming up with fancy jigs and fixtures, and end up spending far more time on the job overall. (If you need hundreds, sub-contract the job to someone with a several-axis CNC router.)

On grain direction, without knowing the application, it's hard to offer an opinion. Whatever seems sensible, I suppose.

 

[marcros]

i was thinking of a batch of a few at a time, so hand tools are probably as easy as anything. I was looking for a reason to get some of the rasps that dictum tools are selling, so this could be the ideal test of them.

The batch size will be dictated by boredom- a couple of hours one evening and see how many can be produced! They are to produce a wooden version of these http://www.amazon.co.uk/CHATARA-NC1-Nut ... B0043LFH64 . Mine will have a flat screwdriver bit in as the pointy bit, as suggested on another thread, and a nicely shaped wooden handle, but the principal is the same.

 

[xy mosian]

I think I'd attack this by hand. Grain at right angles to the flat surfaces, trap the thing? in a sash clamp held in the bench vice and use spokeshaves and block plane. The tail of the sash cramp can be held in the bench vice at an angle to make work easy on the back. I could see the tricky bits being both marking out the ellipses and getting the centres lined up correctly.
xy