Diggers at work shadow box SVG
Three diggers on a building site with the city behind them: an excavator on top of a mound of earth with its arm out, a wheel loader below it, and a small digger beside a wooden fence at the front. 5 sheets of card, cut and stacked with a gap between each, make the picture. The files are free, and every part of the scene can be moved, swapped or resized below before you download.
5 sheets at 8 × 8 in, zipped, with a note on putting them together.
Free for personal and commercial use, no sign-up. What you can do with it.
The 5 sheets
Sheet 1 is the back and sheet 5 is the front. Each one is a single piece with the same frame round its edge, so they line up when stacked. The colours shown are the “Lit from behind” set; cut them in any card you like. Cut sheet 2, “City”, the slowest: at 1.1 mm it has the thinnest part in the scene, and sheet 5, “Small digger and fence”, fills the most of the view, 28% of it.
| Sheet | What is on it | Narrowest part | Seen from the front |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Sun | A whole sheet with holes for: Plain disc | over 2 mm | 33% |
| 2. City | Flat ground, with: Five skyline buildings in a row and Office building for a skyline | 1.1 mm | 11% |
| 3. Excavator on the mound | Rolling ground, with: Excavator digger from the side | over 2 mm | 17% |
| 4. Loader | Rolling ground, with: Front loader to work beside an excavator | 1.7 mm | 9% |
| 5. Small digger and fence | A gentle slope, with: Excavator silhouette with a heap of earth, Wooden fence with dog-eared boards and Bunch of grass | 1.1 mm | 28% |
Measured from the files at 8 × 8 in. The narrowest part is the thinnest neck of card that holds anything on; sharp tips are not counted. “Seen from the front” is the share of the picture that sheet fills once the sheets in front of it are in place.
Will it cut at your size?
The download is 8 × 8 in. The scene maker above makes the same scene at any of these sizes; the thinnest part scales with it.
| Frame opening | Each sheet | Narrowest part | Depth needed | Fits a 12 × 12 in mat | Rule of thumb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 × 6 in | 152.4 × 152.4 mm | 0.8 mm | 17 mm | Yes | Fine detail: sharp blade, slow speed |
| 20 × 20 cm | 200 × 200 mm | 1.1 mm | 17 mm | Yes | Cuts easily |
| 8 × 8 in | 203.2 × 203.2 mm | 1.1 mm | 17 mm | Yes | Cuts easily |
| 23 × 23 cm | 230 × 230 mm | 1.2 mm | 17 mm | Yes | Cuts easily |
| 25 × 25 cm | 250 × 250 mm | 1.4 mm | 17 mm | Yes | Cuts easily |
Depth needed allows 3 mm of foam between sheets and 5 mm for the card itself and the backing.
Making this one
One for a child who loves diggers: the shapes are big and there is little fine cutting. Cut the three sheets with the machines in yellows, pale to deep, and the city in grey. The excavator and the loader are sturdy, at 1.7 mm or more at 8 inches. The windows of the far buildings and the small digger at the front are the finest parts, at about 1.1 mm. Nothing hangs on a thread.
- Cut all 5 sheets from 160 to 220 gsm card at the same size.
- Lay them out in order, sheet 1 at the back.
- Put strips of 3 mm foam tape round the border of sheet 1 and press sheet 2 onto it with the edges level. Carry on to sheet 5.
- Fit the stack into a deep frame with the front sheet against the glass. For a light box, run a strip of warm white LEDs round the inside of the frame behind the stack.
The zip includes these steps as a text file, each sheet as its own SVG and all 5 side by side in one SVG. More on paper, frames and lights is on the shadow box page.
The parts, on their own
Everything in the scene comes from the free SVG library, where each has its own page and file:
Questions
Can I add a child’s name?
Not inside the maker yet. Cut it from the lettering in the library and glue it to the bottom border, like the sign on a site fence.
Which machines are there?
Three: a tracked excavator with a long arm, a wheel loader with its bucket raised, and a second, smaller excavator beside a pile of earth. All three are under Vehicles in the maker.
Can I sell boxes I make with it?
Yes. Finished pieces are yours to sell. The files themselves may not be sold or shared; send people to this page. See the licence.
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