Shadowboard Build from the Basement Shop

[@ChristophLehner]

really love the explanation process! great video

[@scottprints]

Thanks Christoph! Just finished watching your PrintNC video. Awesome job, really like both the content and presentation of your videos. (I need to start using audio the way you do) I think you might have convinced me to start designing my next CNC... It's sort of a disease. Very jealous of your space and equipment. Someday I hope to catch up... Keep in touch! -Scott

[@ChristophLehner]

@@scottprints Hi Scott, Thanks for the comment! yeah the CNC is like a disease, once you're infected, your other projects will suffer from a lack of time :D

[@johnbarrera7998]

Hi, Is there any chance I could get a diagram or a step by step "how to" for the software and what else is needed for this set up? I have a raspberry pi and camera, id ike to make one of these. Thanks @@scottprints

[@scottprints]

@@johnbarrera7998 hi John, I really don't have more instructions past what I put in the video, sorry.

[@ForgeAndWander]

My god, this video is criminally under-viewed and under-promoted. Amazing job👏👏👏

[@scottprints]

Thanks! Probably under-promoted because I haven't released much content since this video. I have a ton of ideas, but time... Not so much.

[@seankmc]

Great job! Looking forward to the socket/ wrench storage board!

[@scottprints]

Guess I'd better start designing that!

[@TheBlackshear]

Ahhh the bench, ingenious way to have something be multifunctional. Great video!

[@scottprints]

Thanks Chuck, glad you remember the old office benches.

[@Chaldaean]

Quality video and nice work! Watched it from beginning to end (which definitely doesn't happen with most videos). Thanks!

[@scottprints]

Thanks for watching and for the comment!!

[@ronaldchinn5967]

Simply the most awesome way I’ve ever seen to build shadow boards!!!!

[@scottprints]

Thank you, I used to be a tooling manager at several aircraft manufacturing facilities. I got really frustrated with typical shadowboard design & fabrication processes so I came up with what you saw me demonstrate in the video.

[@christopherkalika9853]

Hey there. I've never actually commented on a KZbin video before, but I thought your presentation and your helpfulness really stood out and deserved some feedback. I love that you're using open source software to do this, but also that you've made it accessible. Your speed of presentation was brilliant and I particularly enjoyed your tangent on cutting heads. Definitely keep producing videos and tutorials and good job on making it to Hackaday. :)

[@scottprints]

Hey, thanks! I feel honored to be the recipient of your first KZbin comment!

[@benjaminhagen5599]

Great video, you've just gained another subscriber. Please make another one as it was genuinely interesting.

[@scottprints]

Thanks Benjamin, I appreciate the encouragement!

[@michaelcampbell1471]

Really awesome video Scott. Excellent end result. I do like the subtle plugs for each software used and its application...gives a really good lead-in to the more in-depth concepts to explore without getting off-topic.

[@scottprints]

Thanks for noticing that. This is one of those projects that builds on lots of other skills, and it would have been really easy to go off on tangents in any number of places while documenting this process. Appreciate the comment!

[@TheSpeakGeek]

Loved it. This is how a video should be done.

[@light12a]

Awesome project! I wanted to share a way to keep the tools in the slots. I have kids that use my tools, but I need the tools back where they belong. What I did was spraypainting all the tools that same color as where they are from, in your case it would be the same color as the shadowboard. That way, it makes it easier for them to know where the tool belongs. Another hack I do for my metric sockets is spray paint paint them in sets of five as a sequence of red, orange, yellow, green & blue. Every red is a multiple of 5. For example, one "rainbow" set would be red 5mm,orange 6mm, yellow 7mm,green 8mm, blue 9mm. Another would be 15,16,17,18,19mm. That way you can quickly know going up or down which increment of metric you need without squinting to see the number.

[@scottprints]

Cool hack, thx for sharing!

[@johnbush8224]

I loved this video. Everything hit home for me from the imaging to the final board. I'm going to look for more on this including the imaging setup you have. Thank you!

[@scottprints]

"Stuff Made Here" (I think his name is Shane) just did a video on a robot that measures puzzle pieces. It also uses a camera and a backlit light. Shane's significantly better at this stuff than I am, so his video might give you some ideas as well.

[@goneballistic]

I'm gonna be honest, this made me more excited than it should have..... So freaking cool

[@philw8130]

Strong work. I found your video very informative and well explained. Your flow was easy to follow and you stayed focused on the important steps of the process.

[@scottprints]

Thx!

[@MrTakoyaki1]

love it, please make another video. I'm invested

[@scottprints]

More to come!

[@mightygrom]

The shadowbox device is something I need to look into. I think it would be a great addition to my shop. Thanks for the video.

[@GlueTubber]

it definitely peaked my interest! I went through the whole "cell phone, inkscape" process, and I gotta say - I'd much rather build the shadowbox and use that process. Genius!

[@hhattingh]

I was looking for materials and a good video. This is absolutely gold! It came up quite randomly in algorithm. Your employer has it right. I would never have heard of them if it was not for you loading this tutorial. Thank you! Keep it coming

[@scottprints]

I should charge Vycom for my marketing!! Thanks for the feedback!

[@ShopRamblings]

You are awesome! I totally understand wanting to make videos but not having enough time. I just added "attempt to make a photo box" to my video list. I've never written any Python code before, but with all your helpful answers to the comments, I think I might be able to figure it out. If I do, I'll make a video and link it to this one.

[@scottprints]

Good luck, and thx for the kind words! Concerning Python: your local public library will probably have some good "getting started with Python" books. That got me started and I was able to hobble through enough code to make the shadow board box from there. Please keep me posted!

[@uuid.uuid4]

Killer mix of skills! Very impressive

[@scottprints]

Thx!

[@bajojohn]

I’d love some more info on your camera and light box setup and how you are editing the images.

[@mikesaseung3061]

We REALLY need a tutorial on the lightbox!!

[@tristin5723]

As a fellow aviation background with a messy toolbox this touches my soul.

[@scottprints]

Yep.... Not like working on cars!

[@jacobjeurissen1823]

100%

[@steveallwin1056]

Phenomenal job! A man after my own heart. This project is AWESOME! Maybe after the socket drawer the kitchen utensil drawer? Really great video and I will stay tuned for your next video!

[@scottprints]

@@steveallwin1056 Thanks for the feedback, nice to see that this video is still getting a few views. I'm working towards being able to film again. Since I made this one, I've moved. Hobbies have had to take a backseat to other parts of my life, but things should start settling down soon.

[@42Pursuit]

Loved the video! The explanation and walkthrough of your process was super interesting and I'd love to see more of what you are working on. Keep up the great work!

[@scottprints]

Thanks! I appreciate the feedback!

[@patrickscinto1389]

Scott, like always outstanding instructions!! I think I will bring my tools to you to have them shadowed. I I think this would work to make something nicer for the every day kitchen for storing our silverware, spatulas, larger spoons, tongs…. Ideas are endless. Amazing video! Keep them coming.

[@scottprints]

Thanks Pat! Great to hear from you again!!

[@gga3053]

Thank you so much for such an excellent video. After reading through some of the comments! I thought it might be worth mentioning this. There is a company called Shaper that makes a product that helps with this process. Certainly not as cool as your bench Raspberry Pi system, but less intimidating for non programmers. Their product is called Shaper Trace. It is a plastic frame with a sequence of fiducial marks along the four sides. It includes access to a phone app that handles snapping a photo and doing the math to correct for images captured at different angles. It produces an SVG file that is size accurate and very close to being ready to cut. Some of the files will need a bit of the manual cleanup mentioned in this video. In my experience most of the files are good enough to send directly to my laser. I think it costs about $100. I have one and it is perfect for this application. The one trick that makes Shaper Trace work better for creating tool shadow files is to place the tool and the Trace frame on a lightbox before taking the photos with your phone. This is much like the lightbox included in your bench. The backlighting provides just enough contrast for the Shaper Trace app to get really clean outlines.

[@gotflute123]

Thanks for the video: this is a wonderful idea and video, which a good explanation of both the theory and how you made the "scanner".

[@scottprints]

It was a lot of fun to make! Actually, I'll be working on it more today. I upgraded to a raspberry pi 5; looking forward to seeing how that changes the performance. Plus I want to make some code changes.

[@stuartkorte1642]

Great video. Just did foam this week for a small pliers drawer. Really like the tool capture camera.

[@scottprints]

Thx! It's a work in progress. Got a few ideas for improvements, but I have no idea when I'll have enough time to play with it again.

[@davidmoody2741]

Loved you video, great work on the shadow boards. Well done and thank you for sharing Dave

[@scottprints]

Thanks, it was a fun video to make.

[@andrewrobotbuilder]

I'd DEFINITELY like to see a follow-up video! I'm not in aviation but since I'm working on restoring an antique car stuff like this really helps designing neat and organized tools (mostly since my dad can't do the same - drives me nuts). Definitely worth the subscription

[@scottprints]

Welll, feedback seems to be fairly positive. Guess that's my signal to start working on Part 2. Thanks!

[@Xrayman1961]

Thank you. Love the concept of the video, but the complexity made me save it so I could go back and develop a process to do the same thing (parse it out to get the overall job of organizing tools to save time as a system). Thanks again for the great video.

[@scottprints]

You're welcome. Glad it was helpful.

[@dastatiks6182]

I absolutely love the video, perfect balance between tech and fun ! I'm a fan !

[@scottprints]

Thanks!

[@sierraecho884]

Fantastic, the DIY picture capture and editing blew me away, this is extremely handy. A video on how to make the capture system possible would be great.

[@riggsron]

Pretty good video. I appreciate the dry sense of humour underlying. It was fun. It was educational. and, even better, it was timely. You have earned a like and a subscriber. Hopefully, you will have more videos in the future.

[@scottprints]

Thanks Riggsron, I appreciate the feedback. I really enjoyed making that video, I have another topic in mind fory next one. Just need to find the time to actually make it.

[@Ripper6504]

Wow that and awesome setup that photo setup is so mint!

[@scottprints]

Thx!

[@2manytoyz123]

Thank you for sharing your techniques. I’m looking at doing something similar with my toolboxes and various projects I’m building. I don’t have a CNC router, but I do have a couple of laser cutters. I will be cutting layers of EVA foam to achieve similar results. Going to research the camera method you used. Way faster than measuring with digital calipers and creating a CAD model.

[@scottprints]

Good luck! Don't forget to post back here and let me know how your version of this project worked out!

[@brettpassmore6070]

Great information. I'd love to have the ability to do this. Well done.

[@scottprints]

I'm thinking that I'll do another video on a different method. One that doesn't require Python scripts or a CNC. Standby for that!

[@EweToupeHandel]

Awesome video Scott! Please do keep the videos coming. I'd be very interested in a video about your imaging processing workflow on the Raspberry Pi.

[@scottprints]

Thanks! It's though to decide what to do with that workflow. On one hand, people seem interested. On the other, I'm absolutely a novice programmer and I don't want to present bad practices (and I know that I my code could be vastly improved)

[@joshteiken8515]

@@scottprints Very cool video! I'm also very interested in the build of the image processor.

[@ammonsequiptment9877]

I would love to see that as well.

[@StellarEclipseStudio]

​@@scottprintsHow about someone that works in Python every day? I'm getting close but I'm missing something. I could help clean up the script you're using. :)

[@scottprints]

@@StellarEclipseStudio I think I'll take you up on that! How do I contact you outside of KZbin?

[@harold6108]

The skills and craftsmanship are truly exceptional. 👌👏👍

[@scottprints]

Why thank you!

[@stevesmith6946]

Very Cool never thought of using my cell phone to get the shapes.

[@scottprints]

Yeah, you're going to need to include something in the photo to establish scale (say, a coin or something else of known size). But it can be done with a cell phone camera.

[@StripeyType]

I definitely need to shadow/french-fit my tools, as all of us do. I probably won't build the shadowbox measuring device you have, but the general "photo-to-toolpath" workflow absolutely seems like the way to go.

[@scottprints]

Good luck! Post some pics if you complete the effort and share the link!

[@JoshIlles]

I would love to do this to my toolbox! Looks super clean.

[@scottprints]

Thanks Josh, I'm planning on doing a video about a less technical version of this technique. I think that learning Python, CAD/CAM, and access to a CNC is a fairly formidable barrier for most people that watch this video. But there are some other methods that can create the same effect. Hope to be able to work on that video soon. Thanks for the comment!

[@henchmantools]

Well done! Great explanation and your boards are really accurate!

[@scottprints]

Thank you, it's always fun to see the boards that you put up on LinkedIn as well!

[@RandyZimmerman-pp5wj]

I don't have any training like you do but i understand your explanation of the cube color and as you move around the cube the color change awesome

[@scottprints]

Thanks for the comment! Truthfully, I don't have any training in this area either. I watched a lot of KZbin videos and played with Python a bit. I never went to school for any sort of CNC or programming education.

[@DimensionMachine]

Great video with a good explination. I like to use a flatbed scanner and corel draw for doing something very similiar. The poly material you used is indeed neat stuff, heavy as heck but neat and tools literally last forever when cutting it. An endmill will last tens of thousands of inches in this stuff. Thanks for sharing.

[@scottprints]

Thanks for the comment! Yep, we cut this stuff at work, and it isn't terribly hard on the tooling. Hey.... I've been wanting to ask about doing this on a flatbed scanner. How does the profile capture work with tool edges that are a couple inches away from the glass? I wanted to re-create this contraption with a scanner, but I'm worried that thick tools will be out of focus if parts of them aren't right on the glass.

[@DimensionMachine]

@@scottprints I dont think I can say that I have done anything 2" thick. If it had straight sides I think it would not be a problem since as you know th scanner bar is always looking straight up iff you will as it moves along the bed. I have done lots of cardboard patterns for things that I want to profile and cut in more expensive materials like carbon fiber and such where you really want to get it right the first time. It has always worked perfectly. Lately I have been tracing around wrenches, pliers and the like for foam inserts. That is what brought me to your video. What my method lacks in refinement however is the fact that I have to bring a PDF of each tool into autocad and then manually trace around the object that i want to shadow with a polyline drawn manually. It is a tedious process and it can take a few hours to trace around a whole tray of wrenches. Sometimes I profile cut reliefs when I want it to go all the way thru the 13mm EVA foam, and other times I cut relief pockets in the foam by laser engraving partially thru the foam for shallower stuff. I then stack up 1 to 4 layers of the foam with the corresponding cutouts and glue them all together. Again it is not a a fast process, but it sure does look amazing when it is done. I use 24" square EVA foam gym floor tiles from home depot or Amazon as it cuts quickly and beautifully with no residual stink on the CO2 laser. Again thanks for the inspiration!

[@OlivierFaber]

That's great! I don't have a cnc but I can use much or the process for 3d printing custom boxes etc. Thank you for sharing.

[@sparkspeedshop8320]

Fantastic production. Start to finish. Highly entertaining. Can we just send you our tools?! 🤣

[@scottprints]

Ha! I haven't even finished my own toolbox yet!

[@natehill4267]

Great vid, hope you make more

[@scottprints]

Thanks! I plan to as time allows.

[@crazyethanyeahyeah]

Wow! Love the awesome video ... went way over my head. Ethan from down under.

[@scottprints]

Thanks!!

[@Scottua]

Please do a more in-depth video on the lightbox-bench. I'm thinking I need one of those!! Thanks!

[@NorthWoodsCustomCreations]

Agreed! That would be awesome for all kinds of stuff!!

[@th3fallen]

Came here to say the same thing, I need one of those light boxes In my life

[@johnlucas4846]

Really great video and explanation. Inspiring

[@specfever2]

The graphic with the "Monitor" comment at @1:55 was priceless!

[@scottprints]

@@specfever2 alright!! Somebody finally noticed that joke!

[@specfever2]

@@scottprints LOL. :) Your humor is ironclad, my friend.

[@glennchua]

Great video. Planning on building one of your Raspberry Pi devices, but want to be able to photo larger tools... thinking large enough to vectorize a full size reciprocating saw. Will start to do some research and planning tonight. Thank you for the inspiration !!

[@scottprints]

@@glennchua good luck!

[@ap2179]

"Do I really need 22 sets of pliers??....Yes, I do!" 😁 I get it!! Do I need over 150 cookie cutters in my daily use baking bins? Well yes! Yes I do! 😊🤷🏻‍♀️👍🏽👍🏽

[@CarPe0010]

Awesome Video, thanks for sharing! Any possibility to share more information to build a „photobox“ like yours?

[@MichaelMalinowski-s6m]

Awesome video. I'm a maintenance manager and trying to optimize the effectiveness of my team and I 200% agree that a razor knife and foam is a half-effort into a good direction. I am curious though (because foam is less expensive than the materials you used), how you mapped the outlines with your shadow box (and how I could do it) and use that data to laser cut 5S foam inserts instead of CNC. Thanks for taking the time to make this video. You explain things very well for people to understand.

[@scottprints]

Hello Mike, If I were you, I'd back into the process from the end. So start with your laser and cut a piece of foam with it. Can you make a shadow board? If the answer is "yes, but it takes forever" then you're ready to start improving the other parts of your process. That's how I did it, I started cutting foam with a scroll saw and constantly looked for ways to take the pain out of the overall process. If you have a CNC of some sort that can cut a shadow board, then start looking for ways to automate. A next logical step might be to map out your tools in some CAD software (semi manually), then after your team is comfortable with that process, build a rig like the one I demonstrated so that the silhouette generation process gets easier. Hope that helps, let me know if you have more questions.

[@rantruett]

Nice work, really pro scale finished product👍

[@scottprints]

Thx!

[@gtcam723]

Slick set up. I need to figure out a way to do this.

[@joshkelsey3618]

Great video thank you for sharing your process.

[@scottprints]

Thanks for watching! I appreciate your input, Josh!

[@davewarrant8673]

Excellent Video, Thank you!

[@chadedmondson8263]

Well that was awesome. By all means, keep filming!

[@scottprints]

Thanks!

[@IroncloudMetalworks]

Hot damn. Those are beautiful shadow boards. Very cool scanning device, too. No space for a CNC mill at my current shop - but I sure hope I can get one someday :-) Good use of that Pro-Lift mat too - I tried using it to shadow with a box knife and it sucked but the mill would obviously get it done :-)

[@scottprints]

I'm impressed that you recognized the Pro-Lift mat! I've cut up a few of them. Too bad they're so small, I wish they came in bigger sizes.

[@IroncloudMetalworks]

@@scottprints haha yeah -- I've been down this road a few times! I actually ended up stacking gardening knee pad/mats from the dollar tree for my shadow boards -- as it cuts perfectly with a razor. The pro-lift it's very economical for what it is -- but it is so difficult to get a clean cut -- --- I even chucked a nice endmill in my hand drill and it cut fine -- but it was tedious and hard to get it to look right :) It's actually pretty nice for rolling around on the ground tho :) It's a shame they don't make them wider -- finding bulk foam like that is $$$ -- just goes to show economics of scale matter!!

[@scottprints]

@@IroncloudMetalworks I have a theory on why bulk foam is hard to obtain. I could be wrong, but I think that shipping costs destroy the economics of good shadow board foam. It can't be terribly expensive to produce; but the shipping costs are probably why it's so hard to find.

[@ujd2930]

oh man this is an awesome video ! you'd make a great teacher !!

[@scottprints]

I've been told that before! Thanks!

[@CODTALES-KILLSTREAKS]

A video on how to make the camera system would be awesome. I have a pi and the camera. Would be great to make that ! I have been asked to do this with my laser and I would love to build a little bench like that.

[@scottprints]

I wish I had the time! Would love to make a video like that, but I have had 10 minutes to call my own in months. Thanks for the suggestion though!

[@tomaschacon4275]

@@scottprintsthere are definitely people who would value that information and would enjoy watching! I subscribed in hopes I see that video pop up on your channel soon.

[@scottprints]

@@tomaschacon4275 Hi Tom! I'd love to make a detailed video about the camera system, I really would! Unfortunately, I just don't see a lot of free time in my schedule anytime soon. Thanks for the note; if a few dozen hours worth of free time ever falls into my lap, I'll make a camera system video for you. Take care!

[@tomaschacon4275]

@@scottprints No worries, I understand how busy life gets! If you get a free chance, you should post a few pictures of the internals especially wiring and post them on your community page. I get a full video may not be in the cards but some photo references would mean a lot. Thanks again, awesome video!

[@rwsvoodoo]

I'd love to see how you built the shadow box camera

[@scottprints]

It's all Raspberry Pi hardware. You can find separate tutorials for hooking a pi to a touch screen, input buttons (switches), camera, etc. The scanner is just following all those separate instructions while making the wires long enough to fit into a box. That's pretty much it.

[@Engineerd3d]

Awesome work!

[@scottprints]

Thx!

[@OrdinarilyBob]

Excellent video. Well produced, and amazing content. I dream of having such a workshop. Maybe someday. My only complaints are regarding the lack of Little Ponies and Sharks in your toolbox. LOL

[@scottprints]

Somebody finally noticed the humor!! Congratulations Bob, you're the first! And shops are fun; highly recommend that every person should build their own 'me' space someday. They're great!

[@landonjacobs8392]

Exact KZbin channel I needed

[@scottprints]

Good to hear! What sort of projects are you working on?

[@landonjacobs8392]

@@scottprints I'm currently in tech school during my highschool school day. Me and my other fellow classmates are working on a shelf with 6 casters on it 4 of them being locking and the shelf's have rubber on them. We are building it for Aurora flight sciences. They have cool cnc machines, fixtures, robot machine tending, paint booths it was really cool to tour there facility they even have a computer inventory system that is like a vending machine but for tools and PPE... We finished the shelf but still have to mount the shelves on the beams which at are a 45 degree angle. There will be 4 shelves on it to hold airplane rotors that Aurora flight sciences manufactures. I'm still learning manual and cnc machines at my school and I find it very interesting. I like making things and I learn something everyday in this industry I love it.

[@karnachandru8702]

Great video. Thanks for sharing!

[@scottprints]

You're quite welcome, thanks for the feedback!

[@austinwarren6842]

8:25 cool to hear from an employer. Thanks for sharing!

[@scottprints]

Yeah, I enjoyed working for Vycom. I left almost a year ago, went back into aerospace. Though I do very much miss access to scrap HDPE...

[@rsshemi]

great video! would love to see tutorial for the picture box build.

[@scottprints]

Thanks!

[@ndpesicgroup]

Great work !!!

[@scottprints]

Thanks!

[@amrsaber5671]

Thanks for your amazing effort❤❤ I want to know if i can use my mobile instead of the raspberry pi ?! And all the programs i need for editing and to do all process

[@ammonsequiptment9877]

This is amazing. Do you have a details on the bench / photo booth ? I hate to say this right off the bat but I would buy one of those readymade happily

[@scottprints]

Thanks for the feedback! I really don't have any additional info past what I put in the video. If you have a specific question, might be able to point you in the right direction. But I don't have a detailed "how-to" guide for this project.

[@linusmalmborg6635]

Really love the photobooth, and the video!

[@genjitsu7448]

OK - first, great video. Tons of very unique and useful content. The project was very well executed and the choice of material is super interesting! Have you ever used your CNC to cut out the Kaizen Foam material? Does it work or does it tear it all up? I really did enjoy this video though and this is the first time seeing one of your videos and I am subscribing. Cheers.

[@scottprints]

Thanks! I have used my CNC router to cut foam before. It works, but dense foams work much better than soft foams. I think Kaizen foam would be OK to cut, but might be pushing the limit on "too soft to cut with a router". Dunno... only way to know for sure is to give it a shot. Appreciate the subscribe! Hope I get some time to make another video someday. Life's been pretty busy lately.

[@genjitsu7448]

@@scottprints "Have you been busy?" that is a joke from a band named 12 foot Ninja on a song called One Hand Killing and they do a bit of comedy at the intro of the video... pretty funny but if you don't know them it may not be... Good song also if you like modern progressive rock music. I also have been busy, got a new job a year ago and turns out this squad works massive amounts of overtime and Saturdays and right through some of the holidays!!! It sucked but I learned a lot and got a different position where we only work a bunch of OT! But better than not having a job. But I did literally noting other than work for the entire year so it was rough. Anyway thanks and I'm looking forward to seeing more of your videos. Cheers

[@xandersnyder7214]

Annnd you just earned a subscriber! I have been wanting to make shadowboards for my toolbox for a long time now and have been discouraged by products like Kaizen foam (mainly due to the astronomical price of it) I am in the final stages of building my CNC router and this would be a perfect project for it! Do you have your scripts for your machine vision camera setup posted anywhere like Github? Can't wait to see more projects, now I need to go find that pesky 10mm socket.....

[@scottprints]

Good luck, keep me posted on your progress. No, I don't have my scripts posted. Mostly because I'm a novice programmer and this was a learning experience for me. Consequently, my script is poorly commented. While it works, it could be MUCH better and I know that I'll have to re-do it soon. Cost of the material is always a challenge. As I said in the video, I'm lucky enough to work in the factory that makes Playboard. I was allowed to take home some scrap for this project. If I didn't have that resource, I'm not sure I would have been able to make the video. Thanks for your comment!

[@huguesdupuis8725]

​@scottprints , that's an amazing video! Your scanning device is a brilliant idea! I was wondering what are the dimensions of the back light surface (what's to biggest tool you can fit in)? Speaking of dimensions, how do you define the distance between the camera and the tool? What's this distance value in your case?

[@lorupa]

SVG bench is really cool!

[@scottprints]

Thanks! It was fun to build.

[@nilsgoetting]

Really an ingenious solution for recording the contours of the tools. 👍 I would like to rebuild your box, but unfortunately I'm not so good at programming the PI😬. Can you perhaps explain in more detail what exactly you have installed here or provide the source code or an image of the SD?

[@scottprints]

Hello Nils, Thanks for your note. Unfortunately, I'd rather not distribute my code. Couple reasons for that: I'm not a great programmer myself, and I know that if I distributed my code I would be inundated with requests for assistance from people that were having trouble adapting my poorly-written code to their own use cases. Second reason is that Potrace requires a license if it's going to be used inside of a proprietary program. While my script is for hobbyist use, I'd hate for someone else to use my script inappropriately as a basis for a commercial program that might come back and bite me later.

[@StevePrior]

Very impressive. I made a shadow board by tracing the tools onto paper then photographing the paper as a hack to avoid the camera distortion, then tracing the image in CAD and carving on the CNC. Any chance you'd make the Raspberry Pi scripts public? I'd be very tempted to also build an automated scanning box.

[@scottprints]

At the moment, those scripts are so cobbled-together that I think they'd be more trouble than they're worth. Maybe someday if I re-write them, I'll put them up on GitHub or something.

[@StevePrior]

@@scottprints Even documenting the steps a bit more would be valuable. I can write my own Python, just could use a head start on the process.

[@Xrayman1961]

@@StevePrior I agree. It's better to have a jumbled toolbag of code to start out with and then polish than to have nothing to start with.

[@Linkolite]

you’re so good at explaining this stuff, what did you study if you don’t mind me asking? Cool stuff man

[@scottprints]

My masters is in 3D printing

[@jmcdonnell32]

Yes please for the sockets!!

[@MarkEichin]

The photo-bench is adorable. (I'm afraid I'd never be able to keep it from getting buried underneath things when I wanted to use it, though...) Do you find the intensity mapping accurate enough (you mentioned doing a bit of shape cleanup but it seemed to mostly be about being smart about the tool, rather than fixing glitches?) Or would a black lining (so there was less reflected light on the camera-facing surface) help, maybe for chrome tools (like the socket sets that you're doing next)?

[@scottprints]

Well, the trick is in how the cube is broken up. I find that I get better results if the split is closer to the white corner of the cube. That way, the pi has a better chance of labeling shiny tools as "tool pixels" -otherwise shiny pixels can get mistaken for background pixels.

[@scottprints]

But yes, the black lining is a good idea. I've been toying with the idea of painting the inside of the box black.

[@stevehowe9677]

Yes please!

[@foxgarage4573]

Hey Scott, this is an awesome project I hope you do cover this in more detail in the future. I'm going to attempt to build one of these myself as I have great application for it for internal company use. I do have a question, you mentioned what you have the red and blue buttons do but what are the others for?

[@scottprints]

Ending scripts, starting scripts, and looking cool. They came in a 5 pack, so I decided to wore them all in.

[@InformationUnavailable]

Dude, I am begging you to do an in-depth tutorial on building the silhouette box. I would happily buy the plans for it, or donate to your channel to get this video.

[@scottprints]

I wish I could! But I have no time right now. That CNC you saw me operating in the last video is in about 200 pieces now. I need to find a new workshop and get my equipment set up again, and that all has to happen in the scraps of time that aren't taken by other priorities. I'd love to make more videos, but I just don't see any room in my schedule for the effort. Thanks for your interest though, it's always nice to get positive feedback about my builds.

[@upacliff]

Awesome video! I've watched a ton of videos about tool cutouts, and I think this one is the best. Do you have a name for the material you used? I have searched and searched for 'co-extruded high density poly ethylene' and similar, but haven't found much yet. Certainly not much where you can choose colors. Do you have a name for the 'family' of products, or other competing products? Thanks,

[@scottprints]

Thanks for the comment. You'll want to look for Vycom Playboard. There's some industry knowledge required here: Vycom is owned by Plaskolite, and neither 'brand' sells directly to retail consumers. i.e.: you can't sign into Vycom's website and order a sheet of Playboard. You have to go through a distributor. I'm also pretty sure that you'll get some sticker shock when you find out how expensive a sheet of Playboard is. By the time Vycom, the distributor, and the trucking company recover their costs and add their margins, it's probably going to come to several hundred dollars per sheet. The only reason that I used it in my videos is because I literally worked in the Vycom factory when I was filming. I was able to ask for permission to take some scrap home at no cost to myself. ('cause I was making an educational video, otherwise management probably would have denied my request) Regardless, good luck with your own project. You can also search for "Cross Linked Polyethylene" -which is the stuff that shadowboards are usually made from. Still expensive, but not as bad as high-density polyurethane.

[@MrJockoDundee]

Holy Cr@p Man! Maybe you can call Dustin Hoffman to help you with your OCD!!! My man man Vern!!! LOL. Great stuff.

[@scottprints]

Who's Dustin Hoffman? Anyhow, thx for the kind words! I made that video more than a year ago and I'll bet that those two drawer inserts have saved me hours of "where did I put that (insert tool)". Probably hasn't been a compete wash yet, but the drawer inserts are still really helpful.

[@Punkinchunks]

Liked for showing the exact Chess Set my father taught me chess on!

[@scottprints]

Classic Games, circa 1960! Great chess set!

[@djflorianbo]

Great Video! I did some Shadow boards in the Past as well but digitalising the tools was always been a pain. Could you share more details on the Box you use or might share the Python code? Cheers

[@therugs2459]

Awesome video, any chance you would share the script you wrote? I would love to build a tracer box, but only starting to learn OpenCV.

[@scottprints]

Thanks for the feedback; but I'd rather not share my code anymore.

[@hrykne6134]

many thx for the hints

[@jpwd1999]

I'm gonna show this to my boss to try to convince him to let me make our shadow boards in house

[@scottprints]

It's the way to go! Do me a favor: post back here after you've had the conversation with your boss. I'm curious to know how it turns out. Are you in aviation?

[@jpwd1999]

@@scottprints will do! No I'm in industrial automation. Ever heard of Festo?

[@scottprints]

@@jpwd1999 no, but I'll head to Google right now. I'm all about industrial automation. Stated differently, I don't know anything about industrial automation, but I think some Python and a few sensors placed strategically around my factory might be super useful.

[@CisnerosShop]

Do you have a video on the light box, camera, script? Or a way to make something similar?

[@scottprints]

@@CisnerosShop only what's in the original video.

[@kristopherdb]

would you be willing to share your cut out file? I do not have the necessary training to build the lightbox

[@waldo_r3571]

The shadow box is awesome! I’m interested in either building one or purchasing one, any information you can provide regarding either?

[@scottprints]

If I were you, I'd start by working through the software as 1's and 0's are free. Get started with your language and hardware of choice (I used Python and Raspberry Pi products) and build out a working model on the bench. If you can get that to work, then go bigger and get a box to put it all together with a backlit stage. Good luck!!

[@superprojb]

Awesome. Thanks.

[@scottprints]

You're welcome!

[@BushPilotB]

Great Channel! Just got subscribed :) give it some time and you got 1mln subs 😃

[@scottprints]

Thanks!

[@hrykne6134]

hello. i appreciate this video and now I want to build a fotobox myself. Are the programming steps in python the following: - taking the picture converting to bmp - then using undistortion library opencv - convert bmp to svg or eps with portrace library - sending to a folder on the network or usb stick? thanks for your advice best regards

[@scottprints]

Hello, Yes, that's pretty much the Python workflow. I prefer to have Potrace output .dxf files, but the .svg or .eps formats you mentioned would work just as well.

[@hrykne6134]

@@scottprints 1 question.. do you have all the pictures on 1.dxf or are those multible

[@scottprints]

@@hrykne6134 I have the script spot it out both ways, generating each .dxf individually and one master .dxf. that way I can use whatever output I need and send the rest to the recycle bin. Gives me more flexibility.

[@hrykne6134]

are they useful tuts for the opencv part, I want to first rotate ä distortion operation but just finding those chess board tuts with cam adjusting...

[@__stuart__]

Great video +1 Subscriber! I've been wanting to build shadow boards for a long time, but have kept being put off by the bad results of taking a photo and trying to clean it up to an acceptable standard before actually building the board in CAD. I've tried so many methods, but always end up disappointed. Your RasPi solution is just genius. Please could you share more about it's components and the scripts that tie it all together?

[@scottprints]

Do you have a more specific question? I did everything that I could (short of posting my script) to convey the process in my video.

[@__stuart__]

@@scottprints Short of posting the script, it would be most useful to me to understand the libraries you used to automate the workflow of photo to usb stick at the push of a button, so I could have a go a coding something similar. I've taken PiCamera and PyPotrace from the video, but have little understanding how you isolated the tool from the background. Although I get the theory, not sure how you produced that in code.

[@scottprints]

@@__stuart__ sure! Use PiCamera (or PiCamera2 nowadays) to make a 3 dimensional array in NumPy. Then you can use some match functions on each pixel to determine its distance from either the black or white corner. Once you have that distance, each point in the array can be categorized as either "tool" or "background" That ought to get you started! Good luck!

[@__stuart__]

@@scottprints Just wanted to loop back and close this off. I've got some code that I'm happy with for now (these things are never "finished", right?) to extract the tool from the background using PiCamera2 and OpenCV, now just need to find some time to have a play with Fusion360 and the CNC. Thanks for the pointers - really useful starting point.

[@scottprints]

@@__stuart__ Code is never finished. Good luck, and keep me posted!

[@imadahmad9114]

Do you mind pointing me in the right direction on how you saved all the images to a single file

[@samrahme4236]

Hey great video, awesome process! How do u make sure the scale of the vector outlines is the same as those of the tools in real life? Thanks appreciate it!

[@scottprints]

Hi Sam, Scale on a tool of known size and remove the barrel distortion will get you most of the way there. Parallax error is still an issue, but keeping the camera as far from the tool as possible minimizes that error.

[@CisnerosShop]

⁠@@scottprintshow to counter the barrel distortion using a phone? Taking overhead pictures using a white background with lights to minimize shadows? Thanks for the video, info and your time

[@scottprints]

@@CisnerosShop well, I think "how" you take the photo (in your case, with a phone) is irrelevant. What's important is knowing how much barrel distortion is inside of your images and then removing it. You may want to do a search for "openCV barrel distortion correction" for some examples that show Open CV being used with Python for this function. Then you can take that knowledge and apply it to your project.