Conrad Electronic UK
Europe's leading electronic specialists now in the UK

One of the major selling points of the SUMPOD 3D printer kit was the ability for me to put my toe in the water as it were, with cnc machining. My main hobby is model engineering, with wooden toys for my grandchild, Freya taking up more of my time. Also since we are awaiting (7 days overdue) our second, more wooden toys are too come.

That, with the fascinating 3D printing aspect made the purchase worthwhile. Building the kit now in retrospect was the easy part. The software has been more challenging and its something not really talked about in the '3d printer' world. You do need to be prepared to get involved in both programming and 'non standard' installations of software, with some programs needed to be installed before you can install the one you want (i.e. Python before Skeinforge). I have decided to add a section just for software here on the site and without the help of SUMPD forum members (some of whom are professional software engineers) I would not have gotten anywhere near the successful milling detailed here.

Conrad Electronic UK
Europe's leading electronic specialists now in the UK

Well I have completed the first successful milling exercise on my SUMPOD. Thats not to say I have aquired 100% knowledge and ease of use, no I have more to learn in the software stakes, much more.

The SUMPOD is now on the brink of being useful in the model engineering workshop. I intend to cast a part soon in aluminum.

First however, I used polystyrene to practice on and its a good job since the Z axis was a problem initialy. I downloaded the file produced by 'stohn' from the Forum and was surprised when loading it into ReplicatorG and running it in what I call 'ghost' mode, ie no tool in place.  You could have knocked me down with a feather when it ran first time with no drama! Something unusual in my experience!

Conrad Electronic UK
Europe's leading electronic specialists now in the UK

Well I didn't get too much time this morning to get the SUMPOD working with the Dremel. First I had to make an adapter to hold the  Dremel flexi-shaft.  I thought this was a better option than mounting the Dremel itself. So I turned up a nylon blank with a 10 degree inclusive taper in one end to mate with the handle and at the other end a recess for the washer held in place with the thread. Between the washer and the nylon blank I made a spring up to give about 3mm of movement.

Once this was done the next problem was getting a program to run on the SUMPOD. I had an example of a picture that was kindly sent to me and its this file that I used to a trial run. However the start position wasn't right and I had to stop it before it finished.