The Sienci Mill One is an open and simple mechanical platform which allows for easy upgrades that can improve the performance of the machine, making it faster and easier to use. Over the course of the last few months, small changes and redesigned parts for the Sienci Mill One, including longer eccentric nuts and aluminum XZ gantries have been included in machines which are being shipped right now. Our tests show that these upgrades have made it possible to mill 2-3 times faster than with our initial designs.
I believe that there is a lot of potential upgrades for the Mill One that our users can easily add. While some of these upgrades add additional costs to the Mill One, some users may benefit from the performance increase these upgrades. A stock model will perform quite well, but I believe there are some people who are willing to take their machines to the next level.
I had ordered a small set of parts to test on the Sienci Mill One to see if any would make a suitable upgrade, and I finally had a bit of time yesterday to try them out.
The first is replacing the delrin v wheels with steel v wheels. These wheels eliminate flexing found between the delrin and the aluminum angle, which allows for increased precision. Additional testing will be required to see if the aluminum will be worn away by the steel, but the results from this upgrade seem quite promising. With prices for these wheels anywhere from $4 each, to around $13 from Openbuilds, this is a fairly expensive upgrade since the machine uses 12 v wheels in total.
The next upgrade we tested was a beefed up version of our angle mounts. These are 3D printed parts which hold the aluminum rails, motors, and the frame together. This is a fairly simple and inexpensive upgrade (if you have access to a 3D printer) and makes the machine more rigid. This upgrade should only cost about $5 in material and about 10 hours of printing time.
There are a few more upgrades that I will be testing and working on to make the Sienci Mill One better, and as our user community grows, we will see more in the future! A few things on my list include a HDPE frame, spring loaded ACME nuts, and more!