We have another action packed month to share.
Removal of the US De Minimis Exemption
If you’ve been following the news, especially if you’re from the US, the exemption that previously allowed for products entering into the US under $800USD to pass without customs or duties has been abolished. This has caused disruptions in the shipping industry, with new rules being enforced for packages entering into the US.
With much of our products being produced in Canada, we have already certified our products under USMCA/CUSMA, which allows for products from Canada going into the US to be shipped duty free. This means that for the most part, our US customers will be unaffected by these changes. However, we have already removed the ability for US customers to purchase certain items, namely t-shirts and routers, to be bought individually since they do not comply with the USCMA trade agreement.
Due to the changes, Canada Post/USPS shipments going to the US have been suspended due to the need for shipments having to be cleared and duties paid before they enter the US. It will take us some time to implement this system. Instead, US customers currently are only able to ship their products through UPS. Due to our longstanding relationship with UPS, we have been working closely with them to reduce errors and issues with shipping, as well as continue to comply with changing regulations.
It should be noted and expected that shipping delays and errors are more susceptible to happen across all shipping carriers, due to ongoing changes with US regulations. We’ve had a more than normal number of shipments get returned or missing than usual.
Floor Removal and Production Space Shuffling
The past year has been pretty crazy in getting things organized for inventory and production. We’ve been using offsite warehousing to help store inventory, and getting things into our production space for assembly and shipping. To add some more space, we’ve taken out the old flooring used for power and HVAC. This means that we can increase the load capacity on the group and use more high racking and lifters to keep inventory.
LongMill MK2.5 Pricing Changes
We have some pricing changes coming down the pipeline!
Check out our new post for more info
AltMill 2×4 and 4×4 Production
Production for 2×4 and 4×4 has moved very quickly and we have pretty much cleared the queue, with some orders shipping in less than one week. We are now waiting on Batch 6 parts to arrive, and we expect the queue to fluctuate, but remain relatively short moving forward.
While most shipments are shipping much quicker than 5-7 weeks, we are keeping this estimate in place as we expect some slowdown in shipping while we shuffle around our production space.
AltMill 4×8 Development
The AltMill 4×8 launches Oct 29th!
In other news, lot of progress continues to happen in AltMill 4×8 development, more focus being put on:
- Long term wear testing on the rack and pinion system
- Improving the assembly process and structural rigidity of the base/table
- Demo projects with our prototype machines.
We’ve now built two full prototype machines, and we are expecting to have some go to beta testers shortly.
New Endmills for the AltMill Now On the Store
Bigger machines and bigger spindles means we need bigger bits! We’ve added more end mills to our store. Check out all the new bits at the link below.
https://sienci.com/product-category/end-mills-bits/new-2025
gControl Panel Computer
gControl Panel Computers have been selling more quickly than we expected and we are currently out of stock. We are waiting on new stock to arrive and expect it to arrive in early November.
I should note that the new version of the gControl will come with a slightly upgraded processor (N150). The older chip, the N100, is expected to be phased out over time, so we’ve gone ahead with having the next batch use the new chip. This new chip is slightly more expensive as well, so expect a small price bump.
For more info, please check out the article: gControl N150 Update.
Automatic Tool Changer
Automatic Tool Changer development continues on at lightning speed. Here’s a cool new update for gSender and ATC integration, which will show different tool path colours based on which tool is being used.
A couple of notable parts of development include:
- Stress testing the cooling system
- Toolsensing system
Certified VFDs
As we discussed in our previous updates, we have been working on building our first batch of certified VFDs. We’re excited. We have now shipped the replacement VFDs to Canadian customers who have been waiting, and we have started taking orders for new customers. The new batch of VFD with certification is expected to ship in Jan 2026. In the meantime, customers outside of Canada will still be able to order our regular line of VFDs and spindles.
While certified VFDs are only being sold to Canadian customers at the moment, we are planning to change over to this design completely once the remaining VFDs for the US market have been sold out.
Clear-Cut Dust Shoe
Dust shoes go through a lot of abuse. While 3D printing has allowed us to scale up our dust shoe production quickly and make changes on the fly, 3D printed material isn’t the most durable. We are updating our 80mm dust shoe with our own, polycarbonate dust shoe.
Not only is polycarbonate stronger, the fact that it’s transparent allows users to see dust going through the dust shoe more easily and see how the bit is cutting.
Additionally, the new latching system makes it much easier to take the new dust shoe on and off the spindle, and the new magnet bristle holding section makes it much easier to remove for tool changes.
New spindle kits will start to ship with the new dust shoe soon, and we will start taking order for the new shoe soon as well. Early November is the estimated sale date of dust shoes as single items, and they will cost approx. $95 CAD.