A lot of things are going on at Sienci Labs, and it’s time to talk about what the future looks like for the LongMill product line.

As you might know, the goal for the LongMill was to build an entry level, hobby-focused CNC machine with these characteristics:

• Price affordably
• Features that both beginner and experienced users wanted
• Large enough to do a wide variety of useful projects

A shift in the entry level market

When the LongMill first came out as a Kickstarter project in 2019, it was a radical addition to the hobby market. Not only was it significantly less expensive than some of its earliest competitors and popular machines of the time (like the Shapeoko and XCarve,) it introduced the use of leadscrews, which was (at least in our consideration) far superior to the use of belts.

Over the years, the LongMill was iterated with notable changes including:

• Transitioning to using 3D printed structural parts to metal and injected molded parts
• Custom aluminum extrusions
• Introduction of T12 based power transmission systems
• Introduction of gSender as the most advanced and intuitive hobby CNC control software
• Integration of notable accessories such as the Vortex Rotary Axis, Autozero Touch Plate, and more
• grblHAL and the SuperLongBoard, bringing next generation CNC electronics and control
• Introduction of a 4ft wide format, allowing the use of full width (4ft) sheets

Over time, we’ve seen a lot of changes in the hobby CNC landscape. The first is most hobby CNC producers going upmarket, focusing on “prosumer” machines in the $3000-6000USD range in favour of entry level machines in the sub-$2000 range. This left the LongMill as one of the only mid-format hobby CNC machines in the market.

We also saw a big wave of Chinese hobby CNC brands like Foxalien and Sainsmart enter the market, allowing users to get a taste of CNCing for a few hundred dollars. This created a big gap in the market, where users could get a very entry level CNC machine for a small amount, or move up market to a machine that could be used for small scale production for a few thousand dollars. The LongMill sits somewhere between.

Where does that leave the LongMill today? First, this presents a unique opportunity for the LongMill to combine the best of both worlds. The current design of the LongMill has not seen much change in the last 2 years. With access to new technologies and resources, we believe it’s time to implement advancements into a new version of the LongMill to make it relevant to the times.

Pricing

We will be lowering the price of the LongMill MK2.5. There is a market reason and strategic reason for this change. Over the last two years, we’ve seen a slow decline in LongMill sales. We believe that there are several factors to this, but the two main factors come down to competition and the price delta between the AltMill and the LongMill:

1. We believe that the LongMill now competes more closely with entry level Chinese hobby machines rather than North American built hobby CNC machines, and thus we should adjust pricing to reflect this. 

2. We’ve noticed the price difference between the AltMill and LongMill is small enough that most customers are choosing the AltMill instead.

The LongMill MK2.5 is still a fantastic entry-level CNC machine. We still have customers who actively use their LongMills, and regularly see examples of the MK1 versions being used on a daily basis too. We don’t know exactly how many LongMills are in the wild, but we’d estimate that there’s been nearly 10,000 shipped since the launch of the machine. However, to adapt to these external factors, we’re also making some changes.

New pricing for the LongMill MK2.5 will be available Oct 13, 2025. All machines and their variants will be reduced by $300CAD or $220USD, until supplies last.

We believe that these pricing changes make the LongMill a more competitive option in the current market, aligning with other, more direct competitors.

With regards to the strategic factor, we want to make some space for the new version of the LongMill. We’ve started prototyping some initial designs and want to start prepping for production early to mid next year. This means that we want to liquidate some or most of the existing stock of the current LongMill MK2.5.

What is the new LongMill?

In many ways, the new LongMill will be the same as the old LongMill, aiming to serve the same target demographic at a similar price point. However, the LongMill will be updated with all of the new technologies and development we’ve implemented between the LongMill and AltMill. 

We don’t have too many details to share at the moment, but keep an eye out near the end of the year for more info!

Future of the LongMill MK1, MK2 and MK2.5

Support for all prior generations will continue to be available in several different formats:

• Wear components like the Delrin ACME nuts and v-wheels will continue to be available on our store
• Cross compatibility with the SLB, motors and power supply across all generations of the LongMill will continue to allow for replacement options
• All design generations of the LongMill will continue to be open source, which allows users to fabricate their own parts if necessary
  

We expect the new version of the LongMill to have a lot of similarities and shared parts, allowing some cross compatibility. However, we don’t expect there to be a simple or affordable upgrade path for the core structure of the machine.

Final thoughts

We’re excited to navigate through this new hobby CNC landscape. We’re excited to see this market grow and new competitors come into the space. With new developments and advancements we’ve made in the AltMill line, plus everything we learned from shipping thousands of LongMills, we’re excited to bring new advancements to a new line of beginner focused, entry level CNC machines.