As we talked about in the blog post “Everything You Need to Know About the AltMill”, the launch of this new machine represents a pretty big shift in our company, what we do, and what we can do in the future. The AltMill now brings in a significant amount of revenue, which allows us to expand our capabilities and development as a company. Additionally, we can amplify the value of work we do with economies of scale and be able to share development and knowledge between the LongMill and AltMill.
We have some preconceptions in what we need and priorities in our hiring, but we also know that we have the opportunity to grow our team in a meaningful way and expand our collective expertise beyond what we’re familiar with. This is why I made a “general form” where folks who are interested in working with us at Sienci Labs can share a bit about them and we can see if there’s a potential fit.
To provide some transparency and information, here’s some stuff you should know:
Company focus
With both Chris and I being technical founders(we met while studying mechanical engineering in university), we both have a passion for engineering and technology. It brings us the most amount of joy and fun, and we are thankful to have a business that can support those passions. This sort of bring us to the general goal for both of us, which is
Have a team of people who we can work with build really cool things
Have a team of people who can take care of the stuff that doesn’t involve building really cool things so that we can focus our energy towards building cool things
We are a very technical team, with roughly half of us working in some form of development, production, or R&D.
Working environment
I think most people would consider the working environment at Sienci Labs to be “pretty chill”. Here are some things about our workplace:
We don’t have any specific working hours
Most employees are working some form of hybrid or remote
People bring their dogs and kids to the office
That being said, it should be pointed out that with some of the roles, especially with engineering and production, we do need people to come into the office since we do a lot of hands-on things at the office.
Who we’re probably going to hire first
Here are the primary roles we are planning to focus on hiring for:
Engineer with experience in mechanical and/or electrical engineering
Customer service and resource development for the AltMill
Web development with a focus on e-commerce
Engineer with experience in production, QA, and manufacturing
You will probably see some of these roles come up down the line on some job boards eventually.
That being said, we want to have a general form so that if you think we should be looking for people outside of these roles, we want to know! So feel free to share your info with us.
Hey guys, it’s Andy here. We’re excited to be launching a new CNC machine, the AltMill! This article is designed to tell you everything about the AltMill that we possibly can.
The AltMill name is derived from “alternative”, “alter”, and “mill”. We believe that “alternative” fits the namesake of the AltMill because this machine represents a different way of approaching things in engineering, technology, and the way we build our company as a whole. We believe “alter” fits the purpose of the machine, which is to take materials and alter them into new forms, uses, and purposes. And of course, since we use milling as our way of altering the material, we can put these ideas and words together to form the name “AltMill”.
The AltMill is a culmination of new technologies, hardware, experience in manufacturing, and customer feedback. Our goal was to take all of these things and build a machine we felt brought the most value to the CNC user by incorporating our ability to engineer high-performance, quality machines at scale.
Differences and Similarities Between the AltMill and the LongMill
The focus for the LongMill was to be a medium-format, hobby-focused CNC machine. Most users typically are looking to make things with a CNC in their spare time. Because of this, we made the LongMill the most affordable option possible in this size category, while being useful and effective enough to handle just about any CNC woodworking project you want to throw at it. We define LongMill’s success in its ability to make CNCing accessible to the average person.
The AltMill is designed to have the most “effective value” as possible. Its success is defined by how much value it can create versus the cost of the machine itself. In simple terms, we wanted the machine that would bring the highest ROI and productivity. The AltMill focuses on the intersection where we believe the performance versus cost ratio is the highest it can be for these users.
Here are some spec comparisons to highlight the differences between AltMill and LongMill:
We’ve tested the AltMill to over 830IPM (although regular cutting speeds are in the 250 to 500IPM range) in cutting speed, while most projects we run on the LongMill run at 100IPM.
Based on our deflection testing, the AltMill is approximately 8x more rigid than the LongMill.
While the LongMill’s main bottleneck in cutting speed is in motor power and rigidity, the AltMill’s bottlenecks are in spindle power and the strength of the endmills. We estimate that the AltMill could handle upwards of 6KW of spindle power (although it’s not likely we’ll dive into that anytime soon because there are a lot more expensive electrical requirements we need to tackle to get this set up for the average user).
That being said, there is an overlap between these two machines. The process of using the AltMill is basically the same as the LongMill, which means that our resources and education translate over between the two machines, and the ease of use and process of using of both is similar. Additionally, both machines are designed primarily for woodworking use, and the types of projects we expect users to create will be similar as well.
Should I get the AltMill or the LongMill?
This depends primarily on your budget and what you want to do with the machine.
Here’s why you would want a LongMill:
You are budget-conscious. The total setup cost for the LongMill is roughly half the cost of an AltMill. Additionally, replacement parts and maintenance is cheaper overall.
You have limited power in your shop. We recommend having two breakers to power your LongMill and accessories such as the computer and dust collection, but in some cases, you can get away with one. On the other hand, you may need to connect the machine, dust collection, and spindle on separate breakers depending on power availability in your shop.
On the other hand, here’s why you would want an AltMill:
You need speed. The AltMill can cut significantly faster than the LongMill. We regularly run the AltMill over 5x the recommended milling speeds compared to the LongMill. The productivity of the AltMill is much higher.
You need more working area. The largest version of the LongMill has a working area of 48×30″, whereas the AltMill can cut 48×48″. This means you can process half of a standard 4×8′ sheet in one setup.
You need more precision. With ball screws and linear guides, the overall precision of the AltMill is better. In practice this may not matter as much with woodworking projects, you may see a bigger difference in the accuracy of parts for materials like aluminum.
AltMill Budgeting
Of course, the higher performance of the AltMill comes at a cost. We discussed the breakdown of costs one should expect with the LongMill in our article here. Here are some rough estimates on what you should budget (in USD).
Based on my estimates, you should budget around $4500USD to fully set up an AltMill from scratch, about double the cost of the LongMill. You may have some of these items already which will lower your costs.
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The machine itself ($2950USD)
This is the machine and all the doo-dads to have a working machine, minus the spindle, wasteboard, and computer.
Unlike the LongMill, the AltMill comes default with table legs, so you don’t need to build a bench for it. Additionally, the AltMill comes with inductive homing sensors by default.
Based on our rough estimates, shipping within US and Canada should cost between $150 to $200USD.
Spindle and dust shoe ($515USD)
We recommend users to use a spindle with their machine, because running the Makita router on the AltMill will make the life of the router very very short and unenjoyable. We expect the majority of users to order the Spindle and Dust Shoe Kit which we offer as an add-on kit.
For users wanting to add their own spindle, we expect after all of the parts, wiring, and extra things you’ll need with the machine, it’ll run around $500USD on the low end, but could cost up to a few thousand dollars for some really high end spindles.
We are offering a 1.5KW 110V spindle at this time because we believe it will accompany the most number of people at the launch of the AltMill. However, we will likely offer higher-powered spindles requiring 220V in the future. Users planning to implement higher power spindles should also budget the cost of hiring an electrician for any extra work.
Dust collection ($300 to $1000USD)
Assuming you get the Spindle and Dust Shoe Kit from us, the dust shoe comes with a 4″ hose mount. To get the full performance from the AltMill dust shoe and to keep up with the cutting rate of the machine, a dedicated dust collector should be used. A regular shop-vac can be used, but may not be able to keep up with the waste material generated by the AltMill when running quickly.
At minimum, you will need a computer to run gSender to control the machine.
Wasteboard ($50USD)
Like the LongMill, you will need to mount a wasteboard to the machine. A 4x4ft sheet of 3/4″ is recommended as the base. On the AltMill, the wasteboard is mounted to it’s frame using screws. You can additionally purchase t-tracks if you wish to add some workholding to the wasteboard directly.
Tooling ($100-200USD)
You’ll also probably want to order some endmills and bits for your machine. You can use the same tools between the LongMill and AltMill, although we will likely expand our range of endmills to accommodate the larger collet sizes we can use with the AltMill spindle. Tooling costs vary widely, but we sell affordable end mills on our store.
Software ($0USD to $699USD)
The AltMill works with our free gSender for all of your machine control needs, along with additional features such as machine calibration, firmware changes and updates, surfacing g-code generation, and more.
For CAM, all of the software that works with the LongMill also works with the AltMill. You can learn more from our Software Resources. There are both many free and paid software options for the AltMill.
The most popular software, and the one we recommend frequently is VCarve Pro, which offers advanced 2D and some 3D carving features, flip-milling set-ups, 4th axis support, and more. This software has a one-time cost of $699USD.
What to Expect When You Get an AltMill
Please note that at the time of writing, we are starting the first production run of the AltMill. You may find relevant information about the Order Status page or in our Production Updates in the blog.
Shipping and Delivery
The AltMill comes in three large boxes. They have been specially designed to fit compactly to reduce shipping costs as much as possible. We estimate each box will weigh about 70lbs. With UPS or other courier shipping, you should expect transit times within the US and Canada to take around 1 week.
Packaging mockup
Based on some general shipping cost calculations, customers should expect to pay around $150-250USD for shipping within the US and Canada for an AltMill.
Set up and Assembly
Large portions of the machine will come pre-assembled, but final assembly of joining the sub-assemblies will be necessary. Most of the machine is put together with M5 and M6 screws, and a set of metric bits or allen keys are required to finish the assembly. Additionally, you will need to provide and mount your own wasteboard. We recommend using 3/4″ MDF.
We will have resources to help users set up and assemble their AltMill on our Resources in a similar style to the LongMill and other products we’ve created. Users should allocate between 3-5 hours for the assembly and set up.
Users will also need to provide a computer that can run gSender. More information about downloading gSender and details about its setup can be found in the gSender Resources.
Operation
The AltMill works just like the LongMill and most other CNC machines. We’ll provide more guides on setting up the machine for different types of work. Beginner users may find content in the LongMill Resources relevant. We expect this group of users to be a bit more advanced, and some of the content and information will reflect this. Additionally, users should expect revised content such as updated feed and speeds and installation for the add-ons to come soon.
Maintenance
The AltMill maintenance is simple, but needs to be done regularly to prevent damage to some of its components and have optimal performance and longevity.
Here are some estimates for bearing maintenance:
Ball screw and supporting bearing components should be greased every 3000-5000 hours, or a small amount of greasing done more frequently
Linear guides should be wiped and oiled for every 100km of use. With full-time use, users should oil their linear guides every 3 to 4 weeks.
We will provide thorough resources and guides to perform proper maintenance for the AltMill.
Engineering
Extrusion Design
The process of designing the LongMill extrusions gave us a lot of experience in designing extrusions for high precision and rigidity critical applications. Since then, we’ve used this knowledge to manufacture parts such as the t-tracks and the enclosures for the SLB. This experience was able to help us understand the quirks and strengths of aluminum extrusion in the construction of the AltMill.
The AltMill extrusions are big, especially compared to the LongMill, which lends to its strength and rigidity. If you want to check out the video where we talk about this more, see it below:
Clip from the video
To make sure that the frame and axis of the AltMill are straight, a few additional steps have been incorporated to make extract as much performance and accuracy from the extrusion as possible.
First is in our process of extruding and milling the critical surfaces flat. Once the extrusion is pressed, it gets annealed and straightened, which allows for fairly high tolerances. However, there can still be sub-tenths of a millimetre deviations in the tolerance and straightness of the extrusion. To eliminate this, mounting surfaces for the linear guides and the ends of the extrusions have been machined to ensure they are flat and parallel.
Second, additional extrusions that make up the base of the machine are designed to help keep the Y-axis rails straight and parallel. Each of the bottom rail ends have been machined to make sure they are of an exact length, so the distance between the two Y rails is extremely accurate. This also provides additional support and rigidity to the machine, plus having mounting points to make it easy to add a wasteboard to the machine.
Test assembly of the AltMill “bench”
Users will find that the extrusions also come with many different design aspects, such as t-tracks and mounting points for motor components, legs, drag chains, and more, allowing the machine to be easier to assemble and maintain while saving costs by reducing the number of parts needed to build the machine.
Design for Shipping
One of the challenges that come from getting a CNC machine, especially a large one, is getting it from the factory to the door. Most machines in this range do need to be shipped in multiple boxes and the AltMill is no exception.
To make it as inexpensive as possible to ship, we have made a lot of considerations such as:
How can we maximize the travel of all of the axis while keeping the rails as short as possible?
How can we keep the weight of the machine low while being structurally rigid?
What items are we going to make default or optional, and how will we design the packaging around these considerations?
What sort of weight and size can the packages be and how will it affect handling?
The AltMill is designed to come in 3 large boxes weighing around 60 to 70lbs each.
Design for Assembly
Because of the more complicated procedure for assembly of the AltMill, a lot of consideration was made to make the machine as easy to assemble as possible internally. Here are some considerations for the design for assembly:
Mounting surfaces for high-precision components like the linear guides and bearing blocks are machined and toleranced to help initial assembly onto the rails and gantries pre-aligned.
We’ve worked with our fasteners manufacturer to use custom make screws with pre-applied thread locker, reducing the chance of screws coming out from vibration and avoid the need to apply thread locker manually
Reutilization of linear guide assembly procedure, testing, and torquing of screws to ensure smooth movement of the assembly used in the LongMill Z-axis.
Machining tolerances for the AltMill X-axisBack of the X-axis gantry where the linear guide blocks mount
Linear Guides and Ball Screws
One of the biggest differentiators between the LongMill and the AltMill comes from the use of linear guides and ball screws. While the LongMill’s v-wheels and lead screws offer an affordable, simple, and forgiving linear motion experience, ball screws and linear guides offer another step above in precision and rigidity.
Our ability to integrate linear guides and ball screws comes from a few different areas of expertise we’ve developed over the years and additional research and testing we’ve done in this project.
Linear guides and ball screws are much more expensive than v-wheels and lead screws. However, we have been able to source them at a lower cost because we are able to order them in larger quantities. For context, ordering them at wholesale can cost 1/3 or less than retail prices, and we can pass those savings onto the customer. Second is our ability to understand the differences and context of the cost and in-practice differences between different linear motion components. The AltMill doesn’t use the highest-end, most expensive components because we know that for our users, they won’t experience or notice the benefits of it. By being able to balance cost and performance, we’re able to choose the right components for our application.
We’ve also had the chance to work with different linear motion components in the production of the LongMill Z-axis, as well as through other internal projects. Through this experience, we’ve been able to better understand the process of assembling and working with different linear motion components at scale, see firsthand the results of long term use and lack of maintence through LongMill users, and test linear motion parts from different designs and manufacturers.
We do expect some new challenges with working with linear guides and ball screws, mainly in educating users on proper maintenance of these components. While these components can last a very long time, proper cleaning and lubrication is critical to make sure they perform properly. From our experience, the biggest factor in the longevity of these components is in the proper lubrication. It should be noted that one of the main downsides of using bearing-based linear motion components is that lack of lubrication can dramatically accelerate wear and cause catastrophic damage. To mitigate this, we plan to provide proper instruction and lubrication supplies to make it easy for users to perform proper maintenance for their machines.
Tramming Functionality
For those who aren’t familiar, tramming is the process of adjusting the position of the router or spindle, typically by tiling it forwards and backwards, and/or left to right. This ensures that the cutting tool stays aligned with the Z-axis. Having a machine out-of-tram can result in things such as ridges or artifacts, especially on surfacing operations with wider bits.
The AltMill, as far as we’ve been able to find, is the first hobby CNC machine to have nod adjustment, allowing for the X-axis rail to tilt slightly forwards and backwards, eliminating the need to shim the spindle mount. Additionally, the AltMill offers tramming on the spindle mount, which allows the user to move the mount left and right slightly as well.
A combination of an eccentric bushing and shoulder bolts are used in the Y gantry and X-axis to provide nod adjustment (bolt removed for clarity) Similar to the nod adjustment, the router mount uses an eccentric bushing to adjust left-right alignment
I should note that the eccentric bushings are only used for tramming. In the regular set-up, they have a bolt securing through them, or a shoulder bolt which aligns them to the gantry by default. Also, I should note that currently the tramming for the Z-axis is only built into the default 80mm mount. We do have mounting options for the LongMill 65mm mount, but this does not have tramming.
It should be noted that having the machine assembled in the default position will be within spec enough for virtually all users. Most of the relevant parts are machined to very high tolerances, and there are also many reference mounting points and hardware to help have the machine aligned and straight out of the factory in the assembly process. It is unlikely users will be able to easily make meaningful adjustments without tools like a tramming tool or gauge and a surface plate, and we recommend keeping the machine at its default position.
Why did we add this as a feature? To be completely honest, I hadn’t even thought about it, but one day when I asked Daniel if he’d thought about it, he just shrugged and said he designed the whole thing just for the heck of it.
SuperLongBoard
While the SLB initially started off as a project for the LongMill, many of the technologies and improvements will be present in the AltMill as well. We are currently in the development of a new version of the SLB (code named ALT-SLB or SLT-EXT) that will allow the use of external drivers that the AltMill uses for its motion system.
SLB-EXT, with plugs for external drivers
The main focus of the SLB was to improve stability and reliability of the LongMill’s motion control. We believe the development in this area will translate to rock-solid connection between gSender and the controller. Additionally, on-going development to have a dedicated, on-board computer will be able to be used for both the AltMill and LongMill.
There are some other important aspects and features that we believe are very relevant for the AltMill, including*:
RS485 Spindle control
Communication between the controller and computer using Ethernet and USB-C
Programmable physical buttons to trigger g-code commands and functions such as homing, moving the machine to a corner, and more
Tool Length Sensor and Tool Changer support
Ability to manage more pulses per second for higher motor speeds
Squaring and calibration functionality
Full independent 4th axis support
*Please note that some of these features are in-progress and are not ready for release yet.
Along with the “brains” of the board, we are also working on an external power-switching system to distribute power to the motors and interface with the e-stop to ensure the power is cut completely in the case of an emergency.
It should be noted that the SLB and the SLB-EXT are not interchangeable. The SLB is primarily focused on being a controller designed to be plug-and-play with the existing motors on the LongMill, and does not support external drivers for the X,Y, and Z axis. The SLB-EXT does not have integrated stepper drivers on board and must use external drivers.
48V Power Supply
During the pandemic, due to the chip shortage, the original power supply that we were using for the LongMill became extremely expensive due to a specific chip needed for manufacturing. Because of this, we spend a lot of time looking into alternative power supply designs. By switching to a design more commonly used in lighting applications, not only were we able to decrease the cost of the stepper motors, we were able to improve the reliability of the power supply because we were able to internally encapsulate the components to protect it against moisture and vibration. Additionally, we were able to more easily make larger power supplies because of the improved heat dissipation properties of the new power supply.
With this change, we’ve seen a dramatic decrease in power supply-related issues for the LongMill while being able to provide more than 20% more power than the previous design. The AltMill power supply offers nearly double the power of the LongMill power supply at 48V, which allows for additional benefits.
The main benefit of a 48V system is the ability to run the motors faster. Stepper motors lose torque the faster they turn, which means that the faster the machine moves, the more likely it is to lose steps. Increasing the voltage allows stepper motors to “flatten” the torque curve, allowing more torque at higher speeds. With our initial testing with open-loop steppers, we were able to see some small gains in motor speed by about 20%.
Closed-loop stepper motors
When we first started prototyping and testing the AltMill, we quickly found out that one of our bottlenecks was the speed of the open-loop steppers we were using. Over the last few years, the technologies behind motor control has greatly improved, and the cost of these components has come down as well. Additionally, because of our ability to purchase the components at a higher volume, we’re able to also make the machine as a whole more affordable as well.
Closed-loop steppers are motors with an encoder that provide the driver with feedback on the position of the motor. With this information, the driver can correct the position of the motor in real-time, compensating for lost steps and adjusting power consumption based on speed and load.
With the LongMill open loop steppers at 48V, we were able to hit speeds of around 4000-5000mm/min. With the new closed-loop motors, we were able move the machine at around 25,000mm/min before the ball screws start vibrating and jam up the machine. We were also able to push the AltMill all they way to 5000mm/min^2 acceleration rates, 6-7 times higher than the LongMill’s defaults.
There are a number of additional features that make the closed-loop steppers an exciting part of the AltMill because:
The motors can detect crashes and jams, then send an alarm to the controller to automatically shut down the power and spindle down, making the machine safer
Because of the higher efficiency, they can run cooler and a smaller power supply than what an equivalent open-loop stepper system would need
Noise and vibration are generally lower
Spindles and VFDs
Given how powerful the AltMill is, having a spindle is a must. Looking into different spindle options has continued to allow us to look into many different considerations when it comes to picking the right one.
Testing deflection on a spindle
As I talked about in the past in this article, the quality of different spindles varies widely. Because of this, we’ve been hesitant in offering a spindle option since we knew there would need to be a lot of work involved in finding the right manufacturer for it. However, now that we need to get one for the AltMill, we’ve learned a lot about them. Here are some of the considerations about the spindle sourcing including:
The bearing quality, size, and configuration and how it affects the longevity of the spindle
The deflection from the spindle itself
Cost and availability
Cable quality and durability
EMI
Communication protocol like PWM, analog 0-10V, and RS485
VFD efficiency and control technologies like vector control
Programmability and ease of use of the VFD
Collet quality and size
Runout
We have a pile of VFDs and spindles in the testing phase. We haven’t settled on a specific combination yet, but we are planning on choosing one soon.
At launch, we plan to offer a 1.5KW 110V spindle that can run off a regular North American outlet. We are currently in the process of testing a 4KW spindle option that will require more power.
Table Legs
One of the main reasons why we didn’t end up making a 4×4′ LongMill is because we would need to move away from the “mount the machine to a big piece of MDF” design. Basically, since the machine needs to be larger than it’s working area. If we wanted to go for a 4×4′ working area, the material the LongMill sits on would need to be a bit larger (probably around 6×6′).
I should also add here that the main reason we chose a 4×4′ working area for the AltMill is because most standard sheet goods like plywood and MDF come in 4×8′ sizes, so the AltMill can process half the sheet at a time. I should also note that because of the back end of the machine is open, you can pass materials through the back, so you can put the full sheet on, cut into it, and move it out the other end without cutting it in half.
AltMill table mockup
If we were to have the AltMill come without legs, users would need to have a larger bench, also about 6ft wide and long, to accommodate. If you took two 6ft wide workbenches from your hardware store and put two of them together, you’d probably be paying around $800 for the pair. The extra legs on the otherhand, cost about $150USD and are made from bent and welded sheet metal in a local shop near us.
Additionally, the AltMill carries a lot more inertia when it moves, which means that the structure it sits on needs to be as solid as possible. This is why a lot of industrial machines use cast steel and welded steel frames, since the mass of its structure dampens the movement and reduces vibration. Of course, we’re not getting into that realm, but we knew that if we built our own table legs, we could make sure it was to the specifications and level of stability we would want to see users have by default. Additionally, we wanted to take the chance to build in a few extra features including:
The ability to add extra shelves underneath by screwing in some extra 2x4s to the pre-cut holes. These shelves are also designed to be 4ft wide at the front, so you can keep half sheets of material under the machine. Having the extra cross bracing adds more stability to the structure as well.
Add leveling feet, to make sure that each side of the table is contacting the ground, to avoid wobbling. These could potentially be swapped for casters, so the machine can get moved around.
Add mounting points for other items such as the VFD and e-stop (still in progress to solidify exact positioning)
We’ve found that at some really high accelerations and fast movements, the machine can “walk”, and so we’ve been considering sandbagging the machine to see if we can up the speeds even further. It’s probably not practical, but something of consideration.
Performance
One of the things I sort of realized is that for most hobbyists and beginner-level users, it’s hard to get context on how much “performance” a CNC machine has. So We figured that the best way to show it was to film videos on the machine doing stuff. So here are some videos below.
Here’s also another non-scientific test.
Daniel standing on the Z axis of the AltMill
Here are also some of Daniel’s notes about the rigidity, which should provide some context on where the AltMill stands based on his estimates. I should note that these are just rough estimates based on calculations from tests done by other users, so they may be incorrect.
Market and Competition
I see a lot of similarities between the launch of the original LongMill and the original AltMill in a number of ways. When the LongMill was first launched, it competed directly against machines such as the Shapeoko 3 and the XCarve. At that time, there were a lot fewer hobby CNC companies, and those were the most popular machines at the time. At this stage, cost was a really important barrier for people to get into the hobby, and we knew we needed to design something robust enough for people to use the machine to make valuable products while being affordable enough to get that ROI back as soon as possible.
An interview video with one of our first beta testers for the first generation of the LongMill
First, we made the LongMill design as simple as possible. This allowed us to have fewer parts, which not only reduced the cost overall, but made it easier to pack, assemble, and ship the machines. Second, we tackled the most common complaint and limiting factor that users (including Keith) complained about, which was the use of belts. By using leadscrews on the LongMill, we made this machine an even more compelling option. Even though our company was not very well known at this point, I believe that a combination of our approach to designing a better machine at nearly half the cost of the competition got a lot of new users on board into the hobby.
The idea of a 4×4′ CNC router table isn’t unique. In this market, the AltMill competes directly with machines like the Onefinity Elite Series, Shapeoko 5 Pro, Shapeoko HDM, and XCarve Pro Series as a mid to high-end CNC hobby router. However, by reading and studying the feedback from users of all of these machines, we’re able to focus on addressing these things in the AltMill design itself. I won’t go into them here in this article specifically, but some examples include:
Using closed-loop steppers to eliminate the issue of losing steps
SLB and SLB-EX development to address static and EMI-related control issues
Plug and play 4th-axis option
Additionally, although the price difference between the AltMill and it’s direct competitors is not as dramatic as it was for the LongMill, it is still priced extremely competitively and minimum $1000USD less expensive than it’s closest priced counterparts.
Moving beyond that, we believe that the AltMill may have some customers looking for high-end hobby to semi-industrial machines who are also considering the Avid PRO4848, Phantom SC44 and StepCraft Q.404CNC. These are machines in the $8000-13,000USD price range.
Just to be clear, the AltMill is not a direct competitor or replacement for a semi-industrial or industrial machine. A lot of these higher-end machines may have things like welded steel frames, which is technically better for high-speed cutting. In practice though, there is still a lot of overlap because both machines can do the same projects and run at pretty high speeds.
I sent an email to Avid to ask about the specs for the PRO4848 and this was the response:
In any case, Daniel and I had a long discussion about where the AltMill falls. It feels like the AltMill with its speed, power, and price, blows all of the hobbyist-level machines out of the water. When comparing the AltMill to some of the upper-level machines, the distinction between them also starts to shrink.
Here are some of my final thoughts:
If you’re looking for a hobby machine in the $3000-6000USD range, the AltMill has the highest performance in this category
If you’re considering a semi-industrial machine above the $6000USD range, all the way to around $15,000USD, an AltMill might still work for your application, or you can buy more than one to double your production ability.
There are a few areas I do feel like we need to work on to make the AltMill even more compelling and competitive which include:
An onboard computer and touch screen, similar to the Masso controller. At this current time, we are working on our own computer and touchscreen setup, and expect to have more news in the coming months
A more powerful spindle option around 3-5KW
Toolchanger
More advanced work holding system, such as a vacuum table.
Larger machine options
Future Goals for the AltMill
Engineering Trickle up and Trickle down
There is a lot of engineering that can be transferred between the lower end of our product line (the LongMill) from the AltMill to make improvements, as well a lot of things we learned from the LongMill in the manufacturing of the AltMill.
Some AltMill development that may trickle into LongMill include:
Toolchanger
3 phase spindle options
Z-axis and router mount designs
Bench/table designs
Some LongMill developments that may trickle into, or have already impacted the AltMill feature set include:
SLB features, such as USB-C and Ethernet, RS485, tool length sensor input, physical macro button support, external relay control, improved laser rastering, and more
Extrusion manufacturing and quality control processes
Customer service and resource development processes
Additionally, as we make more volume of each new product and technology, we can bring the price point and improve accessiblity because we can leverage economies of scale and the fact that the work of each project impacts more people overall.
New Markets and Verticals
So a bit of backstory. Sometime last year, we started rediscussing the potential of designing and developing a new machine. From this discussion, we had three contenders, the AltMill, the CO2 laser, and some sort of mill dedicated to milling metals. The decision was made that we should try to make all of them, one way or another. Both the AltMill and the CO2 laser are in development now, which leaves the metal milling machine project still up in the air.
Just for a bit of context, the engineering team had a general idea of making something similar to the Langmuir MR1, or basically an affordable, hobby-level gantry mill.
The plan was to make the AltMill first, and shrink the AltMill down to make our a gantry mill using the same core parts and electronics. Based on Daniel’s testing on material removal rates, it looks pretty promising we can build a competitive machine in this realm.
In my travels in the past year to Brazil and China, one of the gaps that I’ve seen has been in the way CNC machines such as VMCs are used for production. While large industrial machines have their place in making high-precision parts, their running costs are high, even if the parts are small, of lower value, or don’t require small tolerances. The idea is, rather than using expensive big machines all the time, smaller, less expensive machines could be used for milling batches of smaller, lower tolerance parts. Additionally, factories install and use several machines for the space and cost of one large machine to scale up their throughput.
The team and I have a lot of interest in exploring this avenue next, I expect the things we learn from AltMill design and production will help us tackle this new vertical.
That’s not to say we have some other things on the docket of considerations, such as:
Making a machine to target hobbists looking for a machine option below the LongMill’s pricepoint, size, and capability like the Mill One Plus.
A larger version of the AltMill for 4×8′ cutting
New accessories for the AltMill and LongMill, as well as support for other machines outside of our ecosystem
We’ll probably worry more about this after the launch and first production of the AltMill. But if you want to share your thoughts about what you want to see come from us in the future, make sure to share it through our form.
FAQ
Here are a list of questions people have been asking us. Please note that there are more FAQs on the main AltMill landing page.
Will the Spindle Kit be available for sale on its own?
A lot of people, especially LongMill owners, have been asking about if the spindle kit for the AltMill will be available as a separate option. The short answer is, yes, because we won’t stop people from buying stuff from us if they really want to. However there are a few things to consider.
First is that the 80mm spindle is pretty big and heavy. There is some testing and validation we’d want to do before making it an “official” LongMill spindle option because of this.
Second is that we’re also working on a “Sienci Router”, which we plan to launch in the next couple months, which will be a drop in replacement for the Makita router, with speed control, and a brushless motor that allows for around 800 to 1000 watts of usable power, or around double the power output of the standard Makita router, which will be cheaper, lighter, and more suitable for the LongMill.
I do recognize that at around $500USD, this spindle kit still offers a lot of value, and is priced competitively compared to other, plug-and-play kits. I think there will be a number of people outside of the LongMill and AltMill ecosystem that we can serve with this kit as well, so we will explore that option in the future.
Why offer a 1.5KW spindle when the AltMill can handle a 2.2KW or larger spindle?
Based on our testing between a number of 1.5KW and 2.2KW spindles, we felt like the power difference between these two options were not large enough to justify the extra complexity of having the extra 220VAC wiring. We are continuing to do both real-life testing and establishing a bench test to measure the true output of the spindle.
Based on our estimates, to get the full potential from the AltMill, a 3-5KW spindle would be best suited for the machine. However, most households would need to invest in having an electrician set up the appropriate power outlets installed to allow this use.
This comes to another question, which is “how powerful do we really need to make the AltMill”? The other bottleneck that we need to address is the strength of the end mills. Based on our real-life testing, another reoccurring issue is that if we run the job too fast, the end mills break. For us to cut even faster, we’d need to use larger-diameter end mills. In some cases, this may be useful, such as in projects like surfacing and boring lots of material, but this is a small subset, and may not make sense to offer a spindle designed to do that all-day, every-day, if the alternative is to slow down the machine during these types of jobs.
Will you be making a larger/smaller AltMill?
Very likely yes, since the AltMill offers a platform that can be made larger or smaller by changing the size of the rails and linear motion parts, as well as mixing and matching some of the components. Making a smaller machine is probably the easiest, since it doesn’t have the same problems as making a larger machine, as we will discuss next, and we have some ideas for making a machine more dedicated to milling smaller projects or metals, similar to the Langmuir MR1.
There are two main challenges to making a larger machine, which in this case is probably going to be a machine that is for cutting 4×8′ sheets. The first is in the power transmission system for the Y axis. The longer the ball screws get, the more prone to “whipping” there is, especially at higher speeds. To avoid whipping, we would need to consider other options such as a rack and pinion system, which isn’t something we have a design for. The second challenge is in shipping. The AltMill comes in three large boxes which can be shipped with a courier like UPS. A 4×8′ machine would need to have parts that are around 10′ long to make up the Y-axis, which would be heavier and harder to transport. This adds extra complexity in shipping and packing these parts safely.
That being said, we definitely see a strong interest for a 4×8′ machine. If you’re interested in one, please share your feedback in our Product or Feature Request Form.
Will there be a toolchanger available for the AltMill?
We do have a lot of people asking about this feature. With the SLB’s input and output suite and stronger Z-axis capabilities, the AltMill will be able to support a toolchanger in the future.
As in typical Sienci Labs fashion, we want to do a lot of testing and see if we can build something high-quality, reliable, and affordable, or work with another company to add this feature.
At this time, users will need to invest in retrofitting their own aftermarket toolchanger to the AltMill.
Can I buy the AltMill without the table legs?
Initially we were planning to have this a separate option, we’ve made the final decision to have the table legs a default part of the AltMill kit. There are two reasons for this.
Survey data about the table legs
First is that based on survey data from over 400 respondents, the majority said yes to wanting to order them. To save money overall, we decided that it would be most effective to design the packaging with the legs included.
This in theory leaves a small but not insignificant group of people who don’t want the table legs (24%), which is still a lot of people.
Back when we didn’t have a default router mount size (65mm) for the LongMill, a lot of people ordered the 80mm mount thinking that they were going to toss on a spindle instead. What happened in reality was that most of these people decided to not go down that route and just get the Makita router we’ve been recommending. Because these customers would need to order the 65mm after getting their machine with the 80mm mount, we found that it was just more cost-effective as a whole to make the 65mm the only option, and have the other mount sizes at an additional cost, especially if you took into account the extra customer service, shipping, packaging complexity, returns processing, and time wasted.
I feel like the table legs may follow a similar story because designing and making an AltMill bench will probably cost a lot more time and money than slapping on the ones we’ve made. I believe if we make the legs optional, there will be a lot of people who don’t order the legs at the beginning, realize this fact, and then have to spend the extra shipping cost to get a set of legs sent to them.
For someone who truly doesn’t need the legs, yes they may go to waste. However, in the grand scheme of things, making the legs defacto makes the overall cost to the customer lower.
Hey everyone, we’re excited to share our launch date for the AltMill.
The AltMill will launch on Wednesday, March 27, 2024 at noon, EST. You can access the order page at https://sienci.com/product/altmill/ when the page goes live.
For more information about the AltMill project, please see https://sienci.com/altmill/. If you have any questions about the AltMill, please see the FAQ.
Pricing
The AltMill will come at a base price of $2950USD/$3990CAD, which includes the table legs.
Users can also purchase the Spindle and Dust Shoe Kit for an additional $515USD/$690CAD.
The first 50 machines
As noted in past updates, we’ve jumpstarted the process by starting production on the first 50 AltMills in December 2023. This allowed us to tackle some of the major unknowns/questions, such as:
What will it cost for us to make the AltMill?
How difficult will it be to manufacture certain critical parts, such as the rails, linear motion, and table that we were most concerned about?
What will our QA and assembly process look like?
What sort of performance and reliability should we expect from the AltMill.
As of the time of writing, the plan is to offer the first 50 machines directly to select users and for internal use before our “main batch”. The first batch of AltMills represents our trial-run for production and comes with a couple of you-should-knows, especially if you’re planning to be one of the users in this batch.
We also plan to collect comments and feedback from our first batch of AltMill users to improve the user experience and tackle any initial quirks and issues in the first part of the product launch.
Some parts are still in shipping and manufacturing, and we expect the first 50 machines to start shipping in May 2024.
The “main” batch
This is what we expect most users will be part of. We will begin taking pre-orders at the end of March. Please check www.sienci.com/altmill for more information and a link to the order page.
The goal for our first main batch is to build enough units to leverage economies of scale to make our relatively low price for the AltMill viable. This not only involves the unit cost of the machine, but the work and labour needed to build each batch of machines, which might include work done to set up tooling, packing stations, and the ordering of parts.
Please note that to place your order for the AltMill, the total amount must be paid to hold your place in our queue.* You may cancel your order at any time before your order ships for a full refund. Once your order is in the possession by the courier or arrives at your door, our standard store policies apply.
The number of machines we’ll make in the first batch is still undetermined and will be based on the number of orders we get at the beginning of the launch.
We expect the “main” batch to start shipping in July 2024. However, we will ship orders based on when they were placed, which means that if your machine is in the later part of the batch, you will receive your order accordingly after July 2024.
Future production
If you feel that pre-ordering the AltMill now isn’t right for you, you will eventually be able to order and have an AltMill ship to you in a shorter amount of time, just like the LongMill. However, when this will happen is dependent on when our production capacity can meet the demand for the product, which is unknown at this point.
The goals for the future production of the AltMill is as follows:
Have a reasonable lead time for us to build and ship AltMills. For us, two weeks or less from when we recieve an order to when it gets shipped is a pretty good number to hit, but the lower the lead time the better.
Produce larger numbers of machines to leverage economies of scale and either reduce the price of the AltMill or invest our increased profits into additional resource development and R&D that benefits the CNC industry
Take our learnings from this new product, especially in the production and QA side to create variations to the AltMill, such as a smaller, stouter, more rigid machine focused more on metal milling, or a larger 4×8 machine.
The size of future batches will be adjusted based on demand once our main batch has completed.
How to get updates
We will continue to share and provide updates in our Production Updates which are released at the start of each month at www.sienci.com/blog
Additionally, we will write order updates as we currently do with our other products at www.sienci.com/order-status
For the most reliable way to get news and updates, please sign up for our email mailing list.
Hey guys, it’s Andy again with March 2024 production updates. I am currently writing this in China, where I am taking a bit of a “work-acation” but also to visit some suppliers and manufacturers that we work with.
This also means we’ll film the typical production update video a bit later, probably on the week of March 11th when I get back.
March is expected to be a busy month, especially as we continue to make progress in our projects like the CO2 laser and Sienci Router, as well as prepare for shipping and launch of the SLB and AltMill.
LongMill
Last month we paused shipping for LongMills as we waited for more controllers to arrive. We expect around 100 controllers to arrive in the next week or so (shipped on Monday). Once these parts arrive we will continue to ship machines and clear the backlog. More controllers are expected to finish the first week of March.
Additional production is underway for the LongMill, with motors, power supplies, and fasteners in production now.
LaserBeam and Vortex
LaserBeam and Vortex are shipping as usual. Ikenna and Abeku have developed a riser mount for the LaserBeam which allows for easier use in combining LaserBeam and Vortex to do engravings with the Vortex.
They are also working on some different magnetic mounting designs for the LaserBeam to make removing and attaching the LaserBeam faster and easier, and should have more stuff to share in the coming weeks.
AltMill
This month we have finally put the machine together and started running it through the paces. Check out Daniel’s video on some more updates. I would have been there for the video, but I am currently away.
Testing is showing some promising results. Here’s an excerpt from Daniel’s notes about the rigidity of the machine.
Also just finished doing some preliminary deflection testing of the machine with some pretty good results. This was done using the standard Sienci testing parameters/setup for the most part.
In the Y-axis, we have 0.003” of deflection at the tool with 80N applied
This is 1.05 N/μm rigidity
In the X-axis we have 0.0025” of deflection at the tool with 80N applied
This is 1.26 N/μm rigidity
For comparison sake, here are some misc numbers of other machine’s rigidity:
0.1515 N/μm in the Y-direction of the Shapeoko 3 XXL
LongMill MK2 48” Y-axis rigidity sits around 0.13 N/μm
LangMuir MR1 2.9188 N/μm in the X-direction, 4.3782 N/μm in the Y-direction
Onefinity (with added ‘stiffy’ rail) estimated to be 0.5 N/μm (realistically much less) based on one user’s measurement of ~1 N/μm at the bottom of the Z20 plate.
This pretty much only accounts for beam bending in the Y-direction, and not much torsion for which is the Onefinity’s achilles heel. It wouldn’t surprise me if this was even as bad as 0.3 N/μm.
This is mostly speculative, so not a fair comparison but worth mentioning.
I also checked the X-axis rail’s isolated deflection contribution. The rigidity of the X-axis rail assembly is ~3.75 N/μm. This is pretty good considering the rail was sized to be 4.9 N/μm and this is real life with extrusion and alloy defects and the like.
For comparison sake, AvidCNC’s 8016 extrusion was estimated to be 3.8047 N/μm. Considering it weighs (I think) like 4 times more than ours, this is amazing.
In other news, we are continuing to put together the online ordering infrastructure to prepare the AltMill for launch at the end of March.
Sienci Router
At the start of the month, we received the sample motor we’ve been waiting on to do another round of development and testing. If you’re not up to date on the development here, make sure to check out the last post.
The new motor is much more powerful, and showing promising results. However, we are waiting on some improved motor tuning to happen as we have found some issues with the speed control to achieve a full 1KW of mechanical output. We are waiting on an updated control board expected to arrive in the next week or so.
Additional to this is that we’ve started exploring more spindle options for applications needing higher power past the 1KW the Sienci spindle can put out. If you saw Daniel’s update on the AltMill, the new machine is so powerful, that even the 2.2KW spindle ends up being the bottleneck in our ability to remove more material.
Eventually, we hope to provide several options, the standard Makita as a simple, powerful, and inexpensive option for routing, the Sienci Router as a step above with more features and power to run the LongMill at its full potential, and spindle options to maximize the AltMill’s performance.
Spring Loaded Anti-Backlash Nuts
I’m excited to say that the first set of the injection molded nuts has arrived. To learn more about this project, please see the long post about them here (put link here). While the T8s overall look good and function properly, unfortunately, we are still experiencing some warping and inconsistent threading on the T12 nuts. Since not all the nuts are affected, we’ve put on the store all of the nuts that are currently ok. We will work with our manufacturers to iron out the issues with the T12 nuts.
Demand for the new nuts has been super high, with all of the T8s already sold out, and with T12s expected to be close to selling out by the time this post goes out. Not to worry, however, we are working on making another batch of a few hundred sets and make sure we don’t run out.
It should be noted that existing LongMill kits will continue to ship out with the original style of nut. Once we catch up on orders sold for replacement, we will start moving to making them a default option for new machines. We currently don’t have a specific timeline for it, but likely in about 2 to 3 months, since production and assembly of the nuts can take a long time.
SuperLongBoard
We’re excited to share that the new SLBs have started production and should be ready to ship in the next few weeks. We are also waiting on parts for the controller and estops to arrive in the next few weeks.
Work currently being done with SLB primarily revolve around checking for reliability and making bug fixes. We’ve also sent the SLB for testing to key grblHAL community members for feedback.
gSender has now been updated to natively support SLB and it’s features. You may have seen a toggle when connecting your machine to allow for GRBL and grblHAL available.
Additionally work on building controllers for the AltMill to provide external driver support, higher voltage, while sharing the same features is also underway, with first versions of the design expected to be ready in the coming weeks. However for the full development cycle, we expect it to take till end of April to have production-ready designs and firmware ready.
In addition to this, we have continued to work on the computer side of the SLB at a bit of a slow pace. However, we have put together this proof of concept where we have attached a VESA mount arm to the threaded holes at the front of the machine to allow for use with a touchscreen, as well as a mount for the computer. This design was created by one of our engineering students working at the company this term.
IMPORTANT: This blog post will be updated with more details once we receive the first batch of prototype nuts. They are expected to arrive in the first week of February.
UPDATE TO IMPORTANT: We received the nutsfor testing. Good news is that the T8 nuts are pretty good, but the T12 nuts have threading issues. We should be able to fix some of them and have them available for sale pretty soon, and we are working on making sure for full scale production they will have this ironed out.
Back in August 2023, we shared with the world a new “spring-loaded anti-backlash nut”. The basic idea was to address some of the pain points of the original Delrin Anti-Backlash nut which we’ve been using on LongMills since the first machine was released.
Early prototypes showed a lot of promise, so we decided to move forward on iterating on the design and moving it forward. However, throughout the project, we ran into different issues and roadblocks like all development projects.
We now are in the process of producing the first batch of nuts, and we plan to eventually phase in this new design for new machines. Additionally, customers can purchase ones to replace the nuts they already have in their machine. In a way, I hope that this can be sort of a “best-of-all-worlds” solution, over belts and ball screws because:
Unlike belts, lead screws don’t stretch over time
Unlike ball screws, they don’t need lubrication and are dust resistant.
A lead screw plus spring-loaded anti-backlash nut is cheaper than a ball screw and easier to assemble, and also pretty comparable in cost with less complexity compared to a belt drive system (personal opinion kind of)
The only downside of this system is that technically this system is less precise than a ball screw, but in the context of hobby CNCing, totally acceptable and in practice, indistinguishable in this type of woodworking.
My hope with this new design is to primarily address two main issues with the old version of the Delrin anti-backlash nut. The first is the need to adjust the nut. Because the old version uses a screw to push apart the threads and is fixed in place, the user must adjust the screw as it wears down. In practice, this isn’t a big deal since the nut wears down slowly and the difference is minimal, but the issues arise when they are adjusted too tightly, causing premature wear, or not tight enough, introducing more backlash and thus sloppier machining.
The “original” T8 Delrin Anti Backlash Nut and the history behind T8 lead screws
So this is my sort of knowledge behind the history of this lead screw design and how it came to be, at least in our context. Back when we first started the company in 2016, home consumer 3D printing was still a pretty new concept but had established itself in the market enough to have some standardized components used between most 3D printers. One of these standard components was the T8 lead screw.
At the early days of building CNC machines, notably the Mill One, we used standard 3D printer components, namely the T8 lead screws as power transmission for the gantries. We also used these brass nuts that were also standard between 3D printers like the one below:
One of the main issues with these nuts was that since they had no backlash compensation, they would lack some accuracy, especially if it wore out.
We also used some spring-loaded versions of these as well, but they also sort of sucked, mainly because the springs were not strong enough to resist backlash at higher loads.
Spring loaded brass anti-backlash nuts
Going into designing the LongMill, we recognized that using the brass nuts wouldn’t cut it for a larger more powerful machine, so we found another nut design created by OpenBuilds that addressed the backlash issues. And they did work pretty well without many issues. Additionally, there were a lot of manufacturers that were making these for cheap so it was a pretty affordable option in the application, although, over time, we ended up manufacturing them custom to improve the quality of the nuts.
The idea behind the spring-loaded nut
One of the main weaknesses of the original Openbuilds nut is that you need to adjust it over time using only a single screw that is easy to under-tighten or over-tighten, causing issues due to being adjusted incorrectly. We see the issue of motors stalling because of this, especially for first-time users. If we could design a long-lasting nut that didn’t need any adjustment, then we could eliminate this main pain point.
We found some interesting designs in the market that use a “radially” loaded design, which basically pushes the threads into the root of the lead screw. Some of the main benefits of doing so is more even wear in the nut, leading to a longer life and higher precision. Here’s a good example of another radially loaded anti-backlash nut.
The initial designs that we came up with uses two split-threaded “arms” to pre-load the nut. We chose this because it allows us to keep the profile that we need to drop into where the old nuts were.
Prototype 1
In August 2023, we launched the first version of the new, spring-loaded anti-backlash nut. This was a limited batch of 100 sets, which were sold as working beta version of the product so that we could get real-life testing and feedback. Out of the 94 orders shipped to customers, we had fairly promising results.
The main feedback that we got was that the nuts feel a bit “loose”, and the main suggestion was to use stiffer springs, as well as a lot of people wanting a T12 version to come out as soon as possible.
Here’s some thoughts and notes on the responses and results from our own internal testing:
From our testing wearing down the nuts, the springs were able to account for backlash, but because of the angle at which the forces were being applied and the stiffness of the springs, there was a concentrated area of wear that would affect the performance of the nut.
Concentrated wear on the top edge of the nut
Overall, they did work, and pretty well for the most part. However we felt that if we were going to invest in this system in the longer term, that improvements to the design should be made before full scale production.
Prototype 2
To address the issues from the first prototype, we tried a whole bunch of different ideas to find ways to improve the nut. Some of these include:
Using a flexure, but due to the limitations of injection molding and machining, was scrapped
Using a circlip as a spring, which worked well but was not easy to determine and adjust the spring force.
We did however try making changes to the bending areas of the arm by tapering them down and having the spring push horizontally rather than vertically.
Additionally, it’s worth noting that one of the other main differences between this nut and the old version is the manufacturing complexity. We have several slots and features that make it a bit more complicated and expensive to make, so we started exploring making injection molding a blank for the nut itself and machining in the critical features.
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This allows us to reduce the bulk of the machining, which is a significant part of the part cost, enough so that we can keep the same cost for the new nuts as we old ones.
The main issue with the first batch was that there was deformation in the nut itself causing the dimensions to be warped. This meant that the threads were ok on some nuts and way too tight on others. Secondarily the threaded hole did not center properly causing the lead screw to be off-center as well. Thus through testing, we found that this would cause issues with binding.
After discovering this, we went back to the manufacturer, who made changes to the mold, machining, and clamping processes. We also sent them additional documentation for proper mounting to share the context of where the critical tolerances were. After a week of tweaking, you can see in the new video from the manufacturer that the nuts thread on much more smoothly.
Conclusion
At the time of writing, the first batch of final production nuts is on the way, and we will test, assemble, and post them available for sale when they arrive.
We plan to sell this first batch to current users, and if the nuts work well and people are happy with them, we can transition to having them available for kits as well. However, we don’t expect this to be the case for another 6 weeks since we are in production for the complete batch.
Hey everyone, welcome to our February 2024 Production Updates.
Media Room and Workshops
Since we’ve moved into our new space, we’ve dedicated an area as a “media room”. The idea is to build a space that allows us to make content more quickly with dedicated space, lights, and machines for filming and education. Additionally, we’ve gotten a lot of interest in doing workshops, and so we’re now looking into planning workshops in the space as well.
Production for the LongMill continues to move smoothly. Orders are shipping out within one week, however we are running low on controller boards. Lead times may get longer this month.
Check out this new racking we got for all of the rails! It looks very visually satisfying.
Injection-molded middle feet that are used for supporting the rails have finally completed production and are on the way to us. We expect these feet to arrive in early Feburary. For those who haven’t been following along on this change, we decided to start injection molding these parts since we make a lot of them using the print farm and we crossed the point where it would be faster and more economical to injection mold them. It should be noted that this change is to improve production efficiency and reduce costs, but won’t make a difference to the LongMill’s performance.
Injection molded feet
The bristles that we use for the LongMill dust shoes have come in earlier this year but we have been dealing with quality issues. We have been able to use some of the good bristles, but we’re also working on sourcing a new manufacturer to improve the quality.
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We are now starting production on Batch 9 LongMill MK2s. We currently have around around 750 LongMills in stock, and expect to start shipping Batch 9 machines in the spring of 2024.
Spring Loaded Anti-Backlash Nut
Second batch of prototypes
I know a lot of people have been anxiously waiting for the spring-loaded anti-backlash nuts. While they seem simple, these have been a really fascinating but challenging project as we needed to make changes and considerations to the design and manufacturing process of the nut.
For more details about the process of design and making the nuts, I wrote another blog article. The first 200 sets of T12 and T8 nuts are expected to arrive in the first week of February. Please note that the blog article will include more updates once the first batch of prototype nuts arrives.
Vortex Rotary Axis and LaserBeam
Parts for the Rotary Axis have arrived and are being packed and assembled. We have another 300 units in stock now.
Ikenna and Abeiku are also working on a new magnetic mount design and also a riser mount to be used with the Vortex to allow for easier laser engraving on round objects soon, so make sure to keep an eye peeled for that.
AltMill
We have our major components arrived here and are working on putting together and testing the first prototype. Based on looking at the linear motion and extrusions, everything looks great and we’re excited to get everything in to start building the first batch.
AltMill table, Daniel for scale
If you’re interested in ordering an AltMill, make sure to fill out our form.
Here are some other updates:
While we have received one set of extrusions, the full batch of 50 sets have had some QC issues and are being worked on now. We expect them to be finished in the next 2 weeks and get prepped for shipping
We have received a few additional closed-loop stepper motors for testing and will be working on having them set up for testing
We are working with Andrew at Expatria to figure out what modifications we need to make for the SLB to allow for use with AltMill.
Also, check out this new logo that Leandro made for the AltMill.
We are tentatively looking at a launch date for the end of March. We’ll keep people updates so make sure to follow along on the development through the blog and such.
CO2 Laser
Ikenna and his team have been continuing to work on the CO2 Laser. Here’s a photo of the mockup in progress.
I probably won’t be continuing to put updates for this project on the production updates here because Ikenna will make a separate post as updates come. Make sure to sign up for the CO2 mailing list for all updates as they come.
Sienci Router
Testing with the 400 watt motor looks to show that using BLDC is a promising technology and shows that power output even at 400 watts is comparible to the Makita router. However, we feel that to bring the most value to users, having a bit more power will be beneficial since:
Cutting using larger bits, such as the surfacing bit causes the Makita router to bog down
Additional headroom allows us to run the LongMill faster alongside other future improvements to speed and rigidity
Potential to be a viable option for higher-end machines and the AltMill.
Creates a differentiation between our router and the Makita router
Having a larger motor is more expensive, but still within our budget. Pricing is still yet to be determined, but we believe that if we have an option around the $250 mark will allow us to provide a tool that sits somewhere between a traditional router like the Makita RT0701 and a 3 phase spindle.
A second batch of motor samples are expected to ship in the first week of Feburary. We are also in the design and sourcing stage for the motor body and bearings.
A section view of one of the router designs
SuperLongBoard
Development continues for the SLB and third version prototype is currently in testing. Here’s some news:
SLB resources continue to be developed ahead of shipping
E-stop injection molded case, buttons, and circuitry have arrived for testing, and have started on full scale production
Enclosure parts are getting prepared for shipping
Otherwise we are just working through general bug fixes and testing as usual.
Demand for the SLB has been strong, and we are expecting to sell out of the first batch before we start shipping, so we are working on
If you haven’t checked out Chris’ last update, make sure to read it here.
Hey there, thanks for checking in on our January 2024 production updates!
A lot of info to share here, some of which are updates we talked about in the December 2023 update here, so if you haven’t read it yet, then make sure to check it out.
Holiday Break
Please note that our offices will be closed from Dec 23 to Jan 1st. We will reopen on Jan 2, 2024.
During this time:
Shipping of items may be paused until we return.
We may not have someone answering phones at this time.
Responses to emails may be slower than normal.
NEXUS taxes for USA
Due to the scale of the company and sales in the US, we may have to start remitting sales tax to some US States once we reach certain thresholds. Starting Dec 18, 2023 and going forward, we will be collecting and remitting sales tax for Florida.
We are continuing to work with our accounting and finance people to slowly figure out how all this tax stuff works, so keep tuned as things may change over the coming year.
Move complete
Our move is done! We are now completely cleared out of our 372 King St N, Waterloo location. For any appointments, mail, and packages, make sure to send things to our new address Unit 1B/1D – 120 Randall Drive, Waterloo ON.
LongMill Production
Production for LongMills continues to go smoothly, with most machines shipping out within a few days. With some people taking vacation at this time, it may be a little bit slower than usual, but we are also expecting to have a few new hands starting for packing and operations starting in the new year.
Vortex Rotary Axis and LaserBeam
Vortex parts are on the way and are expected to arrive around mid to end of January, at which point we will continue to ship Vortex. Orders are expected to take a few weeks to ship.
LaserBeam orders are shipping within a few days.
CO2 Laser
CO2 Laser development is now officially in progress! Check out the amazing video here:
Interested in following along development? Sign up for the mailing list here.
Want to help us understand what you’re looking for in a CO2 laser? Fill out the survey here:
AltMill development continues to move along. We are now waiting for new parts to arrive for the AltMill. We were expecting parts to arrive by the end of December, but due to some initial shipping issues, we expect that it will be more likely to arrive by mid-January.
We’ve also started testing close-loop steppers with the AltMill prototype. With Daniel’s setup, we were able to achieve up to 17,000mm/min (around 670in/min) rapids on the X. We are waiting on a few more motors to come in to set up all of the axis, so that we can test them all simultaneously. For context, the max rapid speed set for the LongMill is 4000mm/min.
This is where things get a little dicey since the mass and inertia of the machine running that fast can definitely do some damage to a person. In practice though, having speeds that fast probably won’t matter that much without a spindle and bits that can handle it.
I have spent a few days in December working on a couple of personal projects with the AltMill prototype. Although this isn’t going to be the final version of the machine, I figured it would be a good way to start to understand the workflow of using a 4ft x 4ft machine. I also set up a Beelink computer and a touch screen for some testing of potential future interface for gSender.
Here are my notes:
I haven’t made anything that needs the full bed, but what I noticed was it is a lot more convenient to work with larger sheets because they need less processing
I can see myself wanting a 4×8 sometime down the line because you basically can buy one sheet and just keep cutting with it. I have been getting full 4×8 sheets and passing them through the back without cutting them down so far.
The machine is more solid and I have more confidence in pushing it harder. Because all of the defaults are set to the same/similar to the LongMill, everything seems slooooow.
Given this, I feel like going in the direction of close-loop zoomy steppers is going to make a big difference in the user experience
Having a chunkier machine does give a lot more confidence, especially not having to worry about stuff being adjusted correctly
Having the touch screen is actually mint
Controlling the machine is super easy, the keyboard and things pop up and disappear perfectly
The zooming sort of doesn’t work but you sort of dont really need it much
The networking to share files is basically seamless
We were expecting to receive the first set of parts at the end of December. However, due to some delays and issues with the shipping, we are now expecting them to arrive in mid-January. Once these parts arrive, we will be putting together the first prototype of the new design. It looks like the rails have actually come in but I haven’t gotten a chance to look at them yet.
I think that it’s hard to have a specific QA plan or process in place until we go into production. The fact of the matter is that the process depends largely on the actual scale of the production.
There are a few things that we learned from QA for the LongMill that carries over to the AltMill including:
Isolating parts and making them perfect, so that they can be eliminated as a source of error. For example. When we first started producing the LongMill, a lot of the parts were off the shelf, such as the coupler. What we found was that because the couplers from different manufacturers could be inconsistent at scale, we basically just designed and manufactured our own version at a higher level of specified tolerance. At this stage, nearly all of the parts that go into the LongMill are custom-made and redesigned internally, which has greatly improved the fit and finish as well as lowering issues that customers get with quality. The AltMill will almost certainly follow the same path, but likely even sooner because we have processes and manufacturer contacts that can make many of our parts.
Focusing on good design and ease of assembly will pay large dividends in production. There are many aspects of the AltMill that take the strengths and weaknesses in the accuracy of the manufacturing processes to ensure that the machines assemble easily and are to spec. For example, and something we mentioned in the AltMill update video, is that because while aluminum extrusion is generally considered a process that produces very high-accuracy parts, it also has a tendency to twist and warp during manufacturing, having machined faces and using a frame that self-aligns itself allows us to compensate for minor deviations to our specs.
The cost-benefit analysis of good quality always outweighs the cost of customer service. The result of having bad-quality parts and products is that we need to do customer service to fix the issues, which costs the company time and money. Some of these costs could be the part itself, shipping, the time from our technical support team, lower customer satisfaction, and lost time for the customer in using their machine. While the cost of the part might be a few dollars, after the time, troubleshooting, and shipping, the issue might cost us a hundred dollars or more. So basically in almost all cases, it’s a better cost-benefit to check our parts better and produce higher quality items.
QA report of the rails from the factorySample photos of the rail
I think generally speaking the AltMill will actually be easier to QA for, because we’re bringing more the assembly in house, which will allow us to make sure the machine works before we get it to the customer, and second, we are using more higher precision components around the AltMill so that there should be less issues that come from mismanufactured parts.
There are a few concerns we still need to test and address including:
Because the machine is running faster and experiences more forces, making sure that bolts don’t come loose over time
Tolerance for lack of maintenance, since components like the ball screw and linear guides need proper lubrication otherwise can fail prematurely
To answer some of the general questions we got in the survey…
Q: Any option to cut vertically?
A: I don’t think we are planning to build anything that would facilitate this, and the weight of it would make it much more difficult. It seems a bit impractical at this size, even though I feel pretty confident that the hardware could handle it.
Q:Will the AltMill use the SuperLongBoard?
A: Not exactly. The SLB doesn’t offer any outputs for controlling external drivers except the A-axis/4th axis. However, we are most likely going to make a new version of the SLB that has outputs for the drivers and no integrated drivers, so that we can offer the same functionality of the SLB and use external drivers.
Q: Will this support an automatic tool changer?
We don’t have specific plans to make a ATC right now, but with the IO on the modified SLB, you should be able to integrate your own.
Q: What is the overall footprint?
The AltMill will have a minimum cutting area of 4ft by 4ft (with some extra travel room to spare), with the ability to pass through the back of the machine. The footprint is approximately 59 inches by 59 inches square. Size might change slightly at production.
If you want to learn more about the AltMill project, expected pricing, and more, please check out the video and the blog here:
After a bit of a mixup where we had the motor sent to the wrong address, we were able to get a new one and start testing. As we were discussing in the last update, we decided to dive into using BLDC motors because of the benefits we feel like worth getting over the universal motors we initially were exploring.
We found that for BLDC motors running at this higher voltage, there weren’t a lot of options we could find. We did find an off-the-shelf motor that are used in commercial grade blenders we got a sample from the manufacturer, and hacked together an old Makita router to build a sort of BLDC router frankenstein.
The motor that we got maxes out at 8100RPM, which isn’t the optimal speed for the type of cutting we want to do, but for the sake of testing, we tried to do some comparisons between the different routers we have here. We also have a power output limit of 400 watts.
Some notes and results from testing
Basically what is important is the torque of the motor at the given speed, since the motor can overcome the cutting forces on the bit. From Johann’s observations, at the lowest RPM setting on the Makita, the router stalls out at a torque of 0.47N.m, pulling 12.69A or around 1500 watts from the wall. The BLDC motor stalls at 0.45NM but only draws around 400 watts from the wall.
Additionally, the motor behaves the way we wanted it to, which is to run at the same RPM until it stalls. This is important because when a CNC machine starts cutting, there is a situation where if your RPM drops and your chipload and forces increases, it bogs the spindle or router down even more, eventually causing more issues.
It should be noted that based on our understanding of universal motors used in the Makita, the torque of the motor drops proportionally to it’s RPM, which makes sense because it is also partially limited by the amount of power it can draw from the wall.
The BLDC however is designed to keep the same level of torque through the whole speed range. We are specifying our second prototype to have a torque of 0.55N.m, which means that at 30,000RPM, it will draw a full 1500 watts, which in theory would match 1.5KW spindles. I think that in practice however, there aren’t much or any scenarios users would need to run their routers so fast, and we are focusing on having a max RPM of 24,000 instead.
We believe that if we modify the motor to run at the higher RPMs, the BLDC limited to 400 watts will run close to identical to the Makita router. However, considering that there are still situations where the Makita bogs down on the LongMill, if we can get a bit more headroom, that would be ideal.
Based on some general calculations, if we target a 0.55N.m spec on the BLDC, we can get about 1.3-1.5Kw of power, which may be close to on par of a spindle.
There is still a lot of testing and benchmarking to do, but we are continuing to make progress. The next sample will probably take 2-3 weeks to be made, so I would guess we’ll have them at the start of next year. In the meantime, Johann has been working on the mechanical design and housing for the motor.
gSender
Meeting to talk about the new features in gSender
The gSender team have been continuing to work hard to put together a new version of gSender which will merge features and functionality from gSender Edge to the main version of gSender. For complete list of features in gSender Edge, please check out the resources here.
Improvements and bug fixes for running the Vortex
Probing with touchplate on all corners
Communication, flashing, and additional features for the SuperLongBoard
Faster and smoother gcode visualization screen
Warning for zeroing
Improvements to the gamepad/controller functionality
Improvements to remote mode/pendant functionality
Maintenance warnings and tracking
All of our beta testers and myself have been using the latest version of gSender Edge to test the SLB and our machines and help with the bug fixes. So far the extra features have been amazing. You can also check out the latest version, V1.3.10, here.
We expect to have more updates and information come out around the middle to end of the month when the new version of gSender is ready.
Some people have been asking us about replacement 1/4″ Makita RT0701 collets, and Garrett wanted some for his store so we made a batch of them together.
These collets work with any Makita RT0701 router. If you ever lose yours, you can now get them from us!
Hey everyone, here’s our December production update! Many things happened in November.
On a side note, I just turned 27. I think it’s sort of crazy I’m in my “late-20s” now?
Holiday Break
Please note that our offices will be closed from Dec 23 to Jan 1st. We will reopen on Jan 2, 2024.
During this time:
Shipping of items may be paused until we return.
We may not have someone answering phones at this time.
Responses to emails may be slower than normal.
We will have a shipping cut off of noon on Dec 22. Please place your orders if you’d like to have it shipped before the end of the year.
Moving
Moving continues to chug along, with the final moving to be done before the end of the month. Please note that response times and shipping may be a little slower than usual.
Our new address will be Unit D, 120 Randall Drive Waterloo.
LongMill MK2 Orders
LongMill orders continue to ship as usual. We were a bit low on bristles for the dust shoe, which meant that some orders took a few days extra to ship.
Thanks to a grant from the government, we are getting a new CO2 laser cutter and CNC mill partially subsidized for prototyping and production use. We’re planning on taking the old CO2 laser which we’ve been using for the last 3-4 years and taking it apart for R&D use for our CO2 laser project.
We are now waiting on injection molded feet for the LongMill, which we expect will help reduce our reliance on the 3D printing farm by about 25-30%. This should help us free up more capacity for printing other parts, such as dust shoes and LaserBeam parts so that it will be less of a bottleneck for production in the future. Ron, our print farm manager, also started working with input shaping, which is a feature that allows for faster movements with less resonance by analysing the printer’s movements and adjusting its movements to cancel vibrations. This also is helping to improve print quality and increase print speed by 15-25%.
LaserBeam and Vortex
LaserBeam continues to ship as usual. We are currently waiting on a new batch of heatsinks, drivers, and cables to arrive in the next few weeks so that we can stockpile more units.
Vortex also continues to ship but we now have around 17 (at the time of writing) left. Probably by the time this post goes out, we probably will have a few less. There is another batch in production now for 300 units, which should be ready to ship early January.
SuperLongBoard
Chris just put out a update video about the SLB which can be found here:
I’ve taken a step back from helping Chris with the testing side of the board currently and working on some of the manufacturing along with Daniel, but it appears that the testing in the back room continues to happen at a blazing pace. I just placed an order for another 40 controllers to ship in the next few weeks for final testing.
The designs for the SLB controller case have now been finalized and in production. We expect samples from production to be ready in the next 3 weeks, and parts to arrive in the new year. One of the main differences for the new controller is that it is designed to mount directly to the Y rail on the LongMill, which allows it to take a bit less space on the workbench. However, users will still be able to mount their controller using the screw holes as well.
Design for SLB case
We are also wrapping up the design for the new E-stop buttons and macro buttons as well now and starting production for it this week.
Pre-orders are slated to come in December 4, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled for that! For more info about the pre-order, please check the Blog post here.
AltMill
As we were alluding to in the previous updates, we’ve started working on the AltMill. Kelsey and I are currently working on the shipping of the first batch of parts for the AltMill.
For the latest update, please see our blog article.
Thank you to everyone who filled out the survey. It looks like we have quite a bit of interest in the AltMill. We’ll continue to post updates here and prepare for pre-order availability as we move forward with production on the first batch. At the time of writing about 5 days after the survey went out, we have over 50 respondants, half of which are ready to put down money to get the new AltMill.
Initially I was expecting sales for the AltMill to start out pretty slowly, maybe 15 machines per month, however I feel pretty confident that sales will be much stronger especially given the lack of information we have out for the AltMill at the current time.
Sienci Router
Continued development on the Sienci Router has been fascinating, especially as Johann and I have been looking beyond AC universal motors found in most power tools like the Makita RT0701.
One of the main important things we’ve been looking at has been the efficiency and actual power output of the Makita router. Based on loading and testing the router, we see that the true power output of the router is much lower than the 1.25HP rating in some scenarios.
In theory, this means that a more efficient motor could use less power, but get the same cutting performance as a Makita RT0701.
This is where we’ve been exploring brushless DC motors (BLDC motors).
One of the main advantages of BLDC motors is that they are much more efficient than a universal AC motor. Based on the suggestions from the company we are working with on developing the motor, it may be possible to use a 400 watt BLDC motor in place of a 1200-watt AC motor.
Additional advantages of using a BLDC motor include:
Higher efficiency and lower power consumption means less heat, which also means a smaller fan that creates noise
A wider speed range, allowing the router to be used more effectively at slower speeds
No need for replacing brushes, which also lowers noise caused from the brushes rubbing
Sample motor with BLDC
BLDC does have a few disadvantages. The first is the price. We expect a production-ready motor to cost 3-4 times more than a universal AC motor. Second is figuring out the additional complexity in understanding the motor control systems and feedback loops we can implement to ensure that we have steady and accurate speed control.
That being said we believe it is possible to keep the overall BOM cost overall low to keep the router affordable and we’ll be able to use some off-the-shelf designs and external expertise to optimize the speed control for the router.
We expect to receive some motor samples in the next week or two, and we’ll start conducting testing to determine if BLDC offers an effective option for the Sienci Router.
CO2 Laser
I just talked to Ikenna to get an update about the CO2 laser development. The CO2 laser development team just finished filming an update video today and plan to release it in the next few weeks. There will also be a survey to help us direct the development for the new product. We expect to start purchasing prototype parts in the next week and expect to have a working prototype at the end of January.
Hey everyone. We’re excited to share that the SLB will be launching on Dec 4, 2023. Chris and our development team have been going full bore in bug fixing, testing, and doing the final prep to get the SLB ready for production.
There are simply too many features and updates to share in one blog post, but we do have lots of different content and information you can check out to find out more about the SLB on the Youtube video, the product page, and our blog article, Next Big SLB Update .
