Author: siencilabs

See full issue thread here: https://github.com/GridSpace/grid-apps/issues/52

Some users of Kiri:Moto and CAMLab may have noticed that if you try to mill details that are shallower than the specified stepdown does not generate code to mill those details.

What should be happening is that shallow details should be milled at a smaller step down, and features that are deeper than the specified step down should be milled with several passes at either the step down or less.

Since this was not working properly, users would need to either 1) use a step down that was smaller than any feature, or 2) generate separate gcode files with different specified step downs.

Obviously, doing that is a lot of work and inefficient.

Kiri:Moto users should find that the fix is working. We will push the fix onto CAMLab as soon as we can.

A lot of folks have been talking about adding a laser to their Mill Ones. Although I have heard of a couple people have made the mod work, Francisco’s shared his mod on the Facebook Group and I wanted to share it on the blog for anyone who might not be a part of the group yet.

Francisco uses a laser module that can be found on Ebay. His laser specifically is a 450nm 15W laser module that looks sort of like this.

Setting $32=1 in the EEPROM (send the command $32=1 through your gcode sender, or $32=0 to deactivate), will activate the Z minus end stop pin to turn the laser on and off.

Francisco uses LaserGRBL to control the machine and the laser. And the results look pretty great!

Francisco has also shared the Onshape file for the 3D printed mount that he made as well here: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/a10898a51cdcf591978dd2da/w/4934de0bf82930b6c5f659da/e/1977693fd2a2984a05debc46?fbclid=IwAR3CEexBXfaAndG_U6zXx6Mh_PJHP3MPyrNEmbmDNrbgJzPCuo2Gy6vfFb0

It’s Andy here! I hope everyone had a pleasant and relaxing holidays. I just got back to the office ready to start a new year.

First order of business is to ship out the new orders, answer emails, and continue development on several ongoing projects. Chris will be here in a few days to join me as well, and then things will be back at full swing.

A lot happened in 2018.

Here are some big things that happened this year (in no particular order):

• Development and release of CAMLab, a simple and easy to use STL based 2.5D and 3D CAM software.
• Version 2 to Version 3 improvements on the Sienci Mill One. Improved ease of assembly and rigidity.
• Development and beta release of the LongMill.
• Move from our garage in Waterloo to office space in Downtown Kitchener.

Thank you everyone for being with us each step of the way as we work to bring accessible CNC milling to everyone!

We will be out of the office from Dec 22 to Jan 1 for winter break. Here’s what you should know.

• We’ll be reachable via email, however, I (Andy) will be out of the country and will have a somewhat spotty connection to the internet. I will try to respond to everyone as quickly as possible. 
• Orders received after Dec 21st will be shipped after Jan 1. If you need to make other arrangements, please get in touch with us.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy end of the year! 

It’s been just about two months since we released the first LongMill beta machine out into the wild.

We’ve gone through many changes, iterations, and struggles to improve the machine. Thank you to all ten of our testers for bearing with all the hurdles.

One of the testers provided us with feedback that made me pretty happy, especially since he kind of bashed on the X Carve (one ouf our competitors).

Here it goes:

Other testers have been busy making stuff as well, such as guitars, woodworking joints, and signs.

Chris was also able to chew through a slab of aluminum to make a relief of a T-rex as well, proving that the LongMill is a very sturdy machine. Video to come out soon.

There are still a couple loose ends to tie up before calling the beta testing program a success, but I will be working with the testers as best I can to make sure all the machines are working the way they should, and everyone is happy!

We’ve had a couple of concerned customers about the state of Canada Post shipments, especially since the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) has been on a rotating strike since Oct 22.

This means that Canada Post has been experiencing a backlog of shipments all across Canada, causing delays and other issues for Canada Post customers.

Although you can read more about the strike on the news and on the CUPW website, here are some things to know about how the strike affects us.

1. Most shipments that we make via Canada Post tend to be for parcels and lettermail that are within Ontario and sometimes to Quebec. These shipments typically take 1-2 business days. If you live outside of those areas, chances are that we will be using one of the other carriers, like UPS, to ship out your orders.
2. We have been tracking Canada Post shipments and it appears that all shipments made via Canada Post in the last two weeks have been delivered, albeit, some (but not all) have been delayed by 2-3 days in some cases.
3. The postal office next to our office is still running normally.

We will be watching the strike closely, and doing our best to make sure packages are getting to our customers.

Just wanted to share that we’ve made a minor tweak to the Mill One Y axis gantry plate, so that we can improve the adjustability of the tension on the Y axis rail.

We found that:

1. The rails between our last batch and current batch are slightly different in width, with the current batch being slightly wider.
2. Since the steel plates are significantly stiffer than the HDPE from the V2, we no longer have to compensate for the internal flex in the HDPE, so that spacing of the holes can be slightly wider on the steel.

If you’ve been planning on building your own machine, I would recommend using the newest hole spacing for your plates on the Y axis since the new plates are compatible with both batches of aluminum rails.

Happy American Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to announce that we just recently started selling both the 200mm and 400mm aluminum rails on our store!

We’ve decided to make the choice of adding this item to our store for two reasons.

The first is that we believe that it should make it easier for people who are building their own machines from scratch to do so since the rails themselves are one of the more challenging and expensive items to source and mill. We’ve gotten a lot of requests for us to sell this item on our store, so we’ve decided to do so.

Second, and probably most important for us as a business is that we’ve been able to work closely to our manufacturers and suppliers to be able to produce these components in smaller batches at an affordable price. One of the biggest challenges for us as a fairly small and new company is to be able to produce parts at a large enough scale that makes it cost-effective while keeping batches small enough that money isn’t tied up in materials for too long. Since we’ve figured out a way to make smaller batches without making the costs go crazy, we can make sure that we can keep the item in stock sustainably.

So, if you’ve been thinking about or planning to build your own machine, consider checking out our store for parts!

If there’s any other parts or products you’d like us to stock, feel free to reach out and we’ll see what we can do.

It’s been nearly a year since the Mill One V2 was featured on Make Magazine, which was a pretty big deal for us.

This year, Make Magazine reviewed another three desktop CNC routers, adding to their list of tested CNC machines.

Well, we’re happy to say that the Mill One V2 stands as the most affordable machine tested!* (below is the CNC comparison from Nov 2018)

* We’re basing that statement off of the tested price. Although the MiniMill might have a basically have the same base price as the Mill One V2, the tested price is much higher. That’s because the base model doesn’t come with any electronics (no motors, power supply, and control board), whereas since the Mill One includes that in the base price, the only extra item needed from the base machine is a router.

The V3 is a little more expensive than the V2 was. That’s because of all the extra parts and components we’ve changed and added to make the V3 an even better and stronger machine. Even still, nothing can touch the Mill One as a perfect place to start CNC milling as a hobby, and we’re proud of that.

We’re going to be at a couple different events this month! Feel free to join us and hang out.

Nov 9: Function Keys Maker Science Fair and Showcase: Come join us from 7-11PM for the Function Keys Maker Science Fair and Showcase at the Spice Factory in Hamilton. We’ll have CNC machines to check out and more!

Nov 13: Beginner CNC Milling Workshop: We’re hosting our first CNC milling workshop to teach beginners how to understand and learn how a CNC machine works! We’ll be holding it at 44 Gaukel, right in the middle of downtown Kitchener. There are still three spots left.

Nov 15: Onshape Hands-on Test Drive in Waterloo: Alex from Onshape is hosting a hands on evening to test out Onshape on Nov 15 at Communitech. If you want to try out Onshape, ask questions, and learn more about cloud based CAD, this is a great opportunity. We’ll be there to briefly talk about how we use Onshape to encourage collaboration with our open source designs.

Have an event you think we should be at? Send us an email at hi@sienci.com!