Hey everyone, welcome to our June 2025 Production Updates. Here we go!

A lot of development continues to happen, so some of these are updates from previous blog articles. If you want more context, make sure to check out our blog for our monthly production updates.

Order Status Page

I’ve been seeing a bit of chatter about the Order Status page. I just want to reassure everyone that no one is skipping the line, unless you are a big-time content creator (at the current time, Hamilton Dilbeck and Ryan Drapela are the only people who have received their machines early for marketing purposes).

We get bribed a lot by individuals to skip the line. We will never accept these.

There can be discrepancies that make it look like the order of which machines are being shipped don’t look like they are in order. Here’s how that can happen.

1. The specific variant of the order has a different shipping schedule. For example, the 2×4 and 4×4 AltMill are built on different schedules, but they are both on the order page.
2. The order isn’t fully complete. If the order is partially shipped based on part availability, the order will not show as shipped. This can create gaps between each order on the list.
3. The customer asked us to put their order on hold.

We do our best to ship based on the order of which they are placed. There can be some variation sometimes, for example, if we can batch the products together, so we build all of the 2x4s in one go for example, we can reduce the overall average time to ship units because we don’t have to go back and forth with setting up production stations constantly. While it may throw out the order a bit, overall we expect for people to get machines quicker this way, which I think is a reasonable tradeoff.

Tariffs

As referenced in the previous update, we had been experiencing a lot of shipments being turned away at the border. One of the changes in the process was that all shipments in a truck crossing the US must have customs pre-cleared before it can enter the country, and any truck that had even a single item without proper clearance would be turned away. The below email references issues causes by some 3rd party brokers which appears to be resolved recently.

Shipping seems to continue to be a bit of a mess, but generally speaking, the issues have reduced a lot since the tariff war. Fewer orders are getting shipped back, and more are clearing without issues.

Starting April 23, we’ve also re-updated our shipping system to note DDP for all US-bound shipments. I should also note that most US-bound shipments prior have also been changed to DDP as well. For those who don’t know, DDP (delivery, duty paid), designates the shipment to have any duties and fees charged to the shipper (us). We used to have DDP set up, but during the trade war, we changed it to DAP (delivered at place), which would have the receivers (you) pay duties and fees. Since we are able to clear pretty much all of the shipments without duties and tariffs, we’ve reverted to this. Some customers were being charged brokerage fees and tariffs, even though they shouldn’t be, and it seems to be happening to other folks, not just in our company. We are helping customers get refunds, but now that we have changed things to DDP, any refunds will be able to be processed just through us without customer intervention.

AltMill

First off, we’re excited to share that the AltMill MK2 assembly video is now available!

Some folks were also confused about what batch their order for the AltMill is in. For the customer, it should not matter because the machines between Batch 4 and 5 are the same, and we don’t have a specific delineation for orders between the batches. However, if you ordered your AltMill around mid-April, there is a good chance that your order is in Batch 5. We expect to complete shipping Batch 4 at the end of this month the start of June.

As mentioned in the last blog post, we expect Batch 5 to start shipping in July based on the arrival of additional components. Our team is working to update the order status page based on updated news on parts arrival as shipping dates approach. Please have patience as these days may vary a bit based on the continued news. We are continuing to pre-assemble parts to prepare for another large push of shipments in the next coming weeks when everything arrives.

We have started building some of the 2×4 AltMills as well. The shipping for these may be a bit sporadic since we need to switch back and forth with the 4x4s. This may contribute somewhat to the spottiness of shipping on the Order Tracking list as well.

We’ve brought on a number of new packing staff and implemented additional production hours towards clearing our queue. Michael and the rest of the production team have continued to accelerate our production significantly, with this past month having shipped around 180 AltMills. While it feels like we’re making little to no progress (perhaps it even looks like we’re slowing down), we’ve doubled our production volume in the past 6 months, which is a significant achievement for the team. Unfortunately, or perhaps not unfortunately, as we’ve accelerated shipping, we’ve been met with an accelerating volume of sales for the AltMill as well, offsetting our gains in scaling up production and where we are with decreasing lead times.

As mentioned in the previous update, we’re waiting on shipment of components for another 750 units, and our supply chain team is also working to prepare components for an additional 750 units to arrive in the fall. This is an aggressive amount of purchasing as we are working to eliminate parts availability as one of our production bottlenecks and prepare ourselves for the peak season for sales in the fall and winter.

AltMIll Shipments

AltMIll Shipments

AltMIll Shipments

VFD certification

Adding to last month’s news, we’re excited to announce that our first VFD was certified on May 5th and we are now going through the process for building a new batch.

If you ordered a spindle in Ontario and are still waiting on it to ship or are waiting on a replacement, then we will switch to this option automatically for no extra charge. For customers who are wanting to order a spindle for the Canadian market, these will be available as well, albeit at a slightly higher price than the non-certified option.

In somewhat good news, as we continue to work on the development of higher power spindles, we’re finding that we are able to build different variations while keeping the same casing and form factor, which we expect will make upgrades and replacements much easier in the long run. Additionally, since we know that our base design is compliant, we expect future safety approvals to be much faster and straightforward.

As of time of writing, we’ve started getting our first batch of sample components for our testing and finalizing some design and wiring processes as we prepare for our larger batch of manufacturing.

Auto Tool Changer

As we’ve alluded to previously, we’ve been working on a tool changer solution for the AltMill. While ATC is community supported, we currently don’t have official support and resources for this yet and likely a bit complicated for the average user.

We’ve now received several ATC spindles which we’ve been testing with different tool holder sizes and body types.

Of course there is a ton of consideration being put into place as we continue developing an ATC solution, including:

• What power spindle do users need
• Placement of tools and toolholder
• Toolholder fork design
• Pneumatics requirements
• Dust shoe compatibility
• Software interface and user experience

At the end of the day, we want to make sure that we have a product easy to use and accessible to both beginner and advanced users, and while we could be putting out a product for the sake of it, we’re focusing a lot of effort in making a product traditionally quite complicated into something simple.

AltMill 4×8

We continue to work on AltMill 4×8 development. Want to help us make some design decisions? Check out our survey below:

Much of the work so far has been around improving the rack and pinion design. While we’ve made great progress already in the design, we’re trying to reduce backlash in the system as much as possible. This has been in the way of testing different systems such as direct drive, using a pulley system, and gears. Reducing backlash is important as it will affect the dimensional accuracy in parts, especially in the Y direction. We’re also researching and playing around with motor tuning design to optimize between performance and accuracy.

We’re also working on designing the machine to reduce the overall footprint, especially focusing on the stickout from the motors. Additionally, we’re also looking at optimizing the form factor and design of the machine to make sure that the ATC placement is optimal.

We’re expecting some of the prototype parts to arrive in June or July, which should allow us to build and test early stage prototypes, and we’ll continue to work on and test smaller scale versions over the coming weeks.

We’ve gotten a lot of questions on why we’re not using a rotating ball screw design. Simply put, a rotating ball screw design is more complicated and expensive, and since the ball screw needs to be one continual length, this makes shipping extremely difficult compared to rack and pinion. The fact of the matter is that most industrial CNC machines of this size use a rack and pinion. Although a rack and pinion design is not as accurate inherently, we don’t expect users to need as high levels of accuracy in a way that a ball screw is the only way to go. Just for context, we’re talking about a difference of dimensional accuracy of between the thickness of one or two sheets of paper. It isn’t a design we’ve completely eliminated, but in general, we believe that it’s drawbacks outweigh the advantages.

LongMill

We continue to ship LongMills consistently. To improve production efficiency, we are slightly increasing lead times to 7 to 10 days. We currently have parts in stock, however, to reduce the need to switch back and forth between production of the AltMill and LongMill, some days will be dedicated to LongMill production only so that we can stockpile completed machines and ship them as needed. This means that many if not most customers will get machines shipped sooner than the estimated lead time, but depending on the production schedule, it may take up to 10 days to ship.

LongMill Shipments

LongMill Shipments

AutoSpin T1 Router

The AutoSpin continues to make progress as we prepare for initial production. One thing we’re working on is further testing and resource development as we prep it’s use for common hobby CNC routers. We’ve found some small quirks for setup that we’ll make sure to address in the setup process for each machine. For example, users with a Onefinity machine will need to plug their router directly into an outlet rather than the relay controlled plug on some controllers.

We’re also working on the packaging and incorporating a couple important features, including containing basic information about the product, links, safety notes, while protecting the package. Additionally, to keep shipping costs as low as possible, we’re aiming to make packaging as compact as possible.

gControl Panel Computer

Production of another batch of 500 gControls have now completed and are awaiting shipment. We currently have around 70 more units, which means that it’s likely we’ll sell out of them before the new batch arrives. However, we don’t expect the delay to be more than a few weeks as the new batch should arrive shortly after the old one runs out.

Perhaps an exciting note to make is that gSender Edge (our early access version of gSender which eventually gets pushed out for the main version) now supports portrait mode. This means that users will be able to use their gControl computers in the portrait direction, just like the Masso controller. There are a few improvements that development is still working on, but features like “pinch to zoom” in the visualizer, have now been incorporated. If you’re interested in checking out gSender Edge, make sure to check out our Github.

In other news, Gilberto and the rest of the marketing team are working to release some new instructional videos to help users update, customize, and optimize their gControl experience, so keep an eye out for that soon!

Hey there, here’s another month of production updates from Andy Lee, and our latest production video with even more info and updates.

Tariffs

Tariffs continue to cause confusion. You can read more about the current situation here.

As referred in the article, we’re seeing an uptick in people who are running into issues with shipments to the US. We’ve been able to resolve issues without too many issues, but we are asking folks to be patient as we work through them. At the beginning, we had quite a few hiccups but we’ve been able to get through most of them and are finding issues are happening less frequently.

Unfortunately at this time we are finding a large number of shipments are getting returned to us without any obvious reason, which are slowing down our production rate. Although initially we suspected this to be due to incorrect customs documentation, even orders that have proper documentation and have historically been unproblematic are being returned.

What’s quite eye opening is DHLs suspension of shipments above $800USD to the US.

While this does not directly impact us at this time since we don’t use DHL, it’s a significant signal on the complicated customs situation. At this moment, all shipping couriers are under immense pressure to update compliance, and DHL is the first as far as I know which has folded under the new change.

It has been reported that Trump intends to change deminimis rules that originally allowed most goods under $800USD to enter into the US without duties and taxes on May 2nd. The implementation of this may have a crippling effect on all shipping couriers since all Chinese shipments will be charged the current tariffs or be charged with a $100 flat fee, whichever is higher. While deminimis rules will not change for non-Chinese goods, these changes will likely negatively impact the transit times of all goods.

48″ T-Tracks

To better support the AltMill line, longer 48″ T-tracks are now available! We’ve designed these more specifically (although you can use them in other machines or applications) for the AltMill, as it allows users to avoid having to join more than one track together when setting up their wasteboard.

48″ T-tacks

48″ T-Tracks

AltMill 2×4 and 4×4

AltMill 2×4 and 4×4 have started to ship this month and we are working our way through the queue! We’re expecting to ship another ~200 AltMills this month to wrap up Batch 4. However, we’re expecting to be waiting on more parts to arrive come June to continue production on Batch 5. Batch 5 will be larger, with 750 units being built for this new batch. New orders for AltMill are expected to start shipping in June or July and will be part of Batch 5.

AltMill 4×8

Although we’ve pulled back a bit with development on the 4×8 AltMill so that we can focus more on the production setup on the 2×4 and 4×4 AltMills, we’re continuing to make progress. We are currently working on a couple of things:

• Ordering and testing each type of rack and pinion system (different pitches, helical vs straight, etc) for precision and accuracy
• Considering shipping options for longer parts, such as the 9-10ft Y-axis
• Long term mechanical testing for reliability and wear

I don’t have too much news at the moment but expect to see some more things to come down the pipeline as development continues.

LongMill

LongMills continues to ship without delay. We expect existing stock to remain until this fall.

What is notable is a jump in aluminum extrusion costs, around 21%, from our previous batch in December. From what we understand, this jump comes a combination of a change in demand for North American manufactured aluminum parts, tariff pressures, and layoffs and lost jobs in the aluminum raw material production sector. We are not planning to adjust pricing to reflect this at the time. However, we’re keeping an eye out on aluminum prices

VFD Certification

In our last production update, we mentioned that we were looking into proper certification for the H100 VFD. Prior to this, we were purchasing the VFDs from the same supplier as the spindles. Since they are not the manufacturer of the VFDs, we were told that the VFDs could not be certified. During Johann and Daniel’s trip to China, they were able to track down the original manufacturer, and not just that, able to learn that the H100 line was certified in 2022, but the certificate expired and was not renewed. This give us a lot more confidence in being able to certify the VFDs, as we don’t believe there to be any significant changes between the 2022 and current version of the H100. This also brings us to two longer-term potential directions. We are in talks about renewing the certificate, but we expect this process to take a couple of months.

This means that we can start providing the stock H100 VFDs, pending certification approval with ETL or UL equivalent certification. This may help open up markets that require more regulation, such as in schools and institutions that may need specific certification.

Additionally, with our new knowledge of VFD and spindle design, we have been working on VFD enclosures and systems that may improve the wiring and installation of spindle kits in general, which this manufacturer is willing to work with us on. We’re working on some VFDs in-house now that will have SPE1000 certification for compliance that should be similar to a new design that can be manufactured in China or here. We are expecting to have inspections done on these devices in the next few weeks.

VFD Prototype

VFD Components

VFD Components

2.2KW Spindle

Somewhat related to the VFD-related work we’re doing, we’ve been also working on figuring out what to do about offering the larger spindle options. Here’s the situation:

• For customers who only have access to 120V power, the 1.5KW is the most powerful option we can offer due to electrical limitations that come at that voltage. However, 1.5KW, while acceptable for the majority of cases, doesn’t unleash the full potential of the AltMill.
• To be able to provide more performance, we must use a higher voltage. 220V and 3-phase are generally considered the most common options, with the 220V being a lot more common for residential use. This allows for power over around 6KW.
• Once you get above a 2.2KW spindle on 220V, the size of the spindle also increases, which makes current dust shoes and spindle mount for AltMill not fit. This means these parts need to be redesigned.

This is our current plan – while we are still working on the higher power spindles, because 2.2KW 220V spindles are so readily available, it’s an option we can provide with little additional development. So we’ve went ahead and ordered a few hundred in the meantime as a stop gap for a potential larger option.

Wrapping into the VFD discussion, we ordered the 2.2KW spindle motors themselves but we are still working on a few decisions around the 2.2KW VFD as well. This means that although we will get the spindle motors first, we won’t be able to ship full systems until we get the VFD as well.

AutoSpin T1 Router

We’re excited to share that the beta testing phase of AutoSpin T1 Router has been successful. Johann and Daniel also went to visit the factory which will be manufacturing this product and start the production soon. We are going through the first phase of safety inspections which is expected to take around 20 days, then we’ll start a production cycle for around 2000-3000 units which is expected to take about 50 days.

This should put us somewhere in the summer for having the product ready to ship.

gControl Panel Computer

We have continued to ship gControls this month without a wait time. However sales have continued to increase and we expect stock to run out around the start of June. A new batch of computers are currently on order and is expected to arrive mid-June, so we are not expecting major changes in ship times moving forward.

LaserBeam

I forgot to mention this in the video for the production update but I’ll mention it here. We have completed selling the stock we have for the LaserBeam and have currently put the product sales for this on pause. We still have replacement parts available for service to support current customers, which are available on the store.

For those who still want to add a laser to their machine, we full support the majority of laser diode modules from other manufacturers. Resources for this can be found here: https://resources.sienci.com/view/slb-manual/#laser

I felt that after a few years of LaserBeam sales this product is due for an update to make it competitive in price and power to new developments in the laser space. We have it on the roadmap to work on in the coming months so keep an eye out for news soon.

Hey everyone, here are April 2025 production updates.

Building Expansion

March was highlighted with the first half of our expansion in our current building, where we moved our desks upstairs to a new office space allowing us to make room for the downstairs to expand production. Our upstairs, being around 6000sqft will be used for general desk work and meetings, housing our customer service, engineering, administration, and marketing departments. Things like our prototyping and production offices are remaining downstairs.

We are expecting to knock down a wall sometime this summer to add another 3000sqft of downstairs space from our neighbours next door who are planning to expand into office space next to theirs as well. It’ll be a bit of shuffling around for everyone.

US Canada Tariffs

For latest news on tariffs, please visit our article here.

We’re expecting more news to come out April 2nd, at which point we will work out another message for everyone to keep folks update about the situation.

gSender is Getting a New Look!

Education

We are slowly expanding our business reach by exploring the education sector. We’ve now opened up ordering for schools and institutions through our education form. This is if you’re representing a school or institution and may require more specific ordering and payment processes.

Spindle Certification

Earlier last month we were in touch with ESA about having proper certifications for the H100 VFD that is used as part of the AltMill Spindle and Dust Shoe Kit and the LongMill Spindle and Dust Shoe Kit. As far as we understand, they require us to have certain safety certifications for this unit to be used in Ontario. Because of this, we’ve reached out to customers in Ontario who may already have this and paused the sale of this VFD within Canada. Once we have completed it, we will resume the sale of this item.

At the time of writing, we’re working with a certification body to safety certify the VFD, and we’ve contacted any customers who might be affected directly with more info and additional updates if necessary. From what we have learned, we may need to produce a modified version of the enclosure that complies with certain standards, but keeps the same internal parts. We’ve consulted with the certification firm and are in production of an updated VFD enclosure now and expect it to be completed in the next few weeks.

At the time of writing, as well, we have not heard any reports of injury or damage. While this does not necessarily imply that the unit is unsafe, the ESA has asked us to comply with their directive for compliance.

AltMill

Most of March was spent preparing for the big shipping push this April. Now that we’ve cleared out of stock on AltMill MK1s, all new machines going out will be MK2s.

We are expecting to start shipping machines at the start of April, and aim to push 200 units per month, or 50 units per week until stock runs out again. We’ve just received parts for both AltMill 4×4 and 2×4!

As we mentioned prior, we’re gradually building up larger amounts of stock to decrease lead times for AltMill, and we estimate around 50 pallets of parts stocked up at a secondary warehouse now to help fulfill demand.

LongMill

After a short pause on shipping of LongMills, due to a shortage of SLB case parts, we are now back to a 1-3 business day lead time. This means all LongMills will ship within a few days.

gControl Panel Computer

gControls are back and we have another 500 units to ship out. We’re expecting to have around 150-200 units in stock after we clear our queue, or another 2ish months of stock. We’ll be starting another batch of 500 as soon as we’ve cleared the queue so that we don’t have another backlog again.

AutoSpin T1 Router

Exciting news! We’ve now received the first batch of AutoSpin T1 Routers for beta testing. We received a total of 35 routers for our first batch of testing, which have gone out to LongMill, Onefinity, Shapeoko, and other CNC users.

Once beta testing is complete and we’ve finalized the details, we’ll be starting production in the next few weeks. Johann and Daniel are in China to visit the factory which these will be produced in to figure the last few details, and we expect us to get units ready for sale in about 3-4 months.

Hey everyone, here are March 2025 Production Updates.

Hiring

We currently have quite a few new job postings. Check out our Indeed postings here. Can’t find a specific job opening but want to share your interest in working at Sienci Labs, please check out our general application.

Office Expansion

When we first moved from our roughly 8000sq/ft location to our current 15,000sq/ft location, it felt like expanding into that space would take forever. Well, perhaps we spoke too soon. With the incoming shipments for increasing batch sizes for the AltMill, plus with the anticipated 4×8 ft AltMills and Sm-AltMills, we’re running out of room to build everything.

With about 40-50 pallets coming in the next few weeks, we’ve also started off-site warehousing, which means that some of our materials will be held in storage a few minutes away, ready to go when we need them.

We’re currently in discussion with our landlord about expanding our space by another approximately 9000 sq/ft, including part of the downstairs area of our neighbour and the upstairs portion of our current unit. Once we’ve taken possession of the space, we’ll most likely start building out the new space in the summer.

AltMill

AltMill shipments have been going out intermittently depending on the availability of SLB and SLB-EXT cases and case end plates. We have run out of those parts, and although we were expecting them to arrive already, they have been delayed in shipping. We have another batch expressed to us expected to come near the end of Feb, which means that we should be able to pick up shipping without much delay.

A large number of shipments have come in as we prepare for AltMill MK2 to ship. We are pre-packing and pre-assembling so that we can start shipping AltMills quickly once all of the remaining parts arrive in March.

STL files for stepper motor covers are available to download for free from our Resources. A link to download can be found at the bottom of the page. These covers were designed for the AltMill MK2 to help protect the wiring of the closed-loop stepper motors. They come included by default with AltMill MK2, but MK1 owners can print and install them if they want.

We are also making progress on 4×8 AltMill design, with Ben showing us a first look at the rack and pinion design he’s been working on.

I also happened to come across a few Sm-AltMills under construction in the back shop. Not exactly sure what the plans are for those but it’s exciting to see some come to shape.

LongMill

We’ve had one short pause on shipping for the LongMills due to a shortage of inductive sensor cables extensions needed for the 48×30 variants of the machine. However, we’ve since switched to including inductive sensors with 5m cabling instead, which forgoes the need for the extension cable and overall improves the reliability by reducing another connection point.

As we mentioned above, we have slowed on shipping for LongMill slightly as we wait on more of the SLB enclosures to come in, but we expect that to be resolved by the time this blog post comes out.

gControl

The next 294 units have now shipped for Batch 2! We are now waiting for a new batch of 500 computers to arrive early to mid-March. We expect to clear the remaining queue once they arrive, and new orders are expected to ship within a few days once we have ready-to-go stock.

AutoSpin T1

We have now collected a small group of beta testers for the AutoSpin T1, which span users of LongMill, Shapeoko, and Onefinity, allowing us to confirm and test compatibility for many major hobby CNC machines.

Beta test units are expected to go to users in the next few weeks.

Hey guys, here’s our Feb 2025 Production Updates. I am currently on vacation so I will be writing this from out of the office.

AltMill

We have continued to ship out AltMill MK1s to the last of the customers in the queue and are expecting to finish in the next two weeks. Afterwards, any machines still in the queue will receive a MK2. At the time of writing, we currently have around 50 machines still left to ship in MK1.

This past month was highlighted by the launch of the AltMill MK2 and the new 2×4 foot variant. We are now expecting MK2 rails to arrive in mid-March, which will allow us to start shipping AltMill MK2 4×4 and 2×4 in late March. Given we have a reasonably large queue, we currently have approximately 300 machines to build in the queue, which means that customers ordering now may be waiting around 2-3 months for their machines if they order today.

Batch 4, which contains machines for MK2 contains 500 units, which is a mix of 2×4 and 4×4 AltMills.

We’ve recently hired a number of new team members for the packing team to help speed up the shipping for AltMills and other products and accessories. We’re also expecting a large influx of parts in Feb and March, which means we’ll also be starting to restructure and organize our space to allow for more storage space.

Batch 5, which we have started initial production planning will likely contain around 750 units, additionally to help alleviate lead times.

In other news, our engineering team has been working on a new rack and pinion system to potentially be used in 4×8 variants of the AltMill MK2. Although we don’t have a specific timeline for the development and release of this machine, we expect more news to come out near the end of the year.

LongMill

Most LongMills continue to ship out as usual. Due to a shortage of extension cables for the inductive sensors, we’ve now switched to offering inductive sensors from the AltMill with longer wiring as an alternative to be used on LongMill MK2.5 48×30 machines.

We are expecting to get new cables in the next 3 weeks, however, we are debating whether we should just offer the longer cable inductive sensors or keep the extensions in the kit.

gControl

We’ve now received our next 300 computers which are being packed and shipped right now. Since the production of the computers we’ve made some updates to the operating system to significantly improve the loading time for gSender. We do have instructions on how to do this on our resources, but we’ve decided that re-flashing all the computers would improve the customer experience and would be worth the extra work.

We are now sold out on our second batch of 300 computers. Due to high demand, we’ve ordered another 500 computers, which are now on the way. We are expecting them at the start of March, which is when the next batch will also ship.

The majority of the new batch from the 300 have now been shipped and we are continuing to pack and ship as we clear out the new stock.

Vortex Rotary Axis

We are still waiting on additional extrusions for the 48″ wide variant of the Vortex Rotary Axis due to customs inspections for the parts en route. We are expecting to receive these parts and resume shipping the Vortex Rotary axis in the next 2 weeks. 30″ variants are continuing to ship without delay.

AutoSpin T1

We are expecting the first batch of around 35 routers for testing to be completed in Feb 16. We will ship them to around 20 assigned beta testers and industry partners once they arrive. We’re currently working on testing with a wide variety of machines including Onefinities, Shapeokos, and more, to ensure compatibility.