Happy Friday! Thanks for sharing your Christmas projects made on the LongMill/AltMill.
Last Week’s Winners
We are happy to announce that Mark Martin, Glenn Striker, Casey Guin, RandyT, Steve Dills, and Steve Kryworuka are the Christmas projects part 1 contest winners. Watch out for a prize!
This Week’s Theme: Christmas Projects Part 2
Week 2 of festive fun! Keep those Christmas LongMill/AltMill projects coming. We’ll be picking our favourites to send some cool prizes to!
Due to port strikes in Vancouver, some parts that were expected to arrive earlier in November have been delayed. We have been working on packing and preparing everything else so that we can make a big push for the end of the year to get the remaining AltMills in Batch 2 out the door.
Rails and other parts have just arrived at the start of this month. and we are resuming shipping AltMills.
All of the parts in Batch 4, which is our next 250 AltMills, are expected to finish production and arrive at the end of January.
Ben and Daniel have been chipping away at the packaging layout for the 2×4 AltMill, here’s a photo of some 3D modelling that’s been done. We are now officially starting production for the 2X4. More info to come. If you’re interested, please feel free to fill out our survey. https://forms.gle/LV9erqPFEr1boPWx7
Also, amongst other cool stuff we’ve been playing around with, here’s a look at Mike and Jon’s “SmaltMill”, designed to automate some of the tapping we do for LongMill and AltMill parts. This is part of us dabbling with the idea of using our own machines to do some of the machining and production for the LongMill and AltMill.
Vortex Rotary Axis including the closed-loop stepper motors are now shipping!
LongMill
LongMill kits are shipping without delays. Our team has recently pre-packed around 150 LongMill in advance of the AltMill parts coming in, so we can focus efforts on clearing the rest of the queue.
gControl Panel Computer
We have now shipped the first 45-50 computers out! We are now in production for another 300 computers. We are expecting them to arrive in mid-January and ship to the remaining customers in our queue. We are also working on a new production batch for another 500-1000 computers as the gControl computer has been more popular than expected.
We have received a small number of customers who have not been able to turn on their computers. After working back and forth with the manufacturer, as well as doing some of our own testing, we found that a standoff may contact part of the screen driver board, causing it to turn off. We’ve addressed this problem in the upcoming batch that is currently in production.
Otherwise, we’re super excited to see that folks have already set up and started using gControl, and we look forward to getting them out to the wider audience soon.
In other news, a lot of customers have been asking if the gControl has upgradable RAM and memory. After going through the process of opening up the computers, the answer appear to be yes. Although we believe that users will not need to make changes to their computer, we believe that having the peace of mind that these parts can be upgraded and replaced is valuable to the user. You can learn more about memory updates here: https://resources.sienci.com/view/gcontrol-memory-and-storage-upgrades/
LightBurn Seller and Pricing Changes
There are some changes happening with Lightburn. If you guys don’t know, Lightburn is a software for laser cutters including the LaserBeam. We have been an official reseller for this software for some time.
The first major change is in the pricing. The original price started at 60USD and is now going to come up to 100USD. While we understand that a higher price isn’t necessarily great for customers, we do think that the software at 100USD is extremely reasonable and provides incredible functionality for lasers in general. Additionally, given that the Lightburn team has continued to provide support and updates frequently, the additional income from license sales are expected to help push development and improvements on further. This is called “Lightburn Core” now
The second major change is in the licensing structure. Originally, we were able to freely sell the software. At this moment in time, although there is no specific agreement in place, Lightburn wants us and other sellers to only offer the software as a bundle to another product. This is to reduce the number of unsavory sellers in the market who do things such as selling the same license code three times. Since each Lightburn license can be installed on three computers at a time, they can sell the same code thrice. When customers have tried to install licenses on multiple computers as they should be able to, they have found that they are not able to and adding extra burden on the Lightburn team to resolve.
I am not really a big fan of “bundling” software with products, as I believe that users should have as much freedom as possible when choosing software, especially when there are multiple options, which is why at this time we haven’t bundled or offered the software for sale on our site at the moment.
We are discussion possibly using an online portal instead, where users can buy software direct from Lightburn, but allow us to take a commission and provide some support to customers as well. I have found this to be a fairly straightforward and easy way to allow software providers to have control over the software distribution.
We are still working through this, as we do want to make sure Lightburn is able to sustainably provide software. If you want to purchase the software, you can still do so directly through them on their website.
LaserBeam and UltraBeam
As you guys might know, Ikenna has been at the forefront of the LaserBeam and UltraBeam projects. Not only have these been big projects in general but also brought to light thoughts and discussions about the structure and ownership of these projects and products. While initially, the plan was to keep UltraBeam under the Sienci Labs umbrella, it became more clear that we had to reconsider this as the project progressed.
Since the UltraBeam CO2 laser project has encountered complications as we previously noted, we have put that project on hold until we figure out the best path forward. We have heard from customers regarding our current LaserBeam product, and we continue to support the LaserBeam. However, as we’ve revisited our LaserBeam line, we’re making plans in developing and offering newer improved versions of a diode laser attachment soon. Make sure to stay tuned for more news.
Hey everyone! Thanks for posting your sign projects made on the LongMill/AltMill.
Last Week’s Winners
We are happy to announce that Steven J. Arndt, Chris Posey, Marcus Stapleton, Michael Boorsma, Donald Rutan Jr., and Vincent Schad are the sign projects contest winners. A prize is on its way!
This Week’s Theme: Christmas Projects Part 1
Happy holidays! Kick off the season by sharing your best Christmas-themed LongMill/AltMill projects with us. We can’t wait to see your festive creations!
A number of customers have expressed concerns over the potential trade tariffs announced by Trump, so I’d like to address this in an article. The proposed 25% tariff on Canadian imports by President-elect Donald Trump marks a significant escalation in trade tensions between the U.S. and Canada. Framed as a measure to address drug trafficking and migration concerns, the tariff threatens to disrupt one of the world’s closest economic partnerships.
We understand that this may be a concern to our American customers, in case they should be expecting additional costs to bring their machines and other products from our company in Canada to the US.
Likelihood of a tariff being put into place
With such a significant amount of business being done between US and Canada, this tariff would potentially create a huge impact on both economies, with potential price increases for imported good in the US, and slower sales for Canadian companies. Additionally, this creates a burden on the customs systems put into place, which could mean longer times for products to clear across the border.
It should be noted that, at least according to Trump, these measures are put into place to address drug trafficking and illegal immigration by creating a potential economic punishment for governments that don’t crack down on these things. If both governments are able to find a way to solve some of these issues, it may mitigate the need for a trade war. Additionally imposing tariffs between US and Canada may potentially violate the USMCA trade agreements, which allow for easier trade between United States, Mexico, and Canada, which can cause other economic implications and political repercussions. The USMCA took over a year of negotiations and nearly 3 years to fully implement, and unravelling that could have serious consequences.
All this means that the situation is very nuanced and complicated. I don’t expect there to be dramatic changes right away, but we are keeping an eye on the situation as it progresses. There may be a chance that there won’t be any tariffs levied, the tariff amount is smaller than originally proposed, or it may be only to certain products and materials that pertain to us.
What happens if a tariff gets put into place
We intend to honour our pricing and responsibilities to cover duties and taxes for products shipping to the United States as we have continued to do so in the past few years.
However, an import tariff will impact our costs and the bottom line of the business, and we may need to address that when we know what will move forward with tariffs if there ever is one. We will reconsider pricing for our products once we learn of changes in the tariffs if or when it occurs.
From my personal experience and opinion, while there may be some tariffs imposed, the direct impact to us and our customers in general may be more nuanced, such as interventions from the Canadian government to support Canadian companies. There have been many changes in the political and economic landscape that our company has faced, and I believe that regardless of what happens, we’ll figure out a way through like we always have.
We are discontinuing the UltraBeam project. The UltraBeam was a standalone CO2 laser designed for higher-power cutting. This article outlines the circumstances and series of events leading up to this announcement.
The UltraBeam project was started and led by one of our employees, Ikenna. From the beginning of the project, Ikenna had expressed interest in spinning the product into part of a new company, separate from Sienci Labs. However, I decided that at that time, the best chance of success for the product was to keep it within the Sienci Labs umbrella and build it under our roof. Since that point, Ikenna has worked on the CO2 laser full-time.
Our company has gone through a lot of changes internally, and with that, changes to our company structure, distribution of resources, decision-making processes, and more. Alongside this, we’ve had a number of employees leave or get fired, which has affected the balance and relationships within the company. In the midst of everything, it felt to me that spinning the CO2 off into a separate company may alleviate some of the pressures to manage all of the changes and allow Ikenna to build a new company structure around a new product that was suitable for his vision.
We started working on a rough plan for this spinoff. The general plan was for Sienci Labs to transfer the prototypes, materials, and IP around the CO2 laser to the new company in exchange for a minority stake in the new venture. This meant that Ikenna would leave Sienci Labs and then work for his own venture. This structure would allow Ikenna to access all of the work he had already started without restrictions,
After his departure, it became clear, after some back and forth, that Ikenna no longer had the intention to work with me or involve the company in the new venture.
This puts things in a complicated situation, since as far as I understand, Ikenna plans to continue the development and eventual release of a CO2 laser. However, Sienci Labs still retains the intellectual property and customer information created during Ikenna’s employment.
Given these circumstances, I am putting a hold on the UltraBeam project. This means that there will be no new development or product release at this time. Additionally, I would note that external use of customer information and IP created and owned by Sienci Labs is a violation of our working contracts and any products.
Hey everyone! Thanks for posting your hosting/entertaining projects made on the LongMill/AltMill.
Last Week’s Winners
We are happy to announce that Dave Olson, Dan Philie, Tammy Erickson, Gord Waterman, James Prestage, and Thomas Loomis are the hosting/entertaining projects contest winners. A prize is on its way!
This Week’s Theme: Vortex Projects
Show off your best Vortex projects for a chance to win cool prizes! We’ll select our favourites and send awesome rewards to the makers.
Happy Friday! Thanks for sharing your latest projects made on the LongMill/AltMill.
Last Week’s Winners
We are happy to announce that Lou LaRock, Lonnie Clark, James O’Rear, Donovan Corbin, Max Crompton, and Lyle Biehn are the latest projects contest winners. Watch out for a prize!
This Week’s Theme: Hosting/Entertaining Projects
This week’s theme: hosting and entertaining projects! Share your beer stands, coasters, speakers, TV setups, serving trays, games, or any entertaining items made on your LongMill/AltMill. We’ll pick our favorites to send free stuff!
We are excited to offer two of our LaserBeam accessories for purchase in our shop.
First, we have the Steel LaserBeam Mount. Originally designed specifically for the LaserBeam and included with each LaserBeam System, this mount has proven to be a versatile accessory that many customers use in their projects, setups, and designs. It’s built to be durable and reliable, ensuring long-lasting performance.
Next is the Replacement Focus Finder Set. Every LaserBeam order comes with a full set, but we know how easy it can be to misplace these small parts. We’ve created this replacement set to help you keep everything in place.
In addition to making these accessories available for purchase, we’ve also added a Resources Page to our website, where you can download the design files for each accessory. Feel free to experiment and create your own versions at home!
The LaserBeam Magnetic Mount is now available for purchase! Streamline your setup by eliminating the tedious bolting process. Once installed, simply snap your laser on and off for quick and easy adjustments. Crafted with durable, high-strength magnets, this mount ensures exceptional stability and rigidity, delivering precise and clean results within recommended speed ranges. Upgrade your experience today!
Feel free to explore all of our other resources for updated information on LaserBeam compatibility with the ever-expanding line of Sienci Labs products.
