Category: General News

March 2024 Production Updates

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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.

Get Your LaserBeam Vortex Riser Mount – Available for Purchase Now!  

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.

For more info and FAQ, please check the AltMill landing page.

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.

March 1 – March 8, 2024 “Sign Projects” Contest

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Hi everyone! Thank you for showcasing your incredible guitar/guitar-related projects made on the LongMill.

Last Week’s Winners

We are happy to announce that Ritchie Bedard, Ed Lagace, Mark Hunt, Kenneth Key, Darcy Boyer, and Jim Hambone are the guitar/guitar-related projects contest winners. A prize is on its way!

This Week’s Theme: Sign Projects

This week’s theme: “Sign Projects.” Share your most creative LongMill-made sign projects for a chance to win free prizes in our contest!

Weekly Themed Contest Guidelines and Rules

Have ideas for themes? Let us know by commenting below!

Happy creating!

Feb-ulous SLB news

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Greetings all, Chris here again to emerge from my SuperLongBoard development cave and provide you with my news!

For anyone who still has yet to hear about our new and most ambitious Sienci Labs electronics projects to-date, our arguably aptly named SUPERLongBoard, is the graduated version of our current LongBoard and has been designed to be even more SUPER at all things hobby CNC. 

This is a serious upgrade for a serious board, even if we had some fun with the name: culminating in what we hope to be an all-in-one solution and in many cases an upgrade to anything currently in its pricepoint on the market. The result is a 32-bit processing, on-board motor driving, Auxiliary output supporting, 4th axis controlling, laser, TLS, macro button -having board.

With that summary out of the way, you can catch up on past progress by looking at my update last month which also has links to past videos and past updates before it: https://sienci.com/2024/01/25/slb-january-updates/ 

Now let’s roll along to what new stuff I have to update you on this month 🙂

New Stuff

We’ve now pre-sold nearly 450 boards now…. and wow I’m so excited to see that everyone else is just as excited about this board as I am. To put into context: the current batch of boards we’ll be manufacturing was intended to be 500 but had to be reduced to 470 (I’ll mention the reason shortly) which means that we’ve nearly already sold out the whole batch before starting shipping! Needless to say, Andy and I already began discussions about a month ago on what our next steps are going to be if the reception to the SLB ends up being as good as we hope it will be to ensure we can have more on-hand in the coming months if possible.

Now the reason why we had to reduce to 470 is basically a math error, but in short:

  • Right on time to the schedule I posted in my last update – a couple weeks ago – we finally ordered the final production run of SLB boards! After the last run of prototype boards arrived we were able to very quickly redistribute them to Beta testers and vet any last changes we felt needed to be made so we could turn around and start prompting for production.
  • Already knowing that Lunar New Year would interrupt our delivery progress, we’d already ordered every other overseas part that we needed to produce the SLB (except the boards) at the start of January to ensure things would arrive on time by boat.
  • Knowing that we couldn’t do this for the boards since we needed more time to test them, we instead pre-ordered lots of the parts used for the board circuitry in advance as a way to help speed up production after Lunar New year finished. This included important stuff like the STM32F412 ‘brain’, TMC2660C motor drivers, and some other rarer items. We pre-ordered around 525 of these parts, but shortly after realized that we needed to do one final set of prototype boards and this used up 40 of the 525 parts.
  • After we add a small buffer for potential board failure, this left us with about 470 left for production SLBs that we can make available and would ship by air to catch up with everything else so they would all arrive around the same time.

Speaking of ordering parts, let’s take a look at what our full part table looks like right now as we start preparing to intake SLB parts and set up packing stations to check and ship them out:

SubsectionNameAmountShipping Status
Board PartsSLB important PCB components1Pre-ordered and now being used for SLB board production
SLB PCB assembly1Underway, scheduled to arrive by air on March 18th
USB-C Cable1To be ordered shortly after some more testing/validation
E-stopE-stop Button1Ordered, currently on boat and scheduled to arrive March 5th
E-stop PCB1Underway, scheduled to arrive by air mid-March
E-stop Cable1Completed, will be shipped alongside E-stop PCBs
Injection Moulded Case1Completed, currently on boat and scheduled to arrive March 15th
#4 screws3In stock
Enclosure PartsAluminum Extrusion exterior1Completed, currently on boat and scheduled to arrive March 15th
Front Panel1
Rear Panel1
Acrylic Cover1Arrived, to begin in-house production mid-March
Steel Mounting Bracket1Underway, should be made and plated in a couple weeks by our local steel manufacturer
M5-10mm SEMS3In stock
M5 T-nut3In stock
M4 Thumbscrew1Arrived
#4 screw6In stock
PackagingCardboard Box and inserts1Still being designed, should have a 1 week turnaround time by our local manufacturer

We’ve tried to time things out using a combination of boat and air freight for international parts and the shorter timelines of our local producers. Hopefully the information isn’t too much to look at, but the long and short of it is that everything looks like it’ll all show up around the same time!

Some of the great-looking production samples!

In the meantime, we’ve begun working on making space for packing and testing stations, working on designing our quality assurance procedures to test boards before they go out the door, all the while internal testing and Beta testing still continues forward as small tweaks to gSender support and to the Firmware are still being made to get everything working how we like it.

Please still bear in mind though, due to there being things that could still be outside our control, I would still conservatively estimate that SLBs begin shipping out the door last week of March or the first or second week of April. This would cover instances where delivery by boat or air has a slowdown, or we find something with the final batch of boards that need our attention. For example:

  • We’ve now had problems with a couple RGB LEDs out of the 50 prototypes we’ve made where they light up random colours rather than turning the colour they’re told to be. This makes us think that our manufacturer is giving us slightly water-damaged components, so we spoke to them about baking the LEDs before installation and are also working on a way for them to validate the boards before shipping so they don’t show up broken. This is an example of nothing we’ve done wrong, but could pop up unexpectedly on a board as complex as the SLB.

Will there be more Videos?

Yes of course! To be honest, after the inrush of pre-orders after the SuperLongBoard launch I’ve had more of a sense of duty to test-test-test the board as much as I possibly can as a higher priority than filming the boards capabilities. This is because, though I know there’s lots that the board can do, clearly everyone who’s already pre-ordered is already on ‘board’ with the SLB so I don’t think it would be fair for me to spend my time building more excitement for the board when I can instead focus my time on making it more bulletproof 🙂

And I think the nose-to-the-grindstone work has been paying off! There’s been tons of bug squashing and pushing machines to their limits by us and our trusty team of Beta testers:

  • We’ve now had over 15 firmware iterations since the start of the project
  • We’re continuing to work closely with the grblHAL firmware creator to ensure great compatibility between the board and its functionality, we actually sent him a pre-production SLB of his own that he’ll be receiving shortly
  • Major work thus far has included implementing major features like reliable USB and Ethernet, standby current reduction and individual axis holding, 4th axis control, TLS support, action buttons and ensuring their behaviour is predictable in different situations when using the CNC, controlling the custom outputs, honing in on the new LongMill default settings
  • Lots of tweaks have been made to gSender to make it know all the things it needs to know to effectively communicate with a faster and more feature-diverse controller. There have been more delays than originally thought due to continuing to find unexpected edge-cases in how the SLB behaves differently from the LongBoard, but we’ll keep trucking along and expect to be done in time
  • Ikenna has now thoroughly vetted the SLB to work with our LaserBeam laser diode and is very happy with how it’s working, even now using SLB in his LaserBeam livestreams

When it comes to roadblocks we’ve hit, the last month has actually been very good. Beta tester feedback has been a split of 40% gSender compatibility problems, 30% improvements to board documentation, then about 15% tweaks to firmware and the last 15% changes we had to make to the board design before we began production. This is good news because software and firmware are things that we can -and have- continued to work on while things are being manufactured and shipped over.  This means that the gSender and Firmware teams still have most of March to finish polishing things up which seems very doable. The last remaining hurdles are to get things like 4th axis cutting and switching between spindle and laser working as smoothly as we can in gSender, and then completing the remaining documentation tweaks based on Beta testers continued feedback, then writing up a guide on how to do a full board swap for existing MK1 and MK2 owners. I’ll also be setting aside some time mid-March to establish final movement speeds and motor noise that can be expected.

With all that said, videos will definitely still be making more of an appearance as we begin to near the delivery date since I want you guys to see what you’re going to be getting before shipment begins 👍 Alongside this will of course be: continued updates to FAQs, starting to release parts of the SLB manual, starting to release a list of recommended hardware to use alongside your SLB for 4th axis, lights, and more. I might even do some Livestreams so you guys can see more of the board in action and have any of your other questions answered! Some of my current video/livestream ideas are:

  • Speed and noise comparison to the LongBoard
  • Trying and SLB retrofit onto a Mill One
  • I’ve been messing around with a RapidChange unit and am hoping to see if I can get it fully set up and working to answer any questions about the SLB supporting an ATC. If you haven’t seen this unit yet I’m very excited about what it might do to shake up the hobby CNC space for more affordable automatic tool changing, and Don who I’ve been speaking with over the last year is a really nice guy who’s direction I really love so far

Conclusions

If you’ve made it this far, here’s your award 🏅. This is to recognize that you once again lasted through another one of my treacherous, Engineering-writing posts, complete with its poor sentence structure and also a lack of pictures on this post especially.

In all seriousness, thanks for everyone’s continued support for this project and the other projects we’ve continuously strived to do with Sienci Labs over the years. It’s never been easy for us but the kind words and reassurance that the work we’re doing matters really helps to keep us going. Thanks for anyone who’s been helping give me and the gSender team the needed feedback to keep making more cool features and fix iterations that sometimes break things and thanks for posting all the cool stuff you do and helping each other out too.

If you have any other ideas for SLB content you’d like to see, please leave them in the comments of wherever you were when you saw the link to this post whether it was on Facebook, our User Forum, or elsewhere and I’ll try to find them and write them down.

Until next time!

-Chris

Get Your LaserBeam Vortex Riser Mount – Available for Purchase Now!  

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The LaserBeam Vortex Riser mount is now available for purchase! It is a new add-on made for pairing with the Vortex. The Riser mount increases the z-axis height of your laser, providing significantly more room for LaserBeam focusing. Additionally, the product allows for more variation in LaserBeam mounting positions and is compatible with all versions of the Longmill router mounts.  Made of premium zinc-coated steel, this rigid and durable mount is the perfect addition to take your rotary laser engraving to the next level.

LaserBeam Vortex Riser Mount

LaserBeam Vortex Riser Mount

$13.99

This mount raises the Z height of your LaserBeam so you have more room to focus the lens. Each LaserBeam Vortex Mount order includes: 1 Zinc coated steel mount 5 M3-10 screws This product uses both the Laserbeam and Vortex systems. For more information on this product, you can view our resources here https://resources.sienci.com/view/lb-manual-vortex-riser-mount/ and…

55 in stock

Category: ,

We’ve prepared a detailed resource page and a video on assembling and attaching the Vortex Riser Mount to your LongMill. Also,  feel free to check out the additional update to the LaserBeam resources that details how to use offsets in g-sender with the Vortex Riser Mount and a variety of different Sienci mounts. 

If you’re interested in learning more about the LaserBeam and Vortex Riser mount, visit our product page below.

LaserBeam Vortex Riser Mount

February 23 – March 1, 2024 “Guitar/Guitar-Related Projects” Contest

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It’s weekly-themed contest time! Thanks for sharing your cool clock projects made with the LongMill.

Last Week’s Winners

We are happy to announce that Chris Sutherland, Gerard Cochrane, Craig Stevens, Sheryl Thompson, Jeffery Bates, and Jim McKane are the winners of the clock projects contest. Watch out for a prize!

This Week’s Theme: Guitar/Guitar-Related Projects

Share your best guitar or guitar-related projects made with your LongMill for a chance to win prizes in this week’s contest! Think guitars, guitar trays, charcuterie boards, cutting boards, and more.

Weekly Themed Contest Guidelines and Rules

Have ideas for themes? Let us know by commenting below!

Happy crafting!

#siencilabs #longmill #lovemylongmill #longmillcnc #siencilabslongmill #longmillmk2 #longmillcontest

February 16 – February 23, 2024 “Clock Projects” Contest

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Happy Friday! Thank you for sharing your fantastic sports-themed projects created with the LongMill.

Last Week’s Winners

We are happy to announce that Dave Alexander, Jonathan Silva, Matthew Greg Blenhart, Steve Kuzmak, James Russell, and Andy Just are the winners of the sports-themed projects contest. A prize is on its way!

P.S. We will be closed on Monday, February 19th for Family Day and back in the office on Tuesday, February 20th.

This Week’s Theme: Clock Projects

This week’s theme: “Clock Projects.” Share your LongMill-made clock creations for a chance to win prizes in our contest!

Weekly Themed Contest Guidelines and Rules

Have ideas for themes? Let us know by commenting below!

Happy making!

February 9 – February 16, 2024 “Sports-Themed Projects” Contest

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Hey everyone! Thanks for sharing your terrific LongMill tray projects with us.

Last Week’s Winners

We are happy to announce that Kenneth Key, Maxime Belanger, Pascal Therrien, Luis Sanchez, Christopher Weaver, and Ralph Matile are the winners of the tray projects contest. Look out for a prize!

This Week’s Theme: Sports-Themed Projects

Show off your sports-themed LongMill projects this week! Share with us for a chance to win prizes!

Weekly Themed Contest Guidelines and Rules

Have ideas for themes? Let us know by commenting below!

Happy building!

February 2 – February 9, 2024 “Tray Projects” Contest

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Happy Friday! It’s contest time! A big thank you to everyone who shared their fantastic LongMill cribbage board projects with us.

Last Week’s Winners

We are happy to announce that Sarah Morley Selstrom, John Sawatzky, Colby Browning, Jennifer Purper, Henrick Morin, and Allan Sedgwick are the winners of the cribbage board projects contest. A prize is on its way!

This Week’s Theme: Tray Projects

This week’s theme: “Tray Projects”. Share your LongMill-made tray projects for a chance to win prizes!

Weekly Themed Contest Guidelines and Rules

Have ideas for themes? Let us know by commenting below!

Happy creating!

The Saga of the Spring Loaded Anti-Backlash Nuts

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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 nuts for 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:

  1. Unlike belts, lead screws don’t stretch over time
  2. Unlike ball screws, they don’t need lubrication and are dust resistant.
  3. 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.

Forms response chart. Question title: What are some improvements you've noticed with the new Spring Loaded Anti Backlash Nut (select all that apply)?. Number of responses: 21 responses.

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.

#image_title

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.

February 2024 Production Updates

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Hey everyone, welcome to our February 2024 Production Updates.

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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.

If you’d like to provide some feedback and let us know what sort of workshops and content you’d like to see, please check out https://sienci.com/2024/01/10/fill-out-our-cnc-workshop-survey/

LongMill MK2s

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.

#image_title

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.