Category: Production Updates

Hey everyone, here is our Nov 2022 Production Updates.

I’m actually writing this update at the end of October since I’ll be on vacation for the next two weeks, but this should lay out everything we’re working through this month. I’ll be in touch with the team on and off during this time, but figured I’d get this update ready to go.

For all news and updates, please see our Blog.

Just as a reminder, if you’d like to get these updates as a weekly email newsletter, please subscribe here: https://sienci.us13.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=720f140325aaa668a8aa09916&id=e18d59a085

Louis is back

After a 10-month hiatus, Louis, our CEO has returned from vacation.

LongMill MK2 and Extension Kit Orders

Production continues to move smoothly for all LongMill and Extension Kit orders. We paused production for about a week while we restocked on lead screws, but we have received the new batch and will continue to have machines go out the door at our regular pace. We’ve also restocked on a new batch of front and back steel feet, gantries, and rails. Lead times for this month should be around 1-2 weeks for most machines.

Batch 6 is nearly over with just over 100 machines left for this batch. Batch 7 will have essentially no differences since most improvements have been made gradually throughout Batch 6. Some of the improvements include:

• Higher grade washers to prevent bending of the washers used with eccentric nuts
• Custom machined v-wheels to higher tolerances
• Additional QA processes including checking variance and tolerances throughout all of our aluminum extrusions

Additionally, we’ve implemented some process changes in the office such as:

• Kanban for 3D printed parts and some assembled parts
• Torque settable electric screwdrivers for XZ gantry assemblies to ensure all screws are tight before shipping
• Specialized measuring tools for checking fit and tolerances
• Additional foam padding in packaging to reduce denting and scratching
• SOPs on tablets and QA databases
• Version tracking for all variations of parts
• New MRP systems to help keep track of inventory

Our operations team and our staff have generally noted that Batch 6 has been the smoothest batch we’ve had so far with minor issues (except maybe the big one at the start of 2022). We expect Batch 7 to be even better.

Currently, we are looking at seeing ourselves run low in the next few weeks on linear guides and a few small sets of hardware, but are expected to restock in mid-to-late November.

LaserBeam Orders

We are currently stocked on LaserBeams and most orders are going out within a few days. We are also expecting to complete the first batch of roughly 1000 units as well near the end of the year.

Black Friday Sales

As of this time, we do not have any sales planned for Black Friday. We simply believe that providing the same reasonable prices for our products at any time of the year is the best way to run our business. If you’re looking to get into CNCing, we recommend customers order their machines whenever they are ready. We suspect that most customers will find our pricing quite reasonable even when other companies are selling theirs at a discount.

We have never had a discount (with the exception of the Kickstarter campaign) on the LongMill since its release.

At the end of the day, we want people to have confidence that they are getting the best deal on their purchase no matter when they place their order, and we also want to focus more of our time on important stuff like designing machines and growing our community over focusing on selling more stuff.

Just a reminder for everyone to be nice

Something that I am continually grateful for is our active, healthy, and supportive community. We now have nearly 10,000 users across our platforms today from over 30 countries. For all of our amazing community members, thank you for being part of what we are today.

Based on feedback from our support staff and other members of our team, as hobby CNCing becomes more popular and prevalent in our society, expectations and demographics continue to change as well, introducing a wider audience beyond our early group of adopters. Over time, our groups have become more diverse demographically and what people are using their CNC machines for, which is amazing.

It should be noted that although we don’t personally post publically that often, many of us at the company personally stay active on the groups and read most of the posts that you make. I make it a habit to check the forums and Facebook group at least once or twice a day to see how things look in the community and see what’s new, even though it’s rare for me to post or comment in general.

But of course, with every large group, there can be some negativity. We welcome complaints and criticism, whether posted online or directed to us privately, we use these messages to make improvements to what we do on a continual basis. I also hope that customers give us a chance to help them and let us work out the kinks that may arise, as well as open to learning to work with us as we navigate to getting started in a new hobby.

That being said, with recent growth in the community, I have also seen the rate of negative commentary and harassment pointed at us and to the company directly increase as well. I do not accept harassment aimed toward our staff and I have continually been working to help our staff navigate these situations.

In response to this, we’ve worked to create some internal processes and policies to help take care of these matters, as well as post a Customer Support Terms of Service note at the end of our Contact Us page. For our online communities, thank you to our members who’ve stepped up to comment back when people have made negative and untrue comments.

We are people. We have feelings. We love and care about our community and we do our best to make this a fun and accessible ecosystem. Please remember to be nice to us and each other.

End-of-Year Holidays

As we typically do, we are on closing for holidays from Dec 23rd to Jan 2nd. If you have any questions or need anything shipped out, please reach out to us before the 23rd. There may be some of us providing limited holiday support and getting ready for the new year, but the large majority of us will be on holiday.

Hey everyone, here are our Oct 2022 Production Updates.

For all news and updates, please see our Blog.

Just as a reminder, if you’d like to get these updates as a weekly email newsletter, please subscribe here: https://sienci.us13.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=720f140325aaa668a8aa09916&id=e18d59a085

Canadian Thanksgiving is coming up this month. Our offices will be closed Oct 7-10th.

LongMill MK2 and Extension Kit Orders

Production continues to move smoothly for all LongMill and Extension Kit orders. Most machines are shipping out within 1-2 weeks, and oftentimes sooner.

We are expecting to run out of the 1030mm lead screws that are used in various quantities between all sizes of the LongMill around the middle of October.

We have another partial batch expected to arrive at the end of the month, which means that shipping may be paused around this time. We will update our Order Status page with updated information if there is a shipping delay.

We expect lead times for machine orders to be around 1-2 weeks for the next few weeks before we update our lead times when we run out of lead screws.

A small piece of news to share, we have now switched completely to custom manufacturing v-wheels. This means more consistency, quality, and accuracy for the wheels in general, which have been historically a tricky point for us. The quality for the first 30,000 looks to be excellent so far.

LaserBeam Orders

We still have ready-to-go stock on LaserBeams. Most are getting shipped out within a few days.

Ikenna has been doing livestreams for working with the LaserBeam. If you haven’t checked it out yet, make sure visit our Youtube channel!

USD to CAD Exchange Rate

At the time of writing, the exchange rate for USD to CAD is 1 USD = 1.36 CAD. Because our base currency is in Canadian, this means that the exchange rate is heavily in favor of the Americans. That means that while the price for our products is basically the same for Canadians, our neighbors down South can purchase from us at a pretty significant discount.

Based on the reports that I’ve been receiving from RBC (Royal Bank of Canada), their projections are expected to see the USD to CAD conversion continue to be in favor of the USD for some time.

Because our base prices are all in CAD, this means that the margins for each machine decrease as the exchange rate changes in favor of the USD. Thankfully, because most of the material and production costs come in the local area, we are not as impacted as our competitors that have a higher percentage of materials coming from the US and overseas or US competitors selling into Canada. Additionally, much of the purchasing for Batch 7 was done when the exchange rate was around 1 USD = 1.26 CAD, a more favorable rate.

As the continuing economic turmoil continues, it will be interesting to see how us as a business will move forward.

The silver lining to this is that the small discount that our southern neighbors will be getting may stimulate more economic business in Canada.

Hey there, here’s our September 2022 production update.

For all news and updates, please see our Blog.

Just as a reminder, if you’d like to get these updates as a weekly email newsletter, please subscribe here: https://sienci.us13.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=720f140325aaa668a8aa09916&id=e18d59a085

Please note that we will be closed on Monday Sept 5, 2022 for Labour Day. We’ll be back in the office on Tuesday Sept 6, 2022.

LongMill MK2 and Extension Kit Orders

Production continues to move fairly smoothly for all LongMill and Extension Kit orders. We have now cleared the pending queue for 48×30 and Extension kits and now lead times for all machine sizes will be more or less the same. We are expecting lead times to be around 1-2 weeks for most orders for this month.

This past month we did pause production shortly due to us running out of rail extrusions to make 48in X-axis rails, however, we have received another batch of rails that should cover for another 400-500 machines. Because we were working with our extrusion manufacturer to work out some kinks in the consistency of the rails, which placed the order on hold rather than going to press. Thankfully they were able to move the extrusions to the weekend schedule and have them made with only a few days of added delay.

X and Z gantries we also ran out as well have also been restocked. The next thing we’re expecting to run out of are the front and back steel feet for LongMill MK2 machines which we currently have 70 units worth left, however, those should be restocked back around the end of next week.

LaserBeam Orders

We are now stocked on enough LaserBeam units to last till the end of the year. Most are shipping out within a few days.

Batch 7 Production

We are now at the final third of Batch 6 Production. This means that we’re at our last 500ish machines, and we’ll be getting to the end of the batch sometime likely in December. Depending on the status of our shipments, our lead times may change around this time.

Batch 7 production has been underway for the last few months and we’ve been getting parts in to prepare. There won’t be any major changes but we’ve made some small tweaks to production overall including:

• Small tweaks to the design of the 5mm to 8mm coupler to help customers identify which side goes on which side
• Fully custom-produced v-wheels to improve quality control and consistency of the wheels

Some additional changes to our production reflected in Batch 6 and 7 include:

• New tools to check the consistency of all of our rails
• Additional checks to ensure the flatness of all gantry plates and other steel parts
• Individual motor tuning on all control boards

When we started Batch 6 in 2021 and early 2022, we were at the height of the pandemic and supply chain constraints. Recently, we’ve seen lower lead times, shortages, and transport times than before, so we are hopeful that this new batch of machines will have a smoother production process than before.

Price increases from UPS

UPS has recently informed us that they will be charging an “Additional Handling Fee” on shipments weighing over 50lbs. Previously this limit was set to 70lbs. This means that some shipments on new orders may see roughly a $10 increase on LongMill shipping prices on new orders placed Sept 6. We are working with UPS to negotiate and reduce the impact of this charge.

Hey everyone, here is the update for this month. For all news and updates, please see our Blog.

Just as a reminder, if you’d like to get these updates as a weekly email newsletter, please subscribe here: https://sienci.us13.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=720f140325aaa668a8aa09916&id=e18d59a085

Not too much new to report, so this will be a shorter post than usual.

LongMill 48×30 and Extension Kit Orders

We did have a stop in production last month for a short period of time as we got shorted some Y gantry plates for the 48×30 and EX plates but that has now been resolved. We’ve shipped out another batch of around 50-60 machines since.

Because of a higher than expected number of orders for the 48x30s, we are currently out of stock on X rails and are waiting for another delivery of material on August 12th. While we expected 48×30 machines to make up around 30-50% of our machine sales, we’ve now found that the larger variant has recently become nearly 60% of our sales in the last month. The new batch of rails that are on the way has been adjusted to reflect the new ratio.

Once the rails arrive, we will ship machines out again and should take about 2 weeks to complete the remaining queue.

LongMill 12×30 and 30×30 Orders

Orders for LongMill 12×30 and 30×30 have been mostly shipping out within one business day. We currently have parts in stock and ready to go.

LaserBeam Orders

We have received new drivers and are currently packing and shipping the rest of the queue. Most customers should have gotten theirs shipped already, and most new orders are going out within a week. If you have a machine on order waiting to be shipped, the Order Status page may not show as completed since both items haven’t shipped yet.

Hey everyone. Here’s our update for July 2022. Production continues to move along as scheduled and we are getting machines out the door as usual.

Just as a reminder, if you’d like to get these updates as a weekly email newsletter, please subscribe here: https://sienci.us13.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=720f140325aaa668a8aa09916&id=e18d59a085

LongMill 12×30 and 30×30 Kits

Any 12×30 and 30×30 orders have been shipping out as they come in and lead times on orders is 1-3 business days. Kits are in stock and ready to go.

LongMill 48×30 and Extension Kits

Starting last week, we have started shipping out LongMill 48×30 and the Extension Kits. At the current time of writing, we should have around 20-30 people who have received their orders or have gotten their machines shipped. If you have a pending order, you should have gotten an email from me that looks like this:

New orders for 48×30 and Extension Kits will ship out in order, so we are expecting new orders to ship in about 4 weeks.

LaserBeam orders

We are waiting on another batch of LaserBeam drivers to arrive to us and should be here in about three weeks. LaserBeam orders will continue to ship when we receive the new batch.

In the meantime, please check out Scott’s latest videos on setting up the laser!

US Duties and Taxes

As a short follow-up to our last update on US Duties and Taxes. I put out a post on the Facebook group and it looks like with the exception of one customer who reached out, we’ve been able to get the LongMills cleared for everyone. We had about 15 orders get charged taxes which we’ve paid on the behalf of the customer before we sent all of the proper USMCA clearance paperwork, but we have confirmation that they have received the paperwork now so any new orders crossing into the US should get cleared properly now.

We’ve also set up an exemption on the 48×30 Extension Kits, so these orders should clear duty-free as well.

First Nations Tax Exemptions

If you are a Canadian First Nations, you may be eligible for a tax refund on completed orders. We have updated our system to process these exemptions. For more info, please visit this page.

Just another production update. For the last production update please check it out here: https://sienci.com/2022/06/01/june-2022-production-updates/

May was a tough month but it feels like things are finally turning around. Lasers are shipping again, LongMills are shipping with basically no wait time, and I’ve just gotten confirmation that the last part for the LongMill MK2 48x30s and Extension Kits will be done soon.

Just to start with something fun, here’s a little video of me riding on the CNC machine. Apparently its easier to convince people that the LongMill is super strong if we sit on it, so I’ve done this to make everyone happy.

I am running the machine at 2500mm/min on stock hardware and firmware settings.

If you want to make your own here’s some files:

Instructions:

1. Cut out using 3/4″ material using an 1/8″ or smaller bit. If you use a larger bit, it might not fit together right because of the radius in the corners. I used MDF. The DXFs might need to be joined.
2. Pictures of putting it together are in the ZIP file. Use a mallet to slot everything together. There is no clearance, so a lot of physical persuasion might be necessary.
3. Bolt to the top of the X rail with M5-25 bolts and M5 T nuts
4. Whee…

LongMill MK2 12×30 and 30×30 lead times

Lead times for new machine orders 1-3 business days. All of our parts are in stock and we are currently packing and shipping orders as they come.

It feels like a really really long time since we’ve been caught up on orders. I am happy that we were able to navigate through everything to finally get everything together. We’re also expecting another 500 Y gantries to arrive in the next few weeks, which will cover us for the next 400-500 machines. This means that overall, I think we’ll be able to keep lead times short for another 2 months.

Our next bottleneck is likely to be aluminum rails, as we still need to order another batch of them. However, because we’re limited in space right now and we still have quite a few left, we’ll likely hold off on the order until July.

It’s a relief, but at the same time, our work isn’t done yet. We’re about halfway through sourcing and production for the next batch, Batch 7 and getting it ready for the end of the year.

LaserBeams are shipping

Finally, the drivers are working and being shipped. We have about 100 shipped out from the queue and should have most of the rest of them done tomorrow.

We’ll have to wait a little bit for Ikenna to give us a full update, but since we only received 200 laser drivers, once we use them up, it’ll likely be a couple more weeks for us to get another batch once we are sold out. We’ll more concrete dates soon, but we will keep a 6 week lead time for new orders. In the meantime, we’re working on a ton of new resources for the laser. We also now have LightBurn for sale on our website!

LongMill MK2 48×30 and Extension Kit production

New cables for the 48×30 and Extension Kits have arrived and earlier than expected. We’ll be packing them up for the new kits as well as for our store. We’ve gotten a lot of customers asking for extension cables, and this should let folks have more flexibilty in relocating their controllers and such.

Now that these are in, all that we’re waiting on are the extension cables for the routers, which should be here in the next week, as well as the Y gantries, which will go to the coaters next week and be back here at the end of the week or sometime the following week. Thankfully all of these parts are sourced and made locally and turnaround times are a lot shorter than doing them overseas.

Our saw was broken down for about two weeks recently, but we’ve just been able to get it going again and have cut about 25 rails. We should have another 100-200 rails cut tomorrow and early next week.

This means that we’re really close to having all of our parts to start shipping the new kits. As I mentioned in the last update, it’s likely our biggest bottleneck will be how quickly we can have the instructions ready, but our engineers are making good progress so far.

We don’t have exact shipping dates so far and we’ll have a better estimate in the next two weeks. At least in the meantime, if you’re looking to order a 48×30, it will ship sometime in July.

May has been a pretty rough month, dealing with some QA issues and other manufacturing delays. Overall, we’ve been able to keep time to ship to time to order for LongMills down to about 1-2 weeks for most customers at this current time, but we’ve faced some challenges in keeping production moving smoothly.

This is our June 2022 production update. We’ll touch on some news from May and talk about stuff to expect in June.

Current lead times

Lead times currently are 1-2 weeks on MK 12×30 and 30×30. Our lead time is mostly affected by when our newest batch of Y gantries will arrive. We are expecting them to be ready for coating by Thursday and come back to us at the start of next week.

*UPDATE Jun 3, 2022* Our new batch of Y gantries have arrived today and have passed QA inspection! We are packing up machines now to ship and should have things continue to go out!

Our mini-saga of Y gantries

About two months ago when we first started manufacturing the new batch of 1000 Y gantries, our manufacturer jumped the gun and started producing new plates before we provided the new revision of plates. Due to this, we needed to recut another 1000 Y gantries with the new revision and keep the old version in storage for use in the future potentially. Because there were already quite a few other parts getting processed at the time, the overall time for us to get the materials down to the coating shop was unaffected.

It took another week and a half to get everything coated, but just as the finished parts were loaded up onto the truck, the pallet fell, causing many of the plates to get damaged. We received a partial order of undamaged parts (X gantries, Z gantries, front and back feet, and controller box parts), but unfortunately, all of the Y gantries were damaged and needed to be fixed.

In the meantime, we continued to fulfill orders with the remaining number of gantries we had on hand. However, at the current time of writing, we are out of Y gantries.

About a week later, we received the fixed Y gantries, but then we ran into another issue.

We had changed to a new process of drilling and tapping holes, which referenced the center bearing hole to cut some of the smaller holes on the plate. Previously, we were laser cutting all of the holes, but we switched to the CNC method to speed up the process and automate the tapping process.

Although we are investigating the incident, it we suspect that the workholding was not done correctly on this batch of parts, causing all of the holes to be slightly off from where they need to be.

Initially, we did find that 1/3rd of the plates had the holes in the correct place, but after doing further checking we found that the tapping angle of the threads was also dramatically off, and none of the plates were able to be used.

Thankfully, our manufacturer which we’ve worked with for the last 6 years has been working hard with us to rectify the issue and implement new processes to eliminate this issue in the future. We’ve also sent a few of the members from our manufacturing team to set up another tapping cart and make a new batch of gantries as quickly as possible. At the time of writing, I’ve been informed that we’ve just finished 500 Y-gantry plates and will be shipping them to be coated on Thursday.

We’re currently working with our coating manufacturer to get this batch of parts to get coated as soon as possible and are looking at sometime next week when we’ll be able to get them.

Laser driver issues

For the original post: https://sienci.com/2022/05/31/bittele-sent-1oz-boards-again-makerfab-drivers-waiting-to-be-cleared-at-the-local-center/

Of course, to add to the issues for this month, the second batch of repaired driver boards for the laser still has issues. We are waiting on another batch of drivers from another manufacturer that should be arriving this week.

48×30 MK2s and Extension Kits

We have now started packing and prepping the parts for the MK2 48×30 machines and the Extension Kits. We are waiting on the production for the wiring and Y gantries to be done over the next couple of weeks, but progress on those is moving along on time and we are still on track to ship in July.

Parts that are being processed currently include:

• Extended X rails
• Couplers
• Lead screws
• Drag chains
• ACME locking nuts
• Delrin nuts
• Bearings

Parts to start packing include:

• MK1 to T12 Delrin nut adapter
• Wiring management parts
• Wires
• Y gantries

At the current time, we starting packing and processing the new kits. Once we get the wiring and Y gantries we’ll have full kits ready to go. Here are our rough estimated delivery times:

• Y gantries: 3rd week of June
• Wiring: 2nd week of June

Although production of these parts is coming along fairly smoothly so far, I am currently expecting the resources for the assembly to be one big hurdle to get through and may make a big impact on the timing of shipments. Of course, we don’t want to delay shipments, but we also don’t want to hand the product over to the customer without proper instructions on using it. We will put out more updates on the timing of shipments as we continue to develop the resources for the 48×30 machines.

So far, our beta testers have been using the extended version of their LongMills with lots of success. If you want to see Dana, who’s had his extension kit for testing for the last little bit, check out the video below:

Wrapping up the beta testing program

We just finished filming our last beta tester’s interview this past weekend. It’s been such a great journey to follow along with each user to see how they grow and learn to use their machines.

Our last beta tester interview will be posted in about 1 week from now.

If you want to see the interviews, please check our playlist here:

Hey everyone, here’s our May 2022 production update.

Overall production continues to move along smoothly and machines are going out the door at a good pace. In a good way, we don’t have too much to report on.

Just as a reminder, if you’d like to get these updates as a weekly email newsletter, please subscribe here: https://sienci.us13.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=720f140325aaa668a8aa09916&id=e18d59a085

Lead times for LongMill MK2 12×30 and 30×30 orders

We’re excited to be getting through the rest of the queue on the LongMill MK2 12×30 and 30×30 orders sooner than expected. Patrik and the rest of the packing crew have now pushed out over 400 machines over the last four weeks, and are expecting to complete the rest of the queue sometime next week. This means that new orders should ship in 2-3 weeks placed today.

Incoming materials and production

Production has been moving along slowly without part shortages. Once the queue is complete, we are expecting to have enough parts to pre-pack and ship another 70 machines with the gantries and steel parts that we currently have. Another batch of these parts is expected to arrive in about 2 weeks, so we believe that we’ll be able to continue packing and shipping as orders come. After these parts arrive, we’ll have plenty of material to keep us busy for the next 2-3 months.

It’s been a while since this has happened, but we’re now at the point where our production capacity is exceeding our demand, and our goal is to get things packed up and ready to go as more folks get their machines and word on the LongMill MK2 continues to spread.

Some other general news

• Our company is growing. We have a couple of new people joining our team in marketing, operations, and engineering! We’re also working on hiring new folks for software development and customer support.
• The LongMill MK2 assembly video is being edited now and we are expecting it to go live in the next week or two.
• Check out Dana’s latest video where he shows off his new MK2 and extended 48×30 MK1 machines! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi6Dqqvy-pI

Hey everyone, here’s just a quick update about the production here at Sienci.

By the way, we are having a livestream on Youtube tomorrow, if you’d like to be part of it, we’ll be live at noon (EST) on Friday April 22! This livestream will cover some of the development work happening at Sienci Labs as well as a bunch of stuff about the LongMill MK2.

Shipping

We’ve been working hard to get as many machines out the door as quickly as possible. Now, at the time of writing, we’ve just about shipped 250 machines. Our support team has been reporting that issues have been fairly low and comments about the machine have been overall very positive! If you’d like to follow along on our progress, feel free to check out our page here: https://sienci.com/order-status.

We’re expecting to keep up with packing as we are currently. Please make sure to stay tuned for more updates.

Email notification issues

UPDATE: As of April 28th, we have fixed the email notification issue and tracking information is now being sent automatically as orders are completed. For more info, please see our post here: https://sienci.com/2022/04/28/completed-order-emails-and-tracking-notifications-are-back-online/

We’ve recently run into an issue (since April 18th) where shipping notifications for LongMill MK2 orders are not being sent. All other email notifications for orders (parts, bits, and other products) are being sent, and the only orders that are being impacted are the ones with LongMill MK2s. In the meantime, we are sending out the notifications manually, so please keep an eye out for them. We are continually working on fixing this issue, and if your order is showing completed on our Order Status page, please get in touch with us for the tracking info.

We suspect that there may be some bugs with the system as there was some updates that happened around this time. We’ll continue monitoring the emails being sent out so that we can keep folks updated as best as we can.

We are also experiencing some issues with auto-syncing orders with the Order Status page, so we have been updating it throughout the day. Please note that there may be a bit of delay day to day on the status of the items on the page until we fix the system.

Incoming materials

We’ve now reached the first 500 machines sold for Batch 6, which means that we are now about a third of the way through. We currently are stocking 1500 machines worth of parts, with the exception of the rails and the gantries. We initially ordered 500 sets of rails and gantries to start the batch and we’ve placed another batch of those parts to come in soon.

Materials for rails which were slated for early June arrival have been completed early and are expected to be delivered to us soon. Some will be here tomorrow and some will be here next week. This also covers the rails we need for the 48×30 machines and extension kits, which means that we’ll be starting prepping and cutting for those orders as well.

Gantry plates and feet are in production currently, and we are expecting all of them to be cut, formed, and painted at the start to middle of May. Once those parts are available, these parts will be used for machines for the next 500 units.

Initially, we were expecting to start shipping machines after the first 500 in June, but it looks like we’ll be able to chug along with production without interruptions.

LaserBeam Drivers

If you didn’t see Ikenna’s update for the LaserBeam, please make sure to read it here: https://sienci.com/2022/04/14/laserbeam-driver-delay-update/

We are currently working with Bittele and other PCB manufacturers to work on getting drivers in as soon as we can.

Hey everyone, here is our April 2022 production update.

Just as a reminder, if you’d like to get these updates as a weekly email newsletter, please subscribe here: https://sienci.us13.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=720f140325aaa668a8aa09916&id=e18d59a085

I’m happy to announce that the LongMill MK2s are now shipping! We received our container last week and have started shipping since. Here’s some customer feedback from one of the first people to pick it up:

MK2 Production

At this current time, we now have enough materials on hand to ship around 500 machines. Our team continues to pack and assemble kits as quickly as we can. At the time of writing, we’ve gotten 48 machines shipped out since last Thursday.

For general updates on where your order is on the list, please see our Order Status page. An estimated time for shipping can also be found on the page. We are aiming to average around 50 machines shipped per week. Please note that this number can vary a lot depending on staff availability and production schedules. Please also note that this is an average we are shooting for, but the number may vary day-to-day, as some days we may be able to ship more than others. Because of this, we cannot provide exact dates on when machines will ship for each order, but an email will be sent the week before your order is ready to ship to let you prepare and let you know that things are heading your way.

I’ve updated the estimated time to completion on our Order Status page to reflect our expected delivery times. Please make sure to check it out for our latest estimate on when your machine will ship.

We are expecting the first week to be a little bit slower and for things to pick up as we keep packing since some of our new packing material which was designed to improve our packing speed has not arrived yet and we are using general off-the-shelf material in the meantime. The new packing material is expected to arrive this week, but it has previously been pushed back a few times and it hasn’t been clear the exact delivery date due to cardboard shortages.

Materials

We now currently have the material needed to build the next 500ish machines, which means that we have everything we need to cover all of the machines in queue currently. We are still waiting on some additional packing material to arrive, but for the time being, we’ve substituted final production packaging with some off-the-shelf materials we were able to use in the meantime.

After the first 500 units, we’ll be waiting on another batch of gantries and rails to arrive, which is expected to arrive between the end of April and the start of June. The arrival of these materials is likely to affect our lead times down the line.

Purchasing for materials for Batch 7 has also started, which should put us around August-September when we’ll start Batch 7.

LaserBeam

Power supplies and heatsinks for the LaserBeam have arrived, and we are currently packing and assembling kits. Here’s one of our staff putting together the laser and heatsinks.

We’re expecting to start shipping the kits out at the end of the week this week or the start of next week. Ikenna is waiting on Bittele to wrap up the PCB assembly to finish up the drivers on Thursday. There were some delays due to chip and parts shortages for the assembly, but the boards have started fabrication last week. We’ll have around 400 new drivers arriving to wrap up the production for the rest of the LaserBeams.

Other general updates

Chris has made a lot of progress in the assembly instructions for the MK2 machines. Make sure to check it out in the resources. Thank you Aleks for being part of this project as well!

I also wanted to share some pics of the new power supply:

You can see that when you cut it open (I used an angle grinder), it is completely encapsulated. Although this is pretty overkill, this construction will basically make the power supply impervious to dust and moisture.

Did you see our April Fools video?

Ikenna initially suggested the idea of making a lasergun using the LaserBeam. I thought that it was a great idea so I put one together.

The Not-a-LaserGun was partially inspired also by the Not-a-Flamethrower, which was a flamethrower created by Elon Musk.

Basically, the Not-a-LaserGun takes the LaserBeam diode assembly and driver assembly and replaces the power supply with a 12V 8A battery to allow the user to use the laser on battery power. Everything was then put into a case that was 3D printed in multiple parts. An Arduino was used to generate an on-signal when the trigger is fired.

The result of this was basically a super-powerful laser pointer that can burn stuff.

Extension Kits and MK2 48x30s

We now have three people with the extension kits. Dale, Garrett, and Dana. These guys also all have MK2 machines as well, so they will be able to compare the MK1 and MK2 as well. So far, the response has been very positive, with very few issues with the overall setup. There are a few kinks to work out however which include

• Proper defaults and integration on gSender
• Testing and finalizing designs for wire management
• Instructions and other resources for assembly and use

We’ve asked our users and testers to start extending their MK1 machines since…well this is what I said:

We also just got in the aluminum part to adapt the new T12 nuts for the T8 spacing (used on the MK1 machines).

Please keep an eye out for further development updates and other feedback!