Hi everyone, this is a production update for July and August. I’m happy to announce that we are expecting the lead times for the next 400 machines to be 1 to 2 weeks (update, as of August 10, lead times for LongMills is under 1 week). For the most part, we expect most machines to ship within a few days. Any orders that are still pending shipment at the time of writing should be shipped by Tuesday of next week.
All of the parts that we were waiting on for this part of the batch have now arrived and we should not be seeing any major delays in shipping for roughly the next 8 weeks.
During part of July, we ran into some part shortages, such as with our control boards, Delrin anti-backlash nuts, and drivers. We also had a short period of time where our print farm was also shut down due to a shortage of filament. These shortages were caused primarily due to shipping delays. We’ve finally have gotten all of our parts without much issue, and can continue production.
At this point, we will be able to produce another 400 units without running into supply shortages. There are still a number of components we expect to start running out of once we ship the 400 units, including:
Rails
Gantries and other steel components
Control boards
We have placed orders for these items at the time or writing or are in the process of ordering these parts.
In any case, that’s our update for this month (and August). Happy making!
Hey everyone, this is our June production update. For previous production updates and other company news, please check our blog.
It’s continued to be a busy month for April, but as we talked a little bit in our previous update for April/May, we have continued to shorten our lead times. We’ve taken the time to train some of our staff on new responsibilities and reorganize and plan production for the coming months. We are near the end of our run of Batch 4 machines and are starting to prepare for shipping Batch 5 in June.
In terms of COVID, Ontario has slowly seen a decrease in cases and more of our staff are becoming vaccinated. We are fortunate to have had no cases so far, and hopefully none until the end of the pandemic.
A new batch of motors, lead screws, and drag chains
Lead Times
Lead times are expected to average around 1-2 weeks for this month, however we are starting to face shortages in parts that will rely on the timely arrival to keep up with production. Some of these parts include:
E-stops
Touch plates
Arduinos
Delrin V-wheels
We expect these parts to arrive in 1-2 weeks. However, this may change if we face delays in transit. We will keep lead times updated on the product page to account for these changes.
Supply Chain
There have been some minor bumps along the way in terms of supply chain especially due to current worldwide events, but luckily with early planning and dedication from the manufacturers we work with, the supply chain process for Batch 5 has been relatively smooth.
One area that we’ve seen a large spike in prices have been with drivers and Arduinos. Due to the chip shortage, many of the components that go into the LongBoard controller have gone up in price. Most ICs that go into this production have doubled in price, and new products that we are working on that involve chips may be delayed due to the unavailability of chips. We have acquired parts for the next 500 controllers with approximately another 100 controllers in stock, but we may need to be cautious of continuing shortages for the rest of 2021.
On the topic of spiking prices, steel prices have gone up more than double since the start of the pandemic, affecting the price of gantries and other steel components that go into making the LongMill. On a lesser level, copper, tungsten carbide, and other raw materials have increased overall prices for many components as well such as E-stops and end mills. Cardboard shortages with our packaging manufacturer have also affected costs and lead times a few times over the last few months too.
Luckily due to improving processes and increasing batch sizes, we have been able to find other ways to save costs and so we don’t expect to have major changes in pricing for our products, however, it is a reality that we may need to face at some point that our company will have to account for changing material prices by increasing the prices of our products.
We have also been affected by the shipping fiascos that have been happening around the world as well. Although we weren’t directly involved in the Suez Canal crisis, we have experienced slowdown in some shipments due to this situation. At the time of writing, most of the parts that we need for Batch 5 production are in transit within Canada (by rail) or are in production with local manufacturers. A couple of parts that we are still waiting on that are in transit by sea include:
Router mounts
Couplers
Delrin nuts
3D printer filament
The remaining components for Batch 5 are expected to arrive this month but won’t be complete for shipping until these parts arrive.
Manufacturing
There have been a few changes in manufacturing at Sienci Labs. Here are some of the things that have been going on.
One small change is the material that we have made the ACME nuts from, switching from stainless steel to brass. Brass has shown to be easier to work with in terms of manufacturing and forming threads. In previous manufacturing batches, a portion of nuts were rejected due to rough threading that made it difficult to thread onto the lead screws. The new brass nuts are of much better quality.
As part of the transition from steel shoulder brackets and drag chain mounts, Batch 5 kits will use M8-16mm bolts instead of M8-25mm bolts to mount these parts. There is no functional change, as the longer bolts are a carryover from when longer bolts were needed on the 3D printed parts.
Next, we are switching to e-coating our gantries from powder coating. We believe that e-coating is an excellent alternative to powder coating as it provides a cleaner, more consistent surface which is important for our XZ gantry assemblies. In some of our recent batches of powder-coated steel, we were running into issues where paint contamination and dripping would either produce cosmetic defects or affect the assembly of the parts because of the unevenness of the surface. E-coating does have a thinner surface, which theoretically means that it offers less scratch resistance on parts. However, based on samples that we have been provided of our parts after being e-coated, we have seen significantly better resistance to chipping and surface quality, without much difference in scratch resistance. This change should decrease manufacturing costs while improving overall quality.
In the last batch, we switched to using M3 screws with captive washers to help keep the screws from coming loose. For these screws, we have switched from stainless steel screws to Class 12.9 alloy, which is a much stronger screw that will prevent head stripping. Head stripping has been a minor inconvenience as removing stripped screws takes a while.
We’ve added three new CR30s (3D Print Mills), a belt based 3D printer. These machines will add additional 3D printing capacity with the benefit of being able to continually print repeated parts. We are currently in the stage of testing and tuning these machines, but we expect each printer to do the work of 4 standard 3D printers, increasing our print capacity by approximately 25%.
Design
Batch 5 comes with some very minor design changes to the LongMill.
First to mention is that motor shafts on the X and Y will be fully round. This is due to a very small number of customers reporting their motor shafts breaking off. The engineers at LDO Motors and us have confirmed that the full shafts will prevent this.
We are manufacturing a slightly modified 65mm router mount to eliminate the need to use M5-12mm screws. Because of the drill tap depth of the four mounting screws in the back of the router, shorter M5 screws were needed compared to the rest of the machine assembly. With the new router mounts, M5-25mm screws can be used on all parts of the router mount. We have also relocated the additional tapped holes that are used for mounting to the front of the mount for easier installation of accessories such as the LaserBeam.
New ACME Delrin nuts have been manufactured without the counterbore, which were an unnecessary feature for our application.
Shipping
Shipping to US and Canada have been reliable overall and seems to have returned to pre-COVID speeds.
We had some delays with Canada Post shipments going to the US via US Air Parcel, so as an alternative we would recommend using UPS.
We have had several issues with customs for shipments going to Mexico this past month that are new. If you have an order that needs to go to Mexico, please let us know in case we need to make other arrangements.
We’re happy to announce that lead times will be dropping from 3-5 weeks to 2-3 weeks!
*UPDATE – We have now cleared our backorder. New orders will ship within one week!*
This comes due to a flattening out in the number of orders we are getting, as well as the additional staff that we’ve brought on to continue packing and shipping machines. We are aiming to keep our lead times within two weeks, however, we are stating our lead time as 2-3 weeks to provide ourselves an additional 2-week buffer for any unforeseeable delays.
It’s exciting to finally get back down to our 2-3 week lead time, as we have seen a major backlog of orders since around June of last year and it wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the Sienci Labs team. As our production capacity meets the demand for the LongMill, this gives us the opportunity to dedicate more time to developing other parts of the company such as marketing, customer support, and technical development. We also expect to see improvements in the productivity and efficiency of our production, giving us more flexibility in the number of machines we can sell and ship.
At the time of writing, we have around 270 machines in stock. We expect to keep our lead times at around 2 weeks until we run out of this stock.
Batch 5 production
We are currently shipping machines for Batch 4 and are producing parts for Batch 5. Parts for Batch 5 will be arriving between May and June. Once we run out of parts for Batch 4, new customers will need to wait for all of the parts in Batch 5 to arrive for us to start shipping again.
Batch 5 will consist of 1000 LongMills.
Commonly asked questions
If you are interested in ordering a LongMill please read this section.
If I place an order today, how long will it take to ship?
2-4 weeks
Is there any way to skip the line/get my machine faster?
No. To keep things fair for all of our customers, we ship all orders based on when they were ordered. There are no exceptions. The only way to get a machine faster is to order one sooner. If we have updates to the lead time, they will be posted here and on the forum: https://forum.sienci.com/t/list-of-shipped-machines/1215. If you want to see where you are in the queue for your order, please check the forum.
Does it make a difference in when I get my machine if I pick it up?
The only difference it will make will be that you will not have to wait for the shipping/transit time for the machine to ship. Typically, machines take around 1-3 days to ship within Ontario. Otherwise, there is no difference.
When do you charge my card/take payment for my order?
Your card will be charged at the time you place your order. This is to ensure your place in line, purchase parts ahead of time, and have the most accurate estimates on production and delivery.
How can I cancel my order?
You can cancel your order with no penalty any time before your order ships. Please contact us through our website or email us with your order number and a request to make a cancellation. A refund will be processed through your original method of payment.
Can I add other items to my order before it ships?
If you’ve ordered a LongMill and wish to add other items to your order afterwards before it ships, please choose “Local pickup” (for free shipping) and add your LongMill order number. Some items (such as the T-track sets) cannot be combined for shipping.
Hi everyone, here is our April production updates. If you’re looking to order a machine or waiting on one to show up, please read this update to find out what’s going on in our shop.
We are happy to announce that we will be shortening our lead time from 4-6 weeks to 3-5 weeks! It’s been a big effort by the operations team to slowly start whittling away on our lead times.
Why the change? Well we have a couple of factors.
First of all, most of the machine orders we’ve received, we’ve been able to ship within 3 weeks this month. Having kept this up for the last little bit, we feel confident that we can continue shipping this rate and it is likely that orders that are currently waiting on their machines should see them a little earlier than initially stated on our estimate.
The second is with the availability of parts. With the exception (at this current moment) ACME locking nuts and touch plate wiring which are expected to arrive in the next 1-2 weeks, we have around 2 months of stock remaining. This means that we have the parts here in the shop, and the bottleneck is with how quickly we can pack, assemble, and ship parts.
That being said, Batch 5 parts are now in production and most of the parts that will go into Batch 5 will arrive at the end of April and middle of March. This means that if we sell out of our current stock before then, there will likely be a gap where shipping will be on pause as we prepare to ship Batch 5 machines. At the time of writing, we have 319 machines in stock.
Once we start to run low on stock, I will post another update to let everyone know.
Commonly asked questions
If you are interested in ordering a LongMill please read this section.
If I place an order today, how long will it take to ship?
3-5 weeks.
Is there any way to skip the line/get my machine faster?
No. To keep things fair for all of our customers, we ship all orders based on when they were ordered. There are no exceptions. The only way to get a machine faster is to order one sooner. If we have updates to the lead time, they will be posted here and on the forum: https://forum.sienci.com/t/list-of-shipped-machines/1215. If you want to see where you are in the queue for your order, please check the forum.
Does it make a difference in when I get my machine if I pick it up?
The only difference it will make will be that you will not have to wait for the shipping/transit time for the machine to ship. Typically, machines take around 1-3 days to ship within Ontario. Otherwise, there is no difference.
When do you charge my card/take payment for my order?
Your card will be charged at the time you place your order. This is to ensure your place in line, purchase parts ahead of time, and have the most accurate estimates on production and delivery.
How can I cancel my order?
You can cancel your order with no penalty any time before your order ships. Please contact us through our website or email us with your order number and a request to make a cancellation. A refund will be processed through your original method of payment.
Can I add other items to my order before it ships?
If you’ve ordered a LongMill and wish to add other items to your order afterwards before it ships, please choose “Local pickup” (for free shipping) and add your LongMill order number. Some items (such as the T-track sets) cannot be combined for shipping.
Hi everyone, this is our March production update. If you are looking to order a machine or if you’re waiting on your machine to come in, please read this to find out what’s happening in the shop.
Production has continued to move smoothly. Our February update mentioned that we were running low on aluminum rails and steel gantries. I am happy to announce that these parts have arrived and we won’t need to stop shipping due to these parts. We are still waiting on the ACME locking nuts but the manufacturer has confirmed that they are completed and should be on the way soon, so we should be ok with those parts as well.
Our manufacturer for the rails has noted that the finish and quality of the new rails looks to be better than the last batch, which we are happy about.
We have also restocked on a few other parts, including packaging material, shoulder brackets, drag chain mounts, and acrylic parts, and we expect to have another large batch of parts arrive mid to late April.
If you are interested in ordering a LongMill please read this section.
If I place an order today, how long will it take to ship?
4-6 weeks.
Is there any way to skip the line/get my machine faster?
No. To keep things fair for all of our customers, we ship all orders based on when they were ordered. There are no exceptions. The only way to get a machine faster is to order one sooner. If we have updates to the lead time, they will be posted here and on the forum: https://forum.sienci.com/t/list-of-shipped-machines/1215. If you want to see where you are in the queue for your order, please check the forum.
Does it make a difference in when I get my machine if I pick it up?
The only difference it will make will be that you will not have to wait for the shipping/transit time for the machine to ship. Typically, machines take around 1-3 days to ship within Ontario. Otherwise, there is no difference.
When do you charge my card/take payment for my order?
Your card will be charged at the time you place your order. This is to ensure your place in line, purchase parts ahead of time, and have the most accurate estimates on production and delivery.
How can I cancel my order?
You can cancel your order with no penalty any time before your order ships. Please contact us through our website or email us with your order number and a request to make a cancellation. A refund will be processed through your original method of payment.
Can I add other items to my order before it ships?
If you’ve ordered a LongMill and wish to add other items to your order afterwards before it ships, please choose “Local pickup” (for free shipping) and add your LongMill order number. Some items (such as the T-track sets) cannot be combined for shipping.
Production updates
No major updates for production, we are packing and shipping machines on a regular basis. That being said, there’s lots of other interesting things going on at Sienci Labs that you can read about on our blog: https://sienci.com/blog/
Please note that Feb 15 is a statutory holiday and we will be closed on that day.
Lead times for new orders
The current lead time for LongMills is 4-6 weeks.
Production has been going at a rapid pace. We have hired 7-8 new staff, 5 of which work in production, packing, and operations to help us catch up on the new backorders.
At the time of writing, just over half of Batch 4 machines have been sold and we are currently in the process of ordering parts for Batch 5.
The current lead time is expected to stay at 4-6 weeks as we expect that our production speed will be limited to a couple of different parts as they are in the process of being manufactured. At the current time these include:
Aluminum rails
ACME locking nuts
Steel gantries
Our manufacturers are working to produce these parts as quickly as possible and we expect to receive these parts in the next couple of weeks.
Some end mills and other add-ons are low or out of stock. We expect some end mills to be back in stock in the next week or two, and the remaining stock to be available at the start of March.
Commonly asked questions
If you are interested in ordering a LongMill please read this section.
Is there any way to skip the line/get my machine faster?
No. To keep things fair for all of our customers, we ship all orders based on when they were ordered. There are no exceptions. The only way to get a machine faster is to order one sooner. If we have updates to the lead time, they will be posted here and on the forum: https://forum.sienci.com/t/list-of-shipped-machines/1215. If you want to see where you are in the queue for your order, please check the forum.
Does it make a difference in when I get my machine if I pick it up?
The only difference it will make will be that you will not have to wait for the shipping/transit time for the machine to ship. Typically, machines take around 1-3 days to ship within Ontario. Otherwise, there is no difference.
When do you charge my card/take payment for my order?
Your card will be charged at the time you place your order. This is to ensure your place in line, purchase parts ahead of time, and have the most accurate estimates on production and delivery.
How can I cancel my order?
You can cancel your order with no penalty any time before your order ships. Please contact us through our website or email us with your order number and a request to make a cancellation. A refund will be processed through your original method of payment.
Can I add other items to my order before it ships?
If you’ve ordered a LongMill and wish to add other items to your order afterwards before it ships, please choose “Local pickup” (for free shipping) and add your LongMill order number. Some items (such as the T-track sets) cannot be combined for shipping.
Production updates
We have been incredibly busy in the recent months, especially as we’ve had our team grow by over 50% since the beginning of the year.
Here are some changes that we’ve made to improve production:
Dedicated staff for inventory tracking, QA, and production using automated systems
Dedicated staff for each packing and assembly station
Redesign or re-engineering of parts, such as the shoulder brackets and drag chain mount, to alleviate load off the 3D printer farm
Dedicated staff to run the 3D printer farm
Use of new automated printing technologies to improve printing throughput
Reorganization and labelling of stations and parts to make things easier to find
Use of custom manufacturing certain parts to improve part quality and better control over lead times
We are also working on:
Improved systems to test electronics, as well as making improvements to our electronics themselves
New packing tools to reduce the chance of missing parts in kits
Redesign of machine components to improve manufacturability and performance
A big part of our effort is to improve efficiency, quality, and throughput of our shop to catch up to our backorders. Our goal is to scale our production to be able to handle up to 300 LongMills per month.
Here are some challenges:
The volume of parts that we are now asking from our manufacturers is reaching a point where we may need to have more than one manufacturer make each part
Shipping couriers are sometimes not able to handle the volume on their trucks on regular pick-ups
COVID 19 slowdowns with shipping have affected incoming parts as well as shipping orders. Additionally, shipments going lost or missing shipments have been higher than before
Hi everyone. I hope everyone had a restful holiday season. We have now returned from holidays on Jan 4th and are back getting into the swing of things.
We have started shipping general parts, end mills, and other supplies this week, but machines will start shipping next week (Jan 11). If you placed an order recently that isn’t a LongMill, please note that although most items ship within 1-2 days, there may be some variances in when items ship.
If you are reading this because you are planning on ordering a machine, I ask that you please read this update carefully as will provide important information and answer many of the common questions you may have. If you have any other questions that are not answered in this post, please check the FAQ. For any info not provided in this post or in the FAQ, feel free to get in touch with us.
LongMill production
With COVID-19 numbers rising, most of our staff are currently working from home. Our staff who went away over the holidays are working from home with the 14-day mandatory quarantine. Some of our core staff members on the operations team are currently working at the office to continue shipping orders out and running the 3D print farm.
Lead times for new orders
The current lead time for LongMills is 4-6 weeks.
We expect lead times to remain around this range for the next little while as we have had a large influx of orders come in during December and into January. We currently sell machines than we are able to build per week, which means that our lead times will not decrease until we are further able to scale production even more.
We are currently in the process of hiring additional staff to help us decrease our lead times, as our current bottleneck is from how quickly we can pack and assemble kits.
I am expecting some volatility in the lead time near the end of February and March, as we will likely be running out of gantries and rails around this time. We are currently working on producing more parts but there have been steel shortages and fluctuating aluminum prices that have affected the industry.
Once we begin to run out of these parts, lead times will likely change.
Besides rails and gantries, we have ordered 1000 machines worth of other stock, such as lead screws, electronics, motors, v-wheels, nuts, fasteners… so these items should keep us going until March/April.
Currently, about 40% of Batch 4 has been sold.
Current lead times
Orders #27725 and onward are expected to begin shipping Jan 11th. We expect to ship around 40-50 units per week until we are clear of the backlog of orders.
Orders #27725 to #27883 expected to ship week of Jan 11
Orders #27885 to #28016 expected to ship week of Jan 18
Orders #28017 to #28092 expected to ship week of Jan 25
Orders #28094 and onwards expected to ship after Feb 1st.
Commonly asked questions
If you are interested in ordering a LongMill please read this section.
Is there any way to skip the line/get my machine faster?
No. To keep things fair for all of our customers, we ship all orders based on when they were ordered. There are no exceptions. The only way to get a machine faster is to order one sooner. If we have updates to the lead time, they will be posted here and on the forum: https://forum.sienci.com/t/list-of-shipped-machines/1215. If you want to see where you are in the queue for your order, please check the forum.
Does it make a difference in when I get my machine if I pick it up?
The only difference it will make will be that you will not have to wait for the shipping/transit time for the machine to ship. Typically, machines take around 1-3 days to ship within Ontario. Otherwise, there is no difference.
When do you charge my card/take payment for my order?
Your card will be charged at the time you place your order. This is to ensure your place in line, purchase parts ahead of time, and have the most accurate estimates on production and delivery.
How can I cancel my order?
You can cancel your order with no penalty any time before your order ships. Please contact us through our website or email us with your order number and a request to make a cancellation. A refund will be processed through your original method of payment.
Can I add other items to my order before it ships?
If you’ve ordered a LongMill and wish to add other items to your order afterwards before it ships, please choose “Local pickup” (for free shipping) and add your LongMill order number. Some items (such as the T-track sets) cannot be combined for shipping.
Hi folks, this is our November production update pt2.
If you are reading this because you are planning on ordering a machine, I ask that you please read this update carefully as will provide important information and answer many of the common questions you may have. If you have any other questions that are not answered in this post, please check the FAQ. For any info not provided in this post or in the FAQ, feel free to get in touch with us.
Parts for the next 1000 LongMills
Since the middle of the year, the LongMill has seen tremendous growth, thanks to users all around the world. Thank you to everyone who’s taken the time to recommend the LongMill to their peers and community.
We have been struggling for the past year to keep up with the demand and have been working on scaling operations. Batch 4, our latest batch will consist of 1000 LongMill units and I expect this batch to last at least for the next 4 to 6 months, letting me have a breather (since I’m the one mostly in charge of ordering all of the parts for the machine) and finally shorten the lead time on the LongMill. Things have really come a long way since October 2019, when we first started shipping the first LongMills.
The first production LongMill going out the door, back in October 2019
Current lead times
For a full, up to date list of shipped/machines to be shipped, please visit https://forum.sienci.com/t/list-of-shipped-machines/1215. We typically update this page with orders that are waiting to be shipped to help customers see where they are in the queue.
If you have already ordered a machine, you can likely find an estimate on when your machine will ship.
New schedule —
Order #27081 – #27264: Estimated to ship Nov 26 to Dec 4
Order #27265 – #27354: Estimated to ship Dec 7 to Dec 11
Orders after #27359: Estimated to ship after Dec 14*
*Most orders after #27359 will likely ship the week of Dec 21st and beyond
Lead times for new orders
New orders for LongMills are expected to ship in 4 to 8 weeks. We will continue to update lead times as production progresses.
Some things that may impact the lead times:
Delays in shipping for incoming parts
We expect to have inventory to ship 800 units arrive by the end of December as well as enough stock to ship the remaining backlog of orders.
Holiday season delays
Sienci Labs Inc. will be on holidays from Dec 24, 2020 to Jan 4, 2020. We are currently working extra hours to pre-pack units to make up for the lost week. However, depending on our incoming volume of sales this may cause some delays.
Some staff will be available on reduced hours to assist with customers.
Shipping times during the holiday season also tends to be a bit dicey as well.
Quality checks
If the incoming parts do not meet our quality standards, we may need to remanufacture or reorder parts to meet these standards.
Current bottlenecks
Dust shoe brackets
Current stock: <60pcs
Incoming stock: 500pcs
Estimated arrival date: Dec 4 In stock
Router mounts and motor spacers
Current stock: <80pcs
Incoming stock: 1000pcs
Estimated arrival date: Dec 17First batch of 75 has arrived. Remaining parts expected to arrive first week of January
Driver boards
Current stock: <180 sets
Incoming stock: <1000 sets
Estimated arrival date Dec 23In stock
We will continue shipping machines with the stock available and resume shipping once new parts arrive.
Holiday schedule
Sienci Labs Inc. and our staff will be on vacation for the holidays between Dec 24, 2020 to Jan 4, 2021. Communication and shipping during this time may be limited.
For questions and inquiries, we recommend emailing us through our contact form as one of our staff may be available to help during this holiday season.
Commonly asked questions
If you are interested in ordering a LongMill please read this section.
Is there any way to skip the line/get my machine faster?
No. To keep things fair for all of our customers, we ship all orders based on when they were ordered. There are no exceptions. The only way to get a machine faster is to order one sooner. If we have updates to the lead time, they will be posted here and on the forum: https://forum.sienci.com/t/list-of-shipped-machines/1215. If you want to see where you are in the queue for your order, please check the forum.
Does it make a difference in when I get my machine if I pick it up?
The only difference it will make will be that you will not have to wait for the shipping/transit time for the machine to ship. Typically, machines take around 1-3 days to ship within Ontario. Otherwise, there is no difference.
When do you charge my card/take payment for my order?
Your card will be charged at the time you place your order. This is to ensure your place in line, purchase parts ahead of time, and have the most accurate estimates on production and delivery.
How can I cancel my order?
You can cancel your order with no penalty any time before your order ships. Please contact us through our website or email us with your order number and a request to make a cancellation. A refund will be processed through your original method of payment.
Are there any holiday discounts coming up?
We will not be offering any holiday discounts such as for Black Friday/Boxing Day. We generally do not offer discounts since we prefer to offer the best price for our products so that you get the best deal for our products regardless of when you purchase. This also helps keep production levels stable throughout the year and ensure we produce products of the highest quality. So if you place an order now or later, be rest assured you’ll be getting the best deal.
For all other production updates and company news, please check out the blog: https://sienci.com/blog/
If you are reading this because you are planning on ordering a machine, I ask that you please read this update carefully as will provide important information and answer many of the common questions you may have. If you have any other questions that are not answered in this post, please check the FAQ. For any info not provided in this post or in the FAQ, feel free to get in touch with us.
Current lead times
For a full, up to date list of shipped/machines to be shipped, please visit https://forum.sienci.com/t/list-of-shipped-machines/1215. We typically update this page with orders that are waiting to be shipped to help customers see where they are in the queue.
We are currently slightly ahead of schedule. Orders between #26650 to #26675 have now already been shipped (originally estimated to ship the week of Nov 16).
New schedule —
Order #26685 – #27059: Estimated to ship Nov 19 to 27
Order #27066 to #27232: Estimated to ship week of Nov 30
Order #27235 and newer: Estimated to begin shipping Dec 14*
*Remaining orders are estimated to ship 30 to 50 units per week from mid-December.Please allow up to 8 – 12 weeks from the date of your order for your machine to ship to account for delays**.
**There are some parts that require to arrive to our shop to be assembled and packed before they can be shipped out. These estimates rely on these parts to arrive on schedule. Delays may occur if these parts do not arrive on time. Delays can typically take 1-3 weeks.
Current production bottlenecks
We have a couple of parts we are waiting for to arrive to be able to start shipping machines. We expect that once the couplers arrive we will be able to ship the first 58 units (the number of remaining power supplies that we have), with the remaining 50ish units ready to ship once the power supplies arrive at the end of November.
6.35mm to 8mm couplers
Current stock: <10
Estimated arrival date: Nov 13 – Nov 18
Power supplies
Current stock: 58
Estimated arrival date: Nov 27
We have over 100 sets of all other parts that can be used to ship units after these two parts arrive. Please note that the shipping times may vary (usually by a few days) so they might not arrive exactly at the specified time.
We expect all other parts (1000 sets) to arrive between the last week of November and mid-December.
Commonly asked questions
If you are interested in ordering a LongMill please read this section.
Is there any way to skip the line/get my machine faster?
No. To keep things fair for all of our customers, we ship all orders based on when they were ordered. There are no exceptions. The only way to get a machine faster is to order one sooner. If we have updates to the lead time, they will be posted here and on the forum: https://forum.sienci.com/t/list-of-shipped-machines/1215. If you want to see where you are in the queue for your order, please check the forum.
Does it make a difference in when I get my machine if I pick it up?
The only difference it will make will be that you will not have to wait for the shipping/transit time for the machine to ship. Typically, machines take around 1-3 days to ship within Ontario. Otherwise, there is no difference.
When do you charge my card/take payment for my order?
Your card will be charged at the time you place your order. This is to ensure your place in line, purchase parts ahead of time, and have the most accurate estimates on production and delivery.
How can I cancel my order?
You can cancel your order with no penalty any time before your order ships. Please contact us through our website or email us with your order number and a request to make a cancellation. A refund will be processed through your original method of payment.
Are there any holiday discounts coming up?
We will not be offering any holiday discounts such as for Black Friday/Boxing Day. We generally do not offer discounts since we prefer to offer the best price for our products so that you get the best deal for our products regardless of when you purchase. This also helps keep production levels stable throughout the year and ensure we produce products of the highest quality. So if you place an order now or later, be rest assured you’ll be getting the best deal.
New projects we are working on
We’re excited to announce that we have onboarded two new software developers to our team, and we are continuing to work on different hardware and software projects with our current team. We aim to continue to provide new development and technology to this field to make CNC more accessible and easier to use for everyone. Here are some of the things you should watch out for in the next few months:
Toolchain selector (a tool to help you select the best software to use for your project)
Improvements to CAMLab (our 3D CAM software powered by Kiri:Moto)
A new gcode sending program (which aims to be a simple to use, stable option over CNCjs and UGS)
New controller, driver, and firmware improvements (to make motion control on the LongMill even better)
Redesigning 3D printed parts on the LongMill to steel sheet metal parts (reduce 3D printing bottlenecks and improve strength)
For customers who have a LongMill order on backorder
All Batch 3 machines have now been sold! New orders coming in will be part of Batch 4. If you ordered a machine before the LongMill went on backorder (it will have shown on the product page if it was on backorder or not), then you will have your machine shipped in 6 weeks (or hopefully less). If you are not sure if your machine is in Batch 3 or 4, order numbers #26649 and lower are in Batch 3, and orders numbered #26650 and above are in Batch 4.
We currently have all of the parts needed to fulfill orders in Batch 3, and we are working on packing and assembling kits to ship machines. Updated shipping schedules can be found here: https://forum.sienci.com/t/list-of-shipped-machines/1215
Everyone who is in Batch 3 should expect to be getting their machine within the next 2-3 weeks.
We are currently waiting on parts to arrive for Batch 4. Parts are currently coming in and we expect to have all of the parts to start shipping Batch 4 in the middle of November. This means that if you are in Batch 4, you should expect to start seeing Batch 4 machines to start shipping in the middle of November.
Batch 4 will consist of 1000 LongMills, which will hopefully alleviate the long wait times and give us more time between batches to stock up on machines.
Expected Batch 4 Shipping Schedule (this is an estimate, and may change over time)
Order #26650 – #26751: Week of Nov 16
Order #26757 – 26820: Week of Nov 23
Expanding the Sienci Labs office
With the high demand for LongMills, we are currently working on expanding our office space to help get more machines out the door. We will be moving into the office space next door to add an additional 4800sqft of shop space at the end of October. This is good timing as our next-door neighbors are in the process of moving out.
With our current space, we are producing around 120 units per month. However, we expect to be able to produce around 300 units per month once we have expanded into the new space. We will also have access to additional space at the rear of the building for storage to hold all of the extra materials we’ll need on hand.
Changes to the LongMill design
Batch 3 and 4 machines come with incremental updates to the design to improve reliability, ease of assembly, and functionality. Improvements are rolled out over time, rather than in set versions or changes. Here are some of the updates. These are all of the improvements with current machines shipped now.
Locking motor connectors
We’ve improved the design of the motor connector to provide a more secure connection between the motor and the wiring that goes to the controller. This change has completely eliminated issues coming from cables becoming detached from the motor body.
Detachable E-stop/Power switch
The latest version of the LongBoard now uses a detachable E-stop as a power switch. Users can use this E-stop to turn on and off their machine, as well as cutting the power to the controller itself. Users can use the supplied 3ft cable to place the E-stop in a convenient place, or use a longer wire to if needed. Documentation of the LongBoard can be found here: https://sienci.com/dmx-longmill/longboard-documentation/
Silver Dacromet coated fasteners
We have replaced black oxide 12.9 grade fasteners with silver dacromet/geomet coated fasteners (hexavalent-chromium free) fasteners to make assembly more pleasant for our customers as these fasteners do not require oil or grease for rust prevention. Please note that black oxide fasteners are still used in some areas but the large majority of fasteners used on the LongMill have been switched over.
Larger ACME locking nuts
Locking nuts on all lead screws have been increased in length to prevent the head of the set screw from touching the bearing.
Additional noise filtering on the LongBoard
The LongBoard comes with additional circuitry to protect it from errant signals for better reliability when using advanced features such as spindle control, limit switches, and more.
The LongBoard also has an additional red LED on the top to make it easier to see if it is powered on or off.
Known issues and updates to our quality control process
I’m happy to report that our ongoing improvements to our QA and machine design have drastically reduced the number of customer issues, and with the implementation of Zendesk and additional processes and training for our staff means that it is easier to get high-quality help. These are some known issues that have affected a small number of customers.
At the beginning of our production cycle, we found that the v-wheels that we had received from our manufacturer was manufactured incorrectly. Not only did we find issues with this particular batch of wheels, but wheels from other manufacturers would have the same sizing problems.
To address this issue we have ordered in v-wheels from multiple manufacturers to ensure that we have stock of the right size and quality v-wheels. Although we still have inconsistencies of wheels coming in, we have been checking and QAing each v-wheel before shipping them out to ensure that they work correctly.
Power switch
A small number of customers with earlier versions of the LongBoard reported power switches failing. This is due to oxidation on the terminal preventing the power switch from making a proper connection. We have replaced controllers under warranty for switch failure, and we have assisted customers who have this failure out of warranty to do the repair themselves. The repair itself is fairly straightforward and allows for the LongBoard to continue to be operational. Customers can also bring their controllers/ship us their controllers to us to have them fixed for free.
Newer LongBoards (assembled in late June and onwards) come with additional switch protection circuitry that prevents the switch from failing. The detachable E-stops are also significantly more robust. Since this design update, we have not had reports of power switch failure.
608ZZ Flange Bearings
The inner race of the 608ZZ flange bearings that are used to support the lead screws have been found to be tighter than from previous batches. It appears most customers have managed to install them normally, or with a mallet or other tool to get them into place. However, over aggressive force can cause the lead screw or bearing to get damaged. Customers with issues with installing their lead screws and bearings have been shipped replacements. We are currently waiting on a new batch of bearings with C5 clearance which will allow for easier installation.
