Description
Turn your ideas into a reality with the LongMill Benchtop CNC
The LongMill helps you take your woodworking and fabrication to the next level. Its range of workable materials include: any species of wood, a variety of plastics, soft metals like aluminum and brass, and a variety of machinable foams and waxes for model making or metal casting. Make signs, engravings, mid-size furniture, stands and shelves, wooden toys and games, guitar bodies, and much more! (see more in our Gallery)
We offer our machine because CNC technology opens up a whole new world of making capabilities, especially to those who have a limited shop environment or budget. Our goal is to empower you by giving you access to both a machine that’s capable of a wide range of projects, and by assuring you of the assistance that you’ll receive from our team as well as our ever-growing community of machine owners: many of whom started off green to the world of CNC as well but are now happy to share what they’ve learned along the way. (see our Facebook group and Forum)
We designed the LongMill to be the best hobby CNC router in its class, offering rigidity, and reliability, while being easy to put together. With large extruded aluminum rails, fully supported Y-axes, 1/4″ steel gantries on all axes, and high precision MG-12 type linear guides on the Z-axis, the LongMill is the most powerful CNC router in its class and price point.
Every kit comes with all the…
- Hardware, rails, lead screws, and gantries
- Control box, wires, and motors
- Instructions (downloadable from our website)
Assembly only takes a few hours and can be done with a set of wrenches, allen keys, and a flat head screwdriver. There is absolutely no soldering. We’ve spent thousands of hours designing and testing the LongMill to ensure that this machine is easy to put together. If you can put together IKEA furniture, then putting together the LongMill will be a breeze.
What do you provide?
- Your own wasteboard/spoilboard (found at your local hardware store), this is the surface that you’ll be mounting your machine to. See the ‘Size’ tab above for more info.
- A router (purchase one from us, use one you already have, or find one at your local hardware store/online)*
For routers, we recommend the Makita RT0700/RT0701. It’s a reliable and super powerful router that we’ve been using on our CNC machines for years.
Here are some other compatible routers we recommend:
- Bosch Colt (some versions may have a slightly larger 72mm diameter which may not be compatible)
- Dewalt 611
The LongMill can accommodate bore sizes of 52, 65, 71, and 80mm, Don’t see your router listed? Let us know the diameter of your router so that we can make a router mount for you. If you do not send us a diameter we will ship you a mount for the Makita RT0700/RT0701 (65mm).
Please note that routers/spindles which are
- Over 2.7kg/6lbs
- Wider than 80mm/3″
May not be compatible (but we’ll try to make it work)
*Routers that we supply will be 110V only (North America). If you live in a country which uses a different voltage, please purchase a router in your region. LongMills will come with a power supply that supports both 110V and 220V.
The LongMill and it’s software works on any computer and connects using standard USB. We sell the Vectric VCarve software but it’s not for everyone. Our machine is software agnostic so that you can find what works for you. Everything you need is available for free.
Technical Details:
– Laser cut, steel gantry plates for high rigidity
– Standard profile, extruded aluminum rails on the X and Y axis and MGN12 linear guides on Z axis
– Delrin V wheels with variable eccentric nuts
– 4-start, 2mm pitch, 8mm diameter ACME lead screw for high torque and fast movement
– NEMA 23 stepper motors on all axis
– 3D printed and aluminum parts
– Mount for Makita RT0701C routers, or request a custom mount size
– 24V power supply
– Arduino board loaded with GRBL firmware
– 4A TB6600 drivers
Our machine uses open-source hardware and firmware, letting users build and modify their machines. Not only that, many of our components are standard and easy to source or 3D printable, making replacing parts easy.
Mohan (verified owner) –
This is my first CNC machine and excited to have the machine assembed and working now.
Assembly process was not complex, but had couple of hiccups. One of the threaded roads was out side of tolerance on one end and I had to use a trick to thread the flange bearings from the other side. The z-axis plates were not truly parallel, but was easily fixed. The initial purchase with Bosch colt router adapter didn’t work, as the adapter was made for the previous version. Customer support was great and quick and got a different adapter sent over.
All good now and I am able to do few test pieces and I am generally happy. I am still learning to do relief cuts as I need some more bits and probably slight more tuning. Hoping to work it out.
I got the 12×30 machine and happy with it for now. I am glad that I have option to move to next size by just changing the y rails, which should be pretty simple considering the assembly was not very complex to start with.
I would say 5 stars if there were no hiccups. Probably 4.5. Overall very happy with the purchase.
-Machine ordered May 27, 2020
Michael Ray –
The crew at Sienci Labs are great. I am new to the CNC Hobby world however with their support and resources it makes the learning curve fairly low. The community that has been fostered around the Sienci Labs products is also a huge bonus. If you have a question just ask because someone knows the answer. It has been a great experience and I am very happy that I went with Sienci Labs. Thanks Chris and the crew at Sienci Labs.
Michael Ray
-Machine ordered Sep 24, 2019
siencilabs (store manager) –
Shawn, thanks for the feedback. We sell the LongMill as a hobbyist machine, so we hope that we weren’t setting your expectations on it being more than that. I wouldn’t recommend the LongMill for dedicated metal cutting, or as a dedicated production machine simply because it was designed to be a reasonably capable machine at a good price-point so that Woodworkers and other home shop owners could get started with CNC without breaking the bank. For example, though the feet are 3D printed we’ve been printing these parts in-house for more than 4 years now, tuning our part output so they are as strong as can be. It also helps that our design has a total of 8 feet to fully support the rails. That said, there are little things that we’re still working to improve so I appreciate your critical comments.
Shawn Green (verified owner) –
Mostly Well designed and built, but very clearly from a hobbyist perspective. I cant stand plastic so am replacing all the feet with proper aluminum. 3D printing is not a robust manufacturing process . I’ve also added front and back rails in an attempt to increase rigidity. I feel like the machine is 85% ready to work out of the box.
Basically, it needs to be more rigid. I have mounted mine to a 1/2 aluminum plate. but the design of the feet is so poor and makes use of a “toe-nailed” screw its impossible to mount it properly to anything. Hence i spent last night milling aluminum feet.
little things that bother me to no end are the horribly inadequate length of the motor wiring. it traps the control box in a stupid place and there is just no reason to save money on that.
the horrible cable trays all broke on installation, again, why cheap out?
The wheels are not long for this world, but I will run them to failure out of curiosity.
The whole dust shoe is a joke and feels like an after thought. its horrible to adjust and doesn’t really sit nice no matter what.
the lead screws need support, as someone used to machining i cant stand watching them bounce around.
I fully understand trying to keep the price point down, but there are better ways to save money.
Anyway, Glad i bought it, but have defiently spent more time redesigning than i have making actual use of the machine.
-Machine ordered Jan 16, 2020
Joseph Wilson (verified owner) –
Overall, I love the Sienci Labs 30×30 LongMill CNC! The setup took me a full week to complete by doing a little more each day. I also had to build a bench for it to sit on which took a few more hours. The bench setup was expected. LongMill setup was tedious but thankfully Chris had very detailed videos on YouTube to help me through the process. The other challenging part is figuring out which CADCAM software to use. I found this quite frustrating as there are so many and most have a major learning curve. I settled on Easel which did come with a subscription price but allowed me to focus more on the creative side of having a CNC and less on figuring out complex software. I would recommend the LongMill to friends for sure and feel it’s a solid product with solid construction.
-Machine ordered Feb 11, 2020
Ron (verified owner) –
Hardware and installation was good. Software instruction was spotty. Could not get the probe to work. Ron
-Machine ordered Mar 18, 2020
Ken –
I knew when I ordered the cnc that it would take a few months. At first there was very little info on where my order was “ in the list”. About Nov. there was more info coming out and it gave me a better time line. By mid Dec. the info on machines completed was much better and I now had a pretty good access net of when my order would be filled. In all I was pleased with the communication that was on your feeds
-Machine ordered Oct 15, 2019
Ryan Campbell (verified owner) –
I would recommend this unit to any hobbyist looking to start with CNCing. It has been a VERY large learning curve for me as I just dove in head first, but the Sienci team has been willing to answer every and all calls I have made. The setup was long, but very worthwhile and easy to follow with the online videos/instructions. Furthermore, the forums have been very helpful as well. For me the machine itself has performed nicely, but I have only made a few signs in some simple barnboard/pine.
-Machine ordered Apr 15, 2020