It’s Andy here. If you’ve read our blog, you guys will know I like to post updates about the company and the milestones we’ve had. This past April has been an incredibly busy time for us, especially with adapting to life with a global pandemic going on and a boatload of new orders coming in during this time.

Because of all the craziness I haven’t been able to post as much as I would like to, but we are continuing to adapt as best we can. Here are some updates.

Lead times

April brought us more than double the number of orders than March. Ikenna and the rest of our team have been working hard to ship machines out as quickly as possible, and as we go into the month of May, we don’t see signs of stopping.

As far as shipping goes, we have been able to get most LongMills out the door within a week of when they are ordered, and we are currently working on some new ways to improve our speed and efficiency of getting machines out the door.

Shipping delays and slowdowns

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen an overall slowdown in the courier system. Packages sent through UPS and Canada Post have been slower than usual to be delivered. We have typically seen most packages impacted by 2-3 days, with Canada Post seeming to be more delayed than UPS.

Rest assured, our courier companies have been very responsive on helping us with shipments at this time and are doing their best to keep up with demand.

Here’s what you should know about shipping at this time.

• Packages no longer require signatures and will be left at the door.
• If you have customs duties from UPS, pay-at-the-door services may be suspended. You should receive an email or call about duties and taxes. This only applies to orders above $800USD.
• If your order is going to a commercial location that is known to be closed, it may either be held at a post office for pick up or sent back to the sender. Please note that local post offices may be closed or have reduced hours. We recommend shipping your orders directly to your home or residence.
• Tracking information may be slower to update at times.

We will continue to offer pick-up during business pick-up hours (10AM-4PM) Monday to Friday. Orders will be placed on our dock for pick-up in Waterloo ON.

Batch 3 is in production

With our current rate of orders, we expect stock for Batch 2 of LongMills to run out by July or sooner. We are currently working on building inventory for Batch 3 so that we’ll have machines ready to go as soon as we can once we run out of Batch 2.

We’ve also added additional racking to our space to accommodate larger batches of inventory and help us smooth out our operations and give us some additional space for new products and parts to come down the line.

I’m also happy to mention that between Batch 2 and 3, we’ve had a significant reduction of customer issues through implementation of better QA processes and engineering. You can read our post here about this topic: https://sienci-upgrade3.cospark.io/2020/02/18/a-list-of-common-issues-and-how-we-resolved-them-on-the-longmill-v1-and-how-we-improved-on-our-machines-for-v2/

We still aren’t 100% yet but we are working on getting there!

Growth in our very active commuities

It’s been awesome to see a lot of growth and great vibes on our Facebook Group and Online Forum. In the last 30 days, we’ve seen over 4400 comments, posts, and reactions on our Facebook group and over 28,000 views on our Forum, which is amazing. Many of these interactions involve sharing tips, ideas, and assistance to users.

It’s also awesome to see several of our beta testers and many of our senior users continue to welcome newcomers and help them get their machines set up. Our team has continually been impressed at the quality and detail we’ve seen in customer projects, especially first-time projects.

Updates to the LongMill Resources

We’ve been continually updating our LongMill Resources. A quick thank you to our customers who’ve sent us compliments as well as feedback on our resources. We’ve been working with our friend Aleks (https://agontarz.com/) to update the resources and assembly for the last couple weeks. If you don’t already know, Aleks helped us make the highly acclaimed Mill One Assembly Manual. You should expect to see changes happen over the next few weeks!

One year since our Kickstarter…

On April 25, 2019, we raised over $400,000 for the LongMill. It has officially been a year since then and we have now shipped over 600 machines to more than 30 countries. Over a million dollars worth of LongMills have now been sold. We are excited to see what our next year brings!

Want to take a trip down memory lane? Make sure to read our posts here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sienci/longmill-benchtop-cnc-router/posts

We have started shipping orders! Customers should be expecting emails and tracking info from us soon. Please be patient as we get through our backlog.

Orders from Dec and January should be shipping this week and next week, and orders from February and March should ship by the following week.

We will be shipping all orders for LongMills, all order numbers will be fulfilled.

Pickups

We will be getting in touch for customers who have opted for local pickups.

If you are unable to arrange for a pick-up due to the coronavirus, please contact us for other arrangements.

Control box replacements

There are three or four customers that are waiting on replacement control boards. These will ship out in the next few days.

Assembly for LongMill V2

There are some small variations between LongMill V1 and V2 that have been documented in the assembly manual on our online resources. Most changes are very minor and both processes for assembly on the V1 and V2 are the same. However, if you require clarification or are stuck on assembly, please contact us and we will update the assembly manual.

For the last production update, please check out this post: https://sienci-upgrade3.cospark.io/2020/02/20/production-updates-for-batch-2/

As covered in the last production update, we have been waiting on the remaining batch of parts to arrive. As of current, we have the full balance of parts with the exception of the control boards. We are expecting the control boards to arrive by the end of the week.

Next steps

As mentioned in the previous update, our goal has to pre-pack and prepare as much as we can so that we can ship everything out as quickly as possible once the control boards arrive.

We have completed packing and preparing for all backorders, and I have provided training to start assembly and testing to build and assemble the rest of the control components to everyone who is part of that process.

GRBL Firmware update for CNCjs

A couple of people have reached out about the connectivity with CNCjs for the gcode sender with our controller. I have since created a new version of the firmware which will be flashed on all new LongMills going forward. Those LongMills will be compatible with CNCjs. I have also been emailed by one of the developers of CNCjs to inform us that they have updated CNCjs to properly connect to the program for older versions of the LongMill as well.

Current users and new users should be able to connect to CNCjs with no issues. There have been no other changes to the firmware so if your machine is working fine, there should be no reason to update your firmware. However, if you are interested in the firmware update process, you can check out the guide here: https://sienci-upgrade3.cospark.io/dmx-longmill/grbl-firmware/

LongMill lead times for new orders

We will not be updating the current 8-10 week lead time for new orders until we can confirm that the boards have arrived and we are shipping machines at a consistent rate. However, I expect that by next week I will be able to provide a new updated lead-time estimate. Please note that orders will still be shipped based on the order in which they were made.

We know that there are lots of folks eagerly waiting for their LongMills. Here’s an update on the production for the LongMills.

As far as components go, all parts for the LongMill are currently in the shop being packed now with the exception of two of the components because we are waiting for them to be delivered.

• Control boxes
• Control boards

We currently have a partial batch and waiting for the balance to be delivered for

• TB6600 drivers
• Power supplies

There has been a ton of changes we have made to our production to improve the quality and speed of our packaging and assembly, as well as to reduce the chance of errors. We are also working to ensure that we can ship machines as quickly as possible once our inventory is fully stocked again.

Control boards and boxes

We’ll start by talking about the current bottleneck in our production which is with the control boards and the control boxes.

The control boards are currently delayed by two weeks. We are currently having them assembled in China, and due to the coronavirus, factory workers did not start work again until the 17th. I have been told that the boards are expected to complete production and ship next week. All of the PCBs have been made, but we are waiting on the assembly to finish.

In the meantime, we have tested and checked the first batch of drivers to be installed into the control boards so that they are ready to go as soon as the boards arrive.

Control boxes are also in the process of being made. We have made significant changes to the design to 1) decrease assembly time 2) improve durability 3) add mounting holes for mounting to your table. The first 200 sets of parts for the control boxes were completed yesterday and have been delivered to be powder coated. We currently have the first 150 acrylic top panels completed as well, with the remaining expected to be finished at the start of March.

From batch 1, our biggest bottleneck in production has been in the assembly of the control boxes. With the new design, assembly is significantly faster and easier, reducing the bottleneck.

I am expecting this to increase our overall speed in which we can ship machines and get machines into our users sooner.

Aluminum rails, drag chains, and lead screws

Here’s Dylan diligently putting together rails into sets. We are now packing all rails, drag chains, and lead screws into one package to simplify our packaging and process.

This was one of the most time consuming and physically demanding parts of our packing process from the last batch, but we have been able to greatly speed up the packing by using a custom made stand that eliminates the need for two people to wrap the rails together.

Gantries and sheet metal parts

We have received all the gantries and other sheet metal parts ahead of schedule, and have started the packing and assembly for these parts.

Currently, we have all 400+ Y-axis gantries packed and on the shelf ready to go, and many of the Z-axis motor mounts packed as well.

Here’s Esteban putting together the gantries for the X and Z axis. We do this process in house as it can be tricky to get the proper alignment in the linear guides, as well as due to the chance of losing the ball bearings if the linear guide block comes off the rail. Esteban and Jeemin, two students working at Sienci Labs this term, designed and assembled a new jig design (amongst many others being used in production currently) to help align and assemble these gantries.

With the new jig and the threaded holes in the linear guides that were not on the previous version, we have been able to reduce assembly time significantly as well. We currently have around 96 completed assemblies, so just over 300 more to go!

3D printed parts

With the new filament material, improved part designs, and upgraded components on our 3D printers, we have dramatically increased the efficiency in 3D printing. Currently, we have 34-35 printers online churning out parts.

One major upgrade was to the extruders on the Ender 3s. We had done so much printing on the machines that the tensioning arm for our printers were completely worn through.

Other changes include using magnetic PEI sheet beds on all Ender 3s that helps us remove parts quickly and easily, as well as continually improving our print slicer settings to increase print strength and quality.

There have also been some small changes to some of the 3D printed parts to improve the fit and finish of the parts as well (seating nuts, sliding rails through, etc.).

To speed up our packing process and improve our organization, we now will pack all of the 3D printed components into one separate box (as shown in the photo).

Power supplies, fasteners, and Z-axis motor mount plates

We’ve packed and put the power supply, fasteners, and z-axis motor mount plates into another box to pre-pack and prepare for shipping.

We also had all of the fasteners pre-packed and labeled with their size at the factory, to speed up packing and make the assembly process easier.

NEMA 23 stepper motors

One of the most time-consuming part of our packing process has been to wrap and pack the NEMA 23 stepper motors. We’ve now pre-packed all of the motors in cartons in foam, along with the wires together to eliminate this step.

They also have our logo laser engraved on them along with whether they are threaded or not threaded as well, also eliminating us needing to label them as well.

Conclusion

Packing and production continues on and we are working towards getting machines out the door as quickly as possible. Based on our current pace and expected delivery time for the remaining components, I expect that we will start shipping machines early to mid-March.

Our current plan is to start shipping machines as soon as the control box and control board parts arrive and start to ramp up our shipping to 50ish units per week. This means that most of the backlog will ship near the tail end of March and folks that placed their orders in the past month may be seeing their machines sooner than the 8-10 week estimate, but please plan for those estimates to stay the same if you have any time-sensitive projects.

We do have a chance of shipping earlier still if the control boards arrive on time. From our experience with our powder coating company, they often can provide the parts sooner than their lead-time estimates, but I will provide estimates assuming that they stick to the lead times I have been told. If there are significant changes to production I will make sure to post them.