If you’re looking for a fast and inexpensive way to prototype circuit boards, the Mill One is an awesome machine for that. Check out Chuck’s video on how he’s using the Mill One to create his custom circuit boards!
Back from Vacation
Hey everyone, we’re back from vacation! Happy New Year everyone!
We’ll be shipping out our backlog of orders from the winter break as quickly as we can. We’re also in the middle of setting up a new office as well, ordering and getting new inventory in, and packaging, so things are quite hectic. But we’re back, and that’s what matters!
Why less choices is a good thing
Over the last few months, we’ve had a lot of folks build their own Mill Ones from scratch or buy some parts from us to complete their builds. We want to support anyone and everyone who wants access to affordable CNC machines, and we’ve done our best to provide the resources and tools to do that through the Mill One project. One of the members of the Sienci Mill One Group asked if we were able to provide more options with the kit, to pick and choose which components the kit includes. In a perfect world, that would be the most ideal. People can just get what they need and nothing more. However, things are a little more complicated than that. This is my response:
”
It’s been something we’ve been considering. However there’s a few reasons we have tried to keep things as simple as possible.
One is that we want to be able to keep a close eye on the quality of all the parts. If we have a customer that made their own parts that don’t work properly or are not to spec, it is a lot more difficult to help them. We’ve made hundreds of each part so we have a lot of experience making sure the quality is as good as possible, and fixing issues for our customers if there are any. I think it is a much smoother experience for our customers to have everything from us.
Second is that we want to make every choice as simple as possible to make it as affordable as possible. Every variation on the kit we add will make it more expensive because we have to pack every machine differently. It’s a lot easier for us to pack everything the same and have only one or two choices, and those cost savings can be passed along to the customer. Sure, maybe they can save some money by only getting what they need, but overall, it will make things more expensive for everyone. We order everything in large batches to keep costs down as well. If we had to make or buy stock in smaller batches which is what we’d need to do if we separated the kit up, that would also greatly increase the cost.
Third and lastly, getting all the parts from us saves a lot of time and effort for the customer, and if you were to source all the components separately, it would probably cost the same or more, not including the extra time it takes to source and manufacture each part.
”
What are your thoughts on this decision? Any ideas on how we can support our community better?
Feel free to reach out at hi@sienci.com
Winter Vacation from Dec 23rd to Jan 2nd
Hey everyone! This is a notice to let everyone know that the company will be away on holidays between Dec 23rd and Jan 2nd. Orders placed during this time will start shipping out at the beginning of January.
We will continue to ship out orders up to the 22nd. If your order is time sensitive, please contact us first at hi@sienci.com so that we can make sure it will get to you on time.
Although we will be away spending time with friends and family, we will continue to periodically check our emails and be active on our Facebook user group to help our community and customers. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us as usual!
A really hectic month
It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about how things are going at Sienci Labs. Well the answer is that things are going well. It’s been hard to get the time to sit down and blog as I usually do, especially with the Christmas rush and getting everything ready for 2018!
Here’s a few things that have been going on lately.
Looking for people to join our team
Our company has grown to the point that Chris and I need more hands on deck to grow. That’s why over the last two months, we’ve been looking for new people to help us run the business. Well I’m happy to say that we’ve gotten lots of job applications and are currently in the middle of onboarding two new people to our team! Stay tuned for updates and intros on our new team members.
If you’re interested in joining our team, feel free to reach out to work@sienci.com. We’ll probably be looking for folks in electrical or software engineering in the next few months as well.
Enclosure design
A masters student in mechanical engineering and I are working on designing a fully enclosed frame, which we plan on putting together as a new upgrade kit. Why a full enclosure? Well, a full enclosure results in a quieter, cleaner machine. The plan is to have first physical prototypes together in the next two weeks.
New software
We’re currently working on a modified version of Kiri:Moto to streamline the CNC workflow for CAM. This has been a ongoing project for nearly a month, and we’re working on setting up a server to run the program. It’ll be accessible with the public, which will help us gain feedback on improving the software.
Improved resources
We’re also working on creating a more streamlined resources page to help new users walk through each step of using the Mill One. This includes some sample projects that can be done to get users familiar with our machines. We hope to have the new version of our resources live in the next two weeks. Got an idea for a sample project? Email us at hi@sienci.com!
Small changes to 3D printed parts design
First change was adjusting the settings and tolerances on the electronics box to improve the quality of the print and allow the parts to fit together better.
Second change is with the router mount, which now has additional reinforcement around the bolt holes. This addresses the weak area around the nut traps on the mount.
Chuck’s videos
If you haven’t yet, check out Chuck’s first impressions with the Mill One.
We did have a few troubles with the assembly part, but we did figure them out. We’re always happy to have honest feedback and hear about what we can do to improve our machines and manufacturing so that we can continue to improve our product.
Once Chuck got everything running, he was really happy with the machine!
You can also check out his video on making a custom 3D printed holder for tools on the Mill One too.
Aluminum cutting end mills are back in stock
We recently sold out on all our end mills, but we just got a new batch of aluminum cutting end mills. You can check it out here.
UPS shipping option
UPS has recently offered us really competitive prices on shipping, with shipping speeds that are faster than Purolator. Based on the past week of shipping with UPS, it looks like customers can get their orders up to three days faster than before.
Those are all of the updates I can think of. Stay tuned for more as they come and happy holidays!
We’ve been featured on Make Magazine!
Every year, Make Magazine brings together the best desktop fabrication tools together for their annual Digital Fabrication Shootout. Guess who’s also in the Shootout? We are! Check it out!
Nylock nuts on anti backlash nut kits (also you can get them $10 off until Nov 30)
We’ve started shipping with nylock nuts. For most folks, this won’t make a huge difference, but it does add a level of security from having the M3 nuts back off over time, especially if you use your Mill One all the time. We try to keep finding ways to improve our products, of course, even if they’re small changes!
If you want to get an Anti Backlash Nut Kit, use the coupon code “10ABL” at checkout to get $10USD off the kit. The code will work until Nov 30!
Everything is on Thingiverse
Github can be confusing, especially if you’re not a software developer. For the uninitiated, Github is a repository commonly used by software developers to share and collaborate on projects, as well as provide version control over the project being developed. That being said, it can be a little confusing to navigate. You can still find our stuff on Github but it will be out of date.
To make things more approachable, we’ve taken many of the files you need to build your own Sienci Mill One and put them on Thingiverse. You can also find a lot of other files, including designs and sample gcode on our Thingiverse profile as well.
For the rest of our open source files, make sure to check out https://sienci-upgrade3.cospark.io/resources/hardware_resources/open-source/ to get all of the files you need to build or modify a Mill One! We have started to add community contributions, so if you have anything you’d like us to add, make sure to get in touch with us!
Sienci Mill One Air/Oil Mist Coolant System
There’s been talks and photos of different coolant systems on the Sienci Mill One Group over the last few months, but this is the first full guide I’ve seen on setting it up on a Mill One. Check it out here: https://www.instructables.com/id/Sienci-Mill-One-AirOil-Mist-Coolant-System/
So why a coolant system? Well, when it comes to cutting aluminum, one of the biggest challenges is to keep the end mill from clogging with aluminum chips that weld themselves due to the heat created by friction. Aluminum has a fairly low melting point, making it a material susceptible to this.
There are a few methods to make sure you don’t damage your end mills. One is to make sure that the chips you’re creating are large enough to carry the heat created away from the cut. This is where using a single flute aluminum bit works well, since the single, large flute creates larger chips than what a 2 flute or a 4 flute would typically do. This works great with most jobs, and typically you won’t reach those temperatures. However, with long jobs that can take several hours, some sort of cooling is nice to have.
Andrey’s method of using a mist coolant system is commonly used in industry on large, industrial machines. It uses a blast of air, mixed with a stream of vaporized coolant, pointed toward the end mill to lubricate and cool the part and the tool. Unlike flood cooling, which uses a stream of liquid coolant that sprays at the tool, mist cooling requires far less coolant, and if properly set up, a lot less messy.
If you’ve had this mod in mind for your Mill One, check it out!
Chris Zindrik creates PDF templates for making Mill One frames
Chris Zindrik, one of the members on our Sienci Mill One Group, was kind enough to share his PDF files for the Mill One frame to make drilling holes and cutting easier. You can check out the files here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/166433110494695/files/
In other news, we’ve welcomed our 300th member to our Sienci Mill One Group! Make sure to join if you’re interested to stay in the loop for the latest developments in the community.