Makerween is happening this Saturday and we’re gonna be there! Make sure to stop by our booth in the Kitchener City Hall.
For more information, check out http://www.makerexpo.ca/
One week left on the October Project Contest
Hey everyone! Just a reminder that the contest will be closing in a week!
To enter:
1) Share project photos and videos on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram with the tag #siencilabs
2) Share speeds and feeds and other tips and tidbits in the description for extra points.
3) Top three of our favorite projects will win prizes!
More details can be found here:
Tom uses the Mill One
If you have been following Tom Salanderer and his livestream on the Mill One, you’d know that he finished up that livestream without getting to the milling part. Well, he’s gotten back on the horse and got the Mill One up and running in this new livestream!
So, some good results with the Mill One for this first run. We’re looking forward to seeing the results for some of the new things he makes with the machine, and it’s pretty cool to know that this is the first desktop CNC machine to be on his channel (besides the MedelMax 3D printer he put a spindle head on).
CNCing faces using the “3D Face Reconstruction from a Single Image” demo
So a couple of months ago I had a friend who asked me if I could scan and CNC mill a copy of her face. CNC milling? No problem, we could certainly do that. However, we didn’t have access to 3D scanning tools to create an accurate 3D scan of her face.
Accurate scanning tools that can capture a face at a high level of detail are somewhat expensive and hard to come by, but I have used the free app, 123D Catch (now discontinued), which allowed users to use a smartphone to create a 3D model. It was frustrating to use though, due to the fact that it could take forever to process the images into a 3D model, and resulted mixed results. It is also worth noting that using a scanner like 123D Catch needs the subject to be still for some period of time as the scanning takes place, and unless you have $60,000+ 360 degree scanning rig, it would be the case for most scanners. Needless to say, we shelved that project.
Then one day I came across this interesting project from the folks at the University of Nottingham, who had created a tool that could take a single picture and turn the face in the model into a 3D model. And so for fun, I decided I would try using a photo of one of our professors to create the 3D model.
So I took this model and converted it from a OBJ file and imported it into Kiri:Moto, then carved it out from some wood. Two tool changes and an hour and a half later, I had a little face in my hands.
Sanded it a little bit. pic.twitter.com/vlCJqExqxU
— Sienci Labs (@SienciLabs) October 8, 2017
Well what can I say. It looks like a face, although I don’t feel like the AI got it 100% right. I suppose we’ll have to see over the next few years how this technology progresses, but it looks like we won’t be getting super realistic masks out of the Mill One just yet.
Small changes to XZ gantries and electronics holders
Hey everyone, we have made some small updates to the XZ gantries and electronics holders to make the Mill One slightly better. These improvements have been made to improve ease of manufacturing.
XZ gantries:
We have changed the spacing slightly on the gantry to allow for more freedom of adjustment for the v wheels. Some users may have noticed that there is not a lot of room to tighten down on the v wheels. We have had two different batches of aluminum having come from two different sources. Thus some users have angle aluminum that is slightly wider than the first batch which reduces the amount of space to adjust the v wheels.
If you received a Mill One in the past two weeks, you will have received the latest version of the XZ gantry.
Electronics enclosure:
We have made a small change to the size of the plastic around the notch that holds the cover on the electronics enclosure to make it much more difficult to break. You can find the latest model here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2288412
October Project Contest!
We’re hosting a contest to encourage Mill One users to share their projects! Read below for more details:
How to enter:
- Post your project photos and videos made using the Mill One on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram with the hashtag #siencilabs. Using the hashtag will help us find your projects online.
- Extra points for sharing feeds and speeds, and other tips and tidbits for your project in the description/caption.
- Posts must be made between Oct 2, 2017 and Oct 31, 2017.
How to win:
- We will choose three of our favorite projects and contact our winners via phone, email, or social media.
- Winners may choose from one of the three prizes. The first place winner has first choice, second place winner has second choice, and third place winner has third choice.
Rules:
- You can post as many projects as you like, but you can only win one prize.
- Your project must incorporate the Mill One.
Prizes:
- 4 inch low profile drill press vise
- Tooling pack containing one 1/4″ to 1/8″ collet adapter, set of three 1/8″ flat and ball end mills, and two 3mm aluminum end mills.
- An official Sienci Labs t-shirt
One year Kickstarter anniversary
Can you believe it’s been a whole year since our Kickstarter campaign was funded?
It’s amazing to think how far we’ve come since we were funded in 2016. Since then we’ve shipped over 150 desktop CNC machines to over 20 countries to be used for thousands of different applications, from model making to creating medical devices. We’ve put our CNC machines in over two dozen schools, universities, and makerspaces, and helped educate hundreds of students CNC technology.
It is with the support of our Kickstarter backers and the community we were able to create low cost desktop CNC machines and make this technology more accessible for makers. You have provided us with the capital and engineering expertise to bring our product to life. Not only that, it is through your support we have been able to continually improve the quality and performance of our machines.
What can you expect from the coming year? We plan on scaling up production even further, as well as investing more time and money into developing new and affordable technologies for CNC.
By the way, check out our latest video, Introducing the Sienci Mill One Desktop CNC!
Milling an aluminum gantry prototype
We recently ordered a set of end mills designed for aluminum and got around to putting one of them through the paces. It worked exceptionally well, letting us cut a lot more aggressively than we were able to with standard multi-purpose carbide end mills.
At first we did some testing, pushing the end mill with different speeds and feeds. We were able to push the machine to 1mm depth of cut and around 800mm/min feed rates. While having chips weld itself to the end mill was a problem with older end mills, we didn’t have any problems with the new end mills.
With this project, we found the middle ground and used a 0.5mm depth of cut at 600mm/min on quarter inch 6061 aluminum.
So what did we learn? End mills for aluminum work really well on aluminum (obviously) and that we can put the Mill One a lot harder through aluminum than we thought we could as long as things are set up right.
Need help with speeds and feeds? Make sure to check out our Facebook group for help! https://www.facebook.com/groups/166433110494695/
The state of the USD and the CAD
Fluctuating oil prices, a new American president, rising interest rates in Canada – the past year has been quite a ride with regards to the North American economy and the foreign exchange rates. This is a fairly important aspect of our company due to the fact that the majority of our customers reside in the US and our primary transaction currency is USD (although you can also choose to use CAD).
Over the last year or so, the USD to CAD exchange rate plummeted from 1USD = 1.35CAD to 1USD = 1.22CAD, 9.6% drop.
While most of our income comes in as USD, most of our costs are in CAD. Since the majority of manufacturing is done locally (our furthest manufacturer is a one hour drive from Waterloo, ON), and since we pay all our salaries, taxes, shipping fees, rent, and packaging in CAD, we need to convert our USD income to CAD before we can pay for these costs. A falling USD value means less CAD when we convert our USD income to CAD.
It’s not all bad however, in the long term, a strong Canadian dollar means stronger international buying power and lower prices on items which are tied to the American dollar. Although we try to manufacture components as locally as possible, we will see some savings on imported components like motors and electronics.
So what this mean for our customers? Well for our Canadian customers, this is a great time to place orders while the CAD is strong. It’s like a discount granted by the strengthening Canadian economy! Perhaps this is why we’ve seen a small uptick in Canadian sales.
I figured it would be of interest to share with everyone, especially if you’re also a business which is also affected by these fluctuation foreign exchange rates. While economic instability makes running a company more complicated, I have a good feeling of things to come in the future.
Until next time…
When’s the next machine coming out?
When’s the next machine coming out? When are you guys going to build a bigger machine? These are questions we get all the time. Over the last few months, we’ve been looking at many of the details involved with building a larger machine, such as the feature set, cost, and manufacturing of the new product. Some of our discussions includes talks with current customers, industry professionals, members of the maker community, and more. Here are some of the things we’ve heard from them.
Larger work area:
People want to have more work area to do larger projects, anywhere from a few inches larger than the work area of the Mill One, to a full 4’x8’x machine. In between these sizes, we need to pick one (or maybe two) sizes that will satisfy the majority of the needs of makers, as well as being compact enough to fit into any workspace.
Full enclosure:
While the partial enclosure of the Mill One works reasonably well in capturing the majority of dust and chips, it still lets some more ambitious particles to leave the inside of the machine. A full enclosure will greatly increase safety, reduce noise, and make cleanup easier. While this feature hasn’t been as popular as the large work area one, since we use our CNC machines all the time, we know what sort of difference this feature could make.
Network capability:
The ability to connect to a CNC machine without being tethered to a computer or laptop is a feature many of our customers have wanted to have on their Mill Ones. This means developing some sort of physical or digital interface with the machine.
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These are just a few of the things that folks have wanted. Make sure to let us know what you think should be in the next machine, and stay tuned for more news!