Congratulations to everyone at Sienci Labs, we have completed packing the first few Vortex Rotary Axis Kits which are now awaiting shipping or pickup! For more information about the Vortex, please visit our blog here: https://sienci-upgrade3.cospark.io/2023/05/08/vortex-rotary-axis-launch-date-june-1-2023/
We’re super excited to get all of the pre-orders out to customers in the next few weeks! We are planning to ship around 40-50 per week until we are completed the queue.
Weekly themed contest time! Thanks to everyone who entered the contest for this week, where we asked you all to share your most difficult projects made on the LongMill.
Last Week’s Winners
We are happy to announce that Daniel Kerr, Bill Iverson, Emmanuel Mercado, Ian Doucette, Scott Cressman, and Ian Fraser are the winners of the “Your Most Difficult Project” contest! A prize is on the way!
This Week’s Theme: A Project That is a Toy
This week’s theme is “projects that are toys”! Post your dollhouses, trains, cars, figurines, wooden toys, or any toys you made on your LongMill, and we’ll choose our favorite ones to send cool stuff for free.
One of the most common questions we get from folks looking to order a LongMill is “What should I get with it?”. This article and video are designed to help you walk through everything you need.
The average order value for customers first purchasing a LongMill and accessories in the past 12 months is approximately $2850CAD or $2190USD, which means that for most customers, you can easily get a complete setup for under $3000. These numbers represent the total value of the order, which includes the machine, as well as most other accessories such as the software, router, endmills, a dust shoe, touch plate, and other items. You should allocate a few hundred dollars for other items that you may or may not have in your shop already, such as a bench, computer, and vacuum.
Here is the breakdown of the most popular items that customers order along with their LongMill by percentage.
If it’s your first time getting into hobby CNC, you might be a little intimidated by what you need to get started. This video is designed to cover everything you need to have in your shop.
Your first, and largest purchase is going to be the machine itself. The LongMill Benchtop CNC is a capable option for hobbyists who are looking for a lot of functionality found on more expensive machines but in a more budget-friendly package. Depending on the size, you can get a LongMill for around $1800 to $2300CAD or around $1400USD to $2000USD, which makes it one of the least expensive options for the size.
While there are cheaper and more expensive machine options out there, we believe our specific machine is best suited for customers who:
Are looking to do this as a hobby, with some interest in production and business work
Need high-quality resources and support
Willing to make a small compromise in cutting speed but still be able to produce the same type of work as more expensive machines
Our main goal as a company is to make CNC accessible to everyone. This comes down to a number of commitments to our customers and products:
To make products that are affordable for the average hobbyist
Provide resources, support, and instructions so that we can make sure our customers can be successful in using our products.
We feel that customers not only choose the LongMill because it is an affordable option, but because we created a helpful and supportive community around our products.
If you’re not sure what size to choose, we recommend considering the working areas of each version of the machine, and determining what size fits in your shop as well as can do the type of projects that you’re interested in doing.
Router or Spindle
The base LongMill kit does not come with a router, since we wanted to let customers choose which router they want to use with their machine. The LongMill can work with several different palm routers, but the one that is the most popular and the one we recommend is the Makita RT0701, as it’s inexpensive, readily available, and has more than enough power for general woodworking use. You can order this directly through us, or at most local hardware stores.
The LongMill also can be retrofitted with an aftermarket spindle, and we provide 71 and 80mm router mounts for larger spindles, however, due to cost and complexity, we only recommend this upgrade to experienced customers. More information about routers and spindles can be found in our resources.
You’ll also need to get some end mills and bits to start off your CNCing journey.
Assuming you have a Makita router, you’ll mostly be using ¼” shank tools, or if you get either the ¼” to ⅛” adapter, or the ⅛” Precision Collet, ⅛” shank tooling as well.
We provide dozens of different bit options and packs on our store. If you’re not sure what to get, we recommend checking out one of the End Mill Sets, such as the Signmakers Set and Machinist Set.
If you’re starting out for the first time, I recommend the Starter End Mill Set, which comes with all of the bits that we think you’ll need and a collet adapter. The Starter End Mill set, which we recommend for first-time users, is about $45USD or $60CAD, and come with 9 different bits and accessories.
Prices for bits vary a lot, especially when you get into high-end tools, but for the average user, you should expect to pay a few dollars for smaller tooling, and up to around 20 dollars for a larger bit.
04 End Mills & Bits
We supply a wide variety of high-quality cutting tools and end mills for CNC machines including v-bits, upcut and downcut bits, and ballnose end mills.
All our bits are designed and tested specifically for CNC routers. Find tool libraries, settings, and feeds and speeds at https://sienci-upgrade3.cospark.io/tool-libraries/
The last thing you must get for your CNC is a bench and spoiboard. This is just a large surface you can put your machine on. It should be noted that the surface should be as flat and strong as possible, since any flex or irregularity may show up in your cuts as well. Some people will make a bench from scratch, which can cost $100s of dollars, but even an old sturdy desk or dining room table can work as well.
Some different ideas and inspirations can be found in our resources.
You’ll also need a spoil board or wasteboard, which acts as a consumable surface for your projects to sit on. We recommend ¾” MDF, as its cheap, readily available, and dimensionally stable. You should be able to buy a 4×8 sheet and cut it into 2-3 wasteboards for about $60.
Computer and Software
There are two main pieces of software you’ll need with your CNC machine. First is the gcode sender. We build gSender as a feature-filled, powerful sender specifically for the LongMill. This program lets you send jobs, change settings, control your machine, and integrate with accessories like the touch plate and inductive sensors. Best of all, it’s completely free!
There are other gcode sending software, such as UGS and Openbuilds Control, but we think you should use gSender.
I recommend checking out our resources where we talk about different CNC software (Broll of scrolling through the resources, https://resources.sienci.com/view/lmk2-choosing-software/ or checking out our video on software to help you choose which software to get.
If you want to read about our thoughts on Free vs Paid software, we recommend reading our article on the topic.
Dust Collection
CNCing can be really messy, which makes dust collection an important part of your setup.
At our shop, we use a Rigid Shop Vac and Dust Deputy, both of which can be purchased for about $200. This sort of set up will be more than capable for hobby CNC dust collection use.
To help clean up dust while cutting, we have the Dust Shoe, a $60USD, $75CAD attachment which goes on the front of the machine to suck up dust while your job is cutting. This particular one works with the 2.5in hose from the Rigid Vac perfectly.
To keep parts from flying out while cutting, you’ll need some form of work holding. Certain methods, such as using screws or hot glue, are very inexpensive and are easy to use.
Some users will set up a t-track table on their wasteboard which allows you to use t-clamps and ¼” bolts to have a fast and adjustable system for workholding. A full set costs about $100USD or $125CAD.
I should note what makes our t-tracks unique is that they use ¼”-20 bolts rather than t-bolts which are harder to find, so that you can buy different size bolts from the hardware store if you want to make your own t-clamps.
There are a lot of workholding options, so I recommend checking out our resources page for different options.
Touch Plate and Inductive Sensors
When starting your job, the LongMill needs to have a set origin point. You must choose a starting point for the machine to start from, and it will perform the movements sent by the computer from that point, in relation to the starting point.
The important thing is to setting the starting point. You can choose the starting point manually by just jogging the machine to the place you want to start and “Zeroing” the machine, but we’ve created the touch plate to help semi-automate the process.
We currently have a simple touch plate for around $30, and a more advanced AutoZero touch plate for around $100.
Additionally, you can add limit or homing switches to your machine. These are sensors that are set up at specific corners of your machine so that you can return the machine to a specific position over and over again (Broll of homing). For the LongMill, when you shut off your machine, it does not remember the specific position relative to itself, and so by having a specific homing position to return to, you can use this to reference the positions of the machine automatically. For example, if you want to set up a job in the same position over and over again, you can home your machine and find the origin of the part relative to the home position after you’ve shut your machine off.
You can get an inductive sensor kit for about $50-60 dollars from our store, however, we generally recommend this to only advanced users, since the setup and process for using it can be complicated, and we generally recommend users who are already familiar with their CNC machines to use it.
The LongMill also is compatible with other accessories, like the Vortex Rotary Axis and LaserBeam add-ons that provide additional functionality. Over the past few years, we’ve developed these add-ons to plug and play with the LongMill. We plan, over time, to continue to create new add-ons and accessories that help our customers do more things.
For a full list of other add-ons and accessories you can get with your LongMill make sure to check out our add-ons section in our store (https://sienci-upgrade3.cospark.io/product-category/addons/mk2-addons/).
Maintenance Items
The LongMill requires some regular maintenance which is easy and straightforward to do. Recommended maintenance checks can be found in our resources.
There are only two consumable items, the Delrin Ant Backlash Blocks and Delrin V-Wheels which we recommend replacing every 1500-2000 hours, roughly once a year of regular use. Some customers choose to have them on hand just in case.
I hope this helps answer the “what should I get with my LongMill” question we get all of the time. If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out!
Hey everyone. Here are some informative videos that you might have missed last month. Check them out below and make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with our CNC-related videos.
Building a Guitar on a CNC Part 6: Assembly
Time to SHRED X6! Welcome to the exciting conclusion of our epic guitar journey! We are thrilled to showcase the delightful process of assembling an actual, fully-functional custom guitar, crafted with precision using our LongMill MK2 CNC.
Making a Unique Tabletop Inlay on the LongMill MK2 CNC
Are you looking for a project that does not require a lot of programming? In this video, Dennis Harlock shows us how to easily take an oddly shaped piece of wood and turn it into a unique tabletop inlay using the LongMill.
The Cottage Country Sienci Series
We’re on the road, CNC in hand, headed to the lake to set up shop. We’re going to show you that you don’t need a big footprint or all kinds of fancy tools to create amazing projects on your CNC. Follow along as the Cottage Country Sienci series comes to life!
Building a Guitar on a CNC Part 5: Pickguard
Time to SHRED X5! In part 5 of our CNC guitar series, Scott walks us through making a custom pickguard on the LongMil to protect your guitar. Follow along as we provide you with all the files and more!
July was a bit of a slow month due to the Vancover port strike holding up shipments for us to ship LongMills in the queue. However, now that parts are back to arriving again, we’re picking back up with our regular routine.
We have a lot of news to cover, especially with the pending release and shipping of the Vortex Rotary axis and new development around the SuperLongBoard.
Want to get news like this directly in your email inbox? Make sure to sign up for our mailing list.
UPS reaches labour deal with Teamsters before strike
This July, we found out that Teamsters working for UPS were preparing for a strike in August, which would have disrupted shipments going to the US. However, UPS and Teamsters have settled on a new UPS contract which increases worker wages across the board and improved working conditions.
We are happy to hear that a resolution has been made, especially as we get into the busiest part of the season for our business.
LongMill and Extension Kit Orders
July has been a slow month for us shipping out LongMills as we have been affected by the port strike that delayed our shipment of controller boards. However, I’m happy to announce that we will receive the boards today and expect to clear the queue in the next 2 weeks.
The large majority of the pending 100 LongMill orders have been packed and are waiting to have the controller boxes done to have them shipped out.
Some LongMills waiting to be shipped
As some folks may know, we’ve continued to work on smoothing out the process of dealing with customs for shipments going to the US. Recently, we’ve been assigned a single contact with UPS to handle all of our LongMill shipments that need customs clearance going to the US. We found that some items were being miscategorized for duties and taxes, and we suspect it is because a big part of this is a manual process that causes human error. We believe that having a single contact who is familiar with the line items will speed up the clearance process with fewer mistakes.
A few new design updates on the LongMill MK2 design include a focus on phasing out of using M3 bolts in the assembly process and replacing them with M5 screws, including parts such as the couplers and ACME locking nuts. We are phasing out components using M3 screws in the LongMill assembly process because they are prone to stripping the heads more easily. Eventually, a full LongMill will be able to be assembled with just one M5 Allen key and our special wrench that we provide (as well as a drill and bit to mount your LongMill to a wasteboard of course).
Some new prototypes of the assembly wrench for new hardwareNew T8 locking nuts replacing the brass ACME nuts
We are also starting to use longer Z motor cables for the motors so that LongMill 48×30 kits, which are now the most popular variant, will not need a motor extension cable, simplifying the assembly process as well.
Additionally, now that the design of the LongMill MK2 has matured over the past year or so since its launch, we are moving to figure out injection molding parts for it for the first time. If you didn’t know, we 3D print several components for the LongMill MK2, including the dust shoe and feet. We found that due to the large number of feet we print, moving to injection molding would be a natural next step to reduce our need to rely on the 3D print farm, which is harder to scale production for.
We are entering into the first day of August with around 100 pending LongMill orders, but we expect to clear the queue in a week or two, after which we expect to shorten lead times again.
Vortex Rotary Axis
The last of the Vortex Rotary Axis parts have arrived at the end of July and we are now starting production and assembly!
First batch of machined parts looking beautifulTest assembly of the Vortex kitSwitch assemblies for Y axis to rotary mode
Our team has been continuing to work on different areas of the Vortex so that when they get into the hands of our users, they’ll have everything they need to get started. This includes:
Thorough assembly and installation instructions. We just completed initial trials and tests of the assembly process to make sure that we provide clear instructions to make it easy to put together. We found that everything came together really easily, except for the cam clamping system for the t-track, which we are currently working on to make it less finicky. We estimate that most users should be able to put it together in about 30 minutes. Full instructions will be found on our Vortex Resources soon.
Video content about the Vortex. We understand that not a lot of how-to and tutorial content exists for rotary CNCing. Our video production team and the engineers are working on the next steps for creating content so that our users can learn how the Vortex works and how to use it.
The gSender team continues to work on completing Rotary Axis implementation into the gSender, including homing and visualization for rotary. These features will be in gSender Edge at the time of launch and will be merged into the main version of gSender down the line. You try and learn about the latest version of Edge here.
We will start to trickle out Vortex Rotary Axis kits over the next week or two as we iron out the last bits of details. We expect the first batch of kits to start shipping out at the end of this week or early next week.
LaserBeam
LaserBeam production continues to move along smoothly, with most orders shipping out within a few days. We have stock available for the LaserBeam ready to ship now.
SuperLongBoard
Work for the SuperLongBoard (SLB) continues on. The team has been able to successfully test the main functionality with excellent results. However, we found our initial tests with the onboard compute module to be unsuccessful, as the Broadcom and Rockwell-based processors used on smaller compute modules to not be powerful enough to accommodate the visualization of g-code directly onboard.
Revised SLB
While additional software development was able to make significant speed improvements, we felt that the compute module would most likely need more headroom in the future if we were to implement other features down the line such as having a camera monitoring system, which we felt would be difficult to add due to a limitation of system resources.
We have now started looking at higher power compute modules, single board computers, and other hardware that we feel would ensure that the onboard gSender experience would be smooth and seamless, as well as provide headroom for future applications. However, the downside is that higher-power computers also cost more, and while our initial budget was around $80CAD/60USD for the compute module, we expect the computers to cost somewhere around $100-$200USD depending on the specs and configuration.
That being said, since we don’t need to have certain components and other parts to support the onboard computer directly, some of the cost of the computer is offset by the lower cost of the SLB itself.
We’ve decided to split the development of the SLB into two parts, one for the board itself, which will use grblHAL, a new, more advanced firmware and all of the improved motor control and drivers, and the computer itself. This means that the computer will live off the board in one fashion or the other.
While it would have been really cool to have the whole system integrated, we believe that by dividing and conquering, we can have the main portion of the SuperLongBoard out of the development process and into production first, and focus on the computer addition after. We felt like we could tackle some of the main problems with the current LongBoard with the new controller, and that it would be better to have the improvements we’ve already developed reach users sooner rather than having everything wait on further development on the onboard computer side.
This means that users will still need to connect their computers to the board to control their machines when the first batch of SLBs release, but better communication protocols, electronics, and shielding will make the USB connection significantly more reliable than before. Andrew, our main developer on this project, assures me that unreliable connections that cause issues with some users with the current board will be a thing of the past.
This version of the SLB natively supports communication over Ethernet, as well will have onboard storage which allows for streaming onboard rather than through a cable, which will improve reliability as well.
So many photo art projects! Thank you to the makers who participated in this week’s contest, where we asked you all to post your photo art carvings made on your LongMill.
Last Week’s Winners
We are happy to announce that Vince Iannotta, Homestead Acres, John Hitcher, Lance Wilkins, Mark Eisenlohr, and Nelson Joseph are the winners of the “A Project That is Photo Art” contest! Watch out for a prize!
This Week’s Theme: Your Most Difficult Project
I believe this was the most difficult project for me to make because it required a lot of trial and error.This was my most difficult project. I never worked with acrylic material before. It took time for me to figure out the speeds and feeds for it.This was my hardest project yet. It took me a while to perfect the design for this.I think this was the most complicated project I made. It was my first 3D carve on the LongMill and I made some mistakes, but I am thankful I got to learn from them.
For this week’s contest, we want you to post what you think was the most difficult project that you made on your LongMill. Share them with us for a chance to be one of the winners of this week’s contest and win free prizes! Bonus points if you tell us why it was the most complicated one for you.
Happy Friday! Thanks to those who entered the contest for this week, where we asked you all to share projects made on your LongMill that are used in your workshop.
Last Week’s Winners
We are happy to announce that Dave Bross, Matt Osterhaus, Chris Bridger, Carlos J. Soto, Jari J. Laaksonen, and Darcy Stelte are the winners of the “A Project That is Used for Your Workshop” contest! A prize is on its way!
This Week’s Theme: A Project That is Photo Art
The theme for this week is “projects that are photo arts”. Share with us your beautiful photo art projects that were made on your LongMill for a chance to be selected as one of the winners and win some free prizes!
Last week we wrote about a port strike that was going on in Vancouver that was looking to impact the delivery times for our control boards and rotary axis parts. I’m happy to share that the strike has been resolved. However, the ports are still backed up and we are expecting some delays in receiving the rest of our materials.
In the meantime, we’ve ordered another batch of controllers to be produced and shipped rush in the case the delay for controllers causes a major delay in delivery times for pending LongMill orders. We expect this batch to be ready in around 3 weeks.
As we shared in the last update, while we don’t have an exact timeline on when the parts will arrive, we are optimistic that our shipment will be one of the first to be on its way toward Toronto as our container has been unloaded from the ship and is waiting in the railyard. Additionally, since we’ve been approved for ERS (express rail service), which prioritized our cargo first, we expect that this shipment will arrive before the rush order for additional controllers will arrive.
That being said, we still are not sure of the overall impact of the strike, and the backup order should allow us to continue production in the case that delays extend. We’ve received word that parts for the Vortex are already on the way and are expected to arrive end of next week, and we are still waiting for word about the controllers now we have received confirmation that we will receive the controllers around July 28th.
It’s weekly contest time! Thank you to the creators who participated in this week’s contest, where we asked you to post your religious/cultural-themed projects made on your LongMill.
Last Week’s Winners
We are happy to announce that Kevin Philpott, Stephen Taylor, Jerry Brown, Matt Loll, Michael Sparks, and Michael Plisch are the winners of the “A Project That is a Religious/Cultural Item” contest! Watch out for a prize!
This Week’s Theme: An Item That is Used for Your Workshop
This week’s theme is items that are used for your machine/workshop”. Post your clamps, computer trays, benches, and other machine/workshop setup-related items that have been made on the LongMill, and we’ll pick the best ones to send creators cool prizes to.
Due to a major strike happening in ports on the west coast, some of our shipments coming in from overseas have been delayed. This affects the arrival time of LongBoard controller and certain parts for the Vortex Rotary Axis.
We’ve communicated with our shipping companies who have assured us that our items, due to the timing of the arrivals, are in the railyards awaiting to be sent by train. Thankfully, this puts as one of the first shipments to start moving once the strike ends, but we do not know how long the strike will last.
Based on our research and communication with shipping companies, there is a lot of pressure to resolve the strike, as it is estimated by Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters that the strike is disturbing $500M in trade per day, and creates the potential to damage trade relations with overseas companies.
We are optimistic that the strike will clear soon, and since we are currently in a slower period for shipping, that the impact will be limited. However, we would advise customers to expect a 2-3 week delay for new LongMill orders which require the LongBoard. In the meantime, we are working on alternative methods to get more control boards to continue shipping and production, and we will be pre-packing orders in advance as we wait for the boards to arrive.
The Vortex Rotary Axis is now being assembled and prepared with the parts that we currently have on hand and preparing everything in advance before our last few parts arrive. We continue to keep our set expected shipping date for late-July or early-August.
We will put another post out once this situation resolves and we are closely monitoring the situation. We will reach out to any customers with orders affected by the strike directly.
