We see the SIGNS! Thank you to everyone who participated in the contest for this week, where we asked you to post your sign projects.
Last Week’s Winners
We are happy to announce that Larry Puffer, Bert Holmes, David Sander, Geert Vaelen, Justin Bouchard, and Mike Henson are the winners of the “A Project That is a Sign” contest! A prize is on its way!
This Week’s Theme: A Project You Sold
This week’s theme is “a project you sold”! Post any project someone gave you money for, whether it be a custom sign, gift, or any other item made with the LongMill, and we’ll choose our favorites to send our makers cool stuff. Bonus points if you give us a business tip to share with our community.
We have not seen a decrease in these hold-ups, and we are still working on some solutions for this. At this time, we’re working on:
Looking at a new shipping software that can improve the quality of documentation to reduce hold-ups
Talking with the Canadian Trade Commissioners and US Border for additional help and information
Working on consolidating shipments and working on the classifications for our products
Looking at alternative distribution methods and production methods
We have also been establishing a US entity, which means that very soon we will have a US corporate presence (and a lot more paperwork to fill out).
Because some of the bits and parts are being made in China and are on invoices, certain items are now being charged an additional 25% duty due to the Trade War (China Section 301-Tariff Actions and Exclusion Process) which was established several years ago but lax on enforcement. However starting this year, we are now being charged extra for duties and taxes.
At this time, we continue to cover the costs of duties and taxes for US customers. We hope to find a way to mitigate some of these duties and taxes soon.
Sales for machines have been extremely high at the start of this year, with an 84% growth in revenue from last year this time. The LongMill MK2 has now been in production and shipping for 1 year! We are expecting that before the end of this year, the LongMill MK2 will surpass our population of LongMill MK1s which was released in March 2019 and was in production for about 3 years.
Our sales at the end of 2022 and going into 2023 have been far higher than expected, and because of this, we are continuing to struggle with keeping up with the pace of orders. Although we are expected to ship our pending orders within 5 weeks, we will keep our lead times of 5-6 weeks as we are still waiting to restock some items used in our 48×30 machines. Some items we’re likely looking to run out of first include:
NEMA 23 motor cables and inductive sensor cables
T12 delrin nuts and T12 ACME locking nuts
These items are currently on order, and are expected to finish production in the next 3 weeks.
Last month we brought on three new packing and assembly staff, and are currently hiring more management team members. This has helped catch up on packing, but we still have around 150 LongMills still in the queue. We are additionally working on bringing in more tooling and equipment for tapping, as we are hitting a new bottleneck in the plate and rail tapping process.
Warehouse shopping
We’ve also been looking at some new places to move into, as our currently 8200 sqft + back shop + outdoor storage is bursting at the seams. At this time, we’re making machines in 1500-unit batches, but for us to keep our sanity, we’ll need to increase our batch sizes. With lead times for specialized items being so long (usually a couple of months to half a year), we need more space to hold more stuff so that we don’t keep running out. Our lease ends in our current building in September, with the option to renew, so we will be making a decision fairly soon.
LaserBeam Production
Our latest batch of aluminum and copper heatsink components have now arrived and are being used in production. We currently have a 4-6 week lead time for lasers, but many may ship out earlier than expected. We are currently assembling and packing lasers at a regular pace.
At this time, we have the parts needed to continue production, but we are expecting our bottleneck to be with our stock of cables and fans. They are currently in transit and are expected to arrive in mid to late March.
If you didn’t hear, we’ve made some tweaks to our heatsink design to improve the assembly. With this new design, it takes us about half the time to put it together while slightly improving the heat dissipation performance!
Just last week we posted a video where Jason covers the ins and outs of our online resources that we’ve continued to put together over the years. I just wanted to highlight this video and talk bit more about why this is so important to us, and you as the user and community.
The resources pages has a single fundamental goal which is to encompass all of the information one may want to or need to know about our products. This includes the LongMill, the LaserBeam, all of our accessories, and gSender software. In essence we wanted to make it so that if a meteor fell on our office and all of the customer support team perished, our users would still have no problems assembling, using, and troubleshooting our products.
Probably the most important reason for these resources to exist is simply to help you, the user, to use the products we create. Many of our products require assembly, instructions, or additional guidelines to use and enjoy. Additionally, CNCing as a hobby in general comes with many things for a new user to learn, such as choosing bits, workholding, dust collection, and more. The resources contain information and guides on ALL OF THOSE THINGS.
Here are some things you can find in the resources pages:
What a spindle is and information on setting one up with the LongMill
How to set up an IOT relay
Open source design files, gerber files, CAD, and BOMs for many of our products and accessories
Speeds and feeds for our end mills
Demo projects and files
A wizard to help you choose which software to use with the LongMill
You can even search topics by keyword!
I’m not kidding when I say the resources just about covers everything you need to know, and will want to know. One of the main strategies in our resource development is to continually cross reference our resources from the questions that our community asks to make sure that we cover all of our bases.
This includes basic topics, as well as just about any type of troubleshooting that one can do for the LongMill and all of our other products. Although I don’t answer technical tickets and questions that often anymore (we have the rest of the engineers and our customer support team to help out with that now, thank goodness), I read every single ticket that comes in. I do this because:
It keeps me in the loop for any issues that may be production or quality related, such as a faulty part
Let me tell you, the CNC Issues and Fixes page actually covers more than 99% of the problems that LongMill users send in technical tickets for. Additionally, I’ve also included a link to an article I recently wrote that talks about common misconceptions about machine issues and some troubleshooting tips. Frankly, if people listened to what we had to say about troubleshooting their machines versus strangers, albeit very helpful and well meaning strangers, on the internet, it would save a lot of time for users to diagnose their machines. I am almost certain that if people looked at this Issues and Fixes page and actually went through to check the recommended solutions, we would have nearly zero troubleshooting tickets.
In fact, when training new customer support staff, we typically just get them to read over our resources so they get familiar with everything, and then use that as a starting point for helping customers.
So it turns out, the truly challenging part of making the resources isn’t putting together the information itself, but actually getting people to read it! And that is one of the reasons why Jason put out a video to help promote the resources site.
How our resources fits into our business model
One really important thing to know is that CNC support is a huge part of what people pay for when they buy any CNC machine. The technical support, troubleshooting calls, and customer service alone can account for 20% or more of the actual cost of the purchase price. In essence, anytime you ask for help, it’s coming out of your own pocket!
So you can see that reducing the human interaction time and cost means being able to pass those savings along to you. That’s why I strongly recommend that people check out our resources, since it saves the company money and saves you time. In this way, we can keep making affordable hardware while making sure we take care of our users.
As our company grows and scales, the customer service burden will continue to grow and may potentially be a bottleneck in our development. Additionally, while we currently have a very strong reputation for amazing customer service, it becomes more and more difficult to hold the same level of standard as a company grows larger. This is why investing in our online, self help resources, as well as making sure everyone is using it is so important for the long term.
It’s been challenging understanding the psyche of our users and how they use and navigate our resources, and I think there is still a long ways to go until we get to the point where everyone’s adopted using it. We’re exploring a couple different things, such as turning more of the resources into video content or creating an e-book, and hopefully a combination of these things will continue to improve engagement with our vast and growing resources.
Alas, thank you for reading this article, and happy making!
It’s TIME! Thanks to the makers who entered this week’s contest where we asked you to share your best clock projects that were made on your LongMill.
Last Week’s Winners
We are happy to announce that Darcy Stelte, Bruce Oswald, Dionne Baker, Bud Gracey, Chas Eveson, and Dan Holdgreve are the winners of the “A Project That is a Clock” contest! Lookout for a prize!
This Week’s Theme: A Project That is a Sign
The theme of the week is “projects that are signs”. Post your most creative sign projects that were made using your LongMill and share them with us for a chance to be one of the winners of this week’s contest and win free prizes!
Hey everyone. This is an update on how things are looking for the customs situation for certain LongMill orders coming into the US. Over the last few weeks, some LongMill shipments going to the US have been held at the border requiring customer SSN or TIN numbers to clear.
If you are in the US with a LongMill on the way, please read this post carefully.
This post is to inform everyone about the situation, what to expect, what to do, and what we’re working on to fix the process.
What is going on?
Due to changes in the shipping and customs processes implemented by the US Customs and Border Protection Services earlier this year, some shipments for the LongMill are getting held up at the border.
Why are shipments getting held up?
There are currently two main reasons why shipments are getting held up.
First is the high-value nature of some of the shipments containing LongMills. This article (https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Article-314?language=en_US) contains information about the clearance of shipments. While we continue to cover the cost of duties and taxes directly, customers still need to provide this information.
Second is the implementation of Section 301 Articles of China. While most of our products are made in Canada, some items are made in China. There is currently a trade war between China and the US, which means that the US will identify and apply duties to Chinese-origin items separately. This means that these parts are more likely to get flagged as well. We automatically provide the correct data for customs services, but sometimes this can require additional processing to complete.
Alternatively, you can send us an email or contact us with your details directly and we will forward them to the right place.
If you see that your item is in the warehouse, please contact us ASAP.
If we don’t receive a response within 10 days, we may need to re-ship your items.
What else are we doing to address this?
There are currently several things we are doing to reduce the friction in sending orders to the US. Some of these we are implementing right away, while some things are longer-term plans that may take several weeks or months. These include:
Updating our customs form to provide more information and mitigate the chances that the order will be held up at the border.
Proactively contacting customers and placing notices for people to follow to get additional information
Creating a US entity/corporation to help assist with the transfer of goods between the US and Canada
Establishing a system for communication between us and customs clearance to provide the information more quickly.
With over 60 shipments currently affected, we are working on this as quickly as possible. However, in the meantime, it is likely we will need the co-operation of our customers to help work with customs to get everyone’s orders to them!
Wow, what lovely projects! Thank you to all who participated in our “A Project That is Valentine’s Themed” contest where we asked creators to post their loveliest projects.
Last Week’s Winners
We are happy to announce that Homestead Acres, Corey Daup, Carlos J. Soto, Ron Rowland, Josh Epps, and Vance McGrath are the winners of the “A Project That is Valentine’s Themed” contest! Watch out for a prize!
P.S. We will be closed Monday, February 20th for Family Day and back in the office on Tuesday, February 21st.
This Week’s Theme: A Project That is a Clock
This week’s theme is “projects that are clocks”. Post your most creative clock projects that were made using your LongMill and share them with us for a chance to be one of the winners of this week’s contest and win free prizes!
So many awesome tray projects! Thank you to those who entered our “A Project That is a Tray” contest where we asked people to share their best tray projects.
Last Week’s Winners
We are happy to announce that Laurie Woodward Iarossi, Glenn Boniface, Kirk Stiffler, Kristopher Teske, Randy Worley, and Steve Barnett are the winners of the “A Project That is a Tray” contest! A prize is on its way!
This Week’s Theme: A Project That is Valentine’s Themed
Happy Valentine’s week, everyone! Celebrate Valentine’s with us by sharing all of your Valentine’s themed projects made on your LongMill, and we’ll choose the best ones to send makers prizes to!
It’s weekly-themed contest time! Thanks to everyone who participated in our “A Project That is a Cribbage Board” contest where we asked people to share their cribbage board projects.
Last Week’s Winners
We are happy to announce that Troy Ferguson, Brad Skjersven, Jason Harbor, Kevin Kasner, James Styler, and Jason Norris are the winners of the “A Project That is a Cribbage Board” contest! Watch out for a prize!
This Week’s Theme: A Project That is a Tray
The theme of the week is “projects that are trays”. Post your awesome tray projects that were made using your LongMill and share them with us for a chance to be one of the winners of this week’s contest and win free prizes!
We’ve recently experienced some of our customers having their machine orders held up at US customs. For some orders above the value of $2500USD, UPS is requesting customer tax information for clearance. We are working on eliminating this process, but either UPS or Sienci Labs may reach out to you for the extra info. Some changes to our customs documentation implemented in the last few days should mostly eliminate this issue, and we are working on automating a system to let customers that fall under this specific set of rules (US customers with high-value shipments) about the situation proactively. Currently, this has affected about 10-12 customers in the past few weeks, which is a small percentage of the overall number of issues, but we just want to let everyone know just in case this happens to you.
Please note that this DOES NOT mean you will need to pay duties and taxes, but it does mean that we may be charged warehousing fees if the item sits in storage for too long.
LongMill and Extension Kit Orders
We have raised lead times for LongMill orders as we currently have a large queue. We are consistently shipping out machines on a daily basis, but due to a big increase in sales this month, we are currently at full capacity. By next week, we will have another three new hires to assist with packing and assembly, which should bring down our lead times. Additionally, we are currently working on acquiring additional production space to relocate our rail processing and create additional inventory storage space.
We are also actively working on Batch 8 supply chain. Based on current sales numbers, we expect to start Batch 8 in around May or June. This is quite a lot sooner that expected. Although many of the key components for the LongMill have been ordered, due to the long lead times we face for some of the parts, we expect that there will be longer lead times closer to the transition point in Batch 8.
LaserBeam
Due to a shortage of some components, we have raised lead times for the LaserBeam. However, most customers may have gotten theirs a lot earlier. As our typical fashion, we want to provide conservative lead times. We have partially restocked all of the parts, which means that we are currently working through the assembly for the remaining orders in the queue, and expect to wrap up pending orders by end of next week. For new orders placed now, we’re telling customers that they may need to wait up to 6 weeks potentially, but it’s likely most will ship sooner.
We’ve made some design changes on the heatsink and wiring that we’ve started implementing, which will reduce assembly times so that we can produce these items faster.
Additional parts for the LaserBeam are expected to arrive around the start of March, at which point, we can pre-assemble and keep inventory on hand for Lasers.
The engineering team has continued to work on the rotary axis kit. Here are a couple of updates.
We received a sample rotary axis a couple of weeks ago which we have been using for testing. Due to some imperfections, we have been reconsidering our strategy for the production of the rotary axis. Initially, we were planning on using off-the-shelf components for the whole kit, doing QA testing, and shipping to customers, but as we have continued to do testing and research, we have started to reconsider and look at custom designing and making some or all of the rotary axis from scratch.
There are a few areas that must be improved to reach large-scale production, especially in the quality and tolerances of the components that off-the-shelf rotary kits have shown to be inconsistent. First is the edges of the bottom of the rotary axis, which need to be accurate to allow it to mount and align with the track accurately. Second is the motor mounting plate, which needs to line up with the rotary pulley. And lastly, the overall fit and finish need to be consistent and of good quality. We found that from the sample, these were notable areas that needed improvement.
When we started manufacturing LongMills, we used many off-the-shelf components as they were the most affordable at a small scale. However, as time has gone on, basically all LongMill components are toleranced and custom-made to our specific requirements, even if they are otherwise exactly the same as an off-the-shelf alternative. At scale, quality issues compound, and making custom, higher-quality parts helps mitigate issues and ensure fewer issues with assembly and use.
I share the same sentiment with the development and production of the rotary axis. For it to be a viable product, we need to produce hundreds (and eventually thousands) of kits. To accomplish this, we need to take control of the whole production process.
At this stage, we are currently deciding how we want to progress with the production of the rotary axis. We are doing a cost-benefit analysis and working on design ideas. As far as where we are with things now, for us to bring up quality, we also need to bring up the price. Based on our survey results, it seems like interested customers are able to accommodate some increase in price, given that we can provide more value for their rotary axis. It seems like increasing the price and budget of the project will overall provide more value, as we can dedicate more to the software, hardware, and resources for the rotary axis.
The software team is also currently working on the implementation of 4th-axis support in gSender. Some things in consideration include:
Visualization of rotary axis code
Switching between both modes
Homing and zeroing of the rotary axis
Firmware and control board changes
The engineering team has currently made tons of progress overall with regard to documentation and processes that will eventually be used with whichever rotary axis we will provide.
At this stage, we do not have exact dates on when the rotary axis will be launched, but we expect the earliest time for it to ship to be in late summer. If you’re interested in the project, I encourage you to stay in the loop on our blog and social media.
Hey everyone, over the past few weeks our engineers have been busy putting together feeds and speeds for the more rigid LongMill MK2, and Johann (one of the engineers) has decided to run the ultimate stress test by cutting a Versace Medallion in 6061 aluminum. The project features some big roughing cuts as well as precise finishing moves using four different cutting tools and we’d like to share the stunning results with you.
We used Fusion360 to generate the toolpath for this carve and the machining time was approximately 30 hours.
Click the links below to check out our new feeds and speeds page and see more information on the tools used.
Turn on REST machining and use climb milling when generating any of the following toolpaths.
Perform roughing with the first 3 tools using our suggested feeds and speeds. Leaving ~0.3mm of stock on all sides of the model. Use slotting step-down values for all 3 tools and values in the engraving section for the ⅛” ball end mill.
Optionally, run an additional parallel toolpath using the ⅛” ball end mill after you have completed roughing with the tool, again leaving ~0.3mm of stock on all sides (this will save you heaps of time running the ⅛” tapered bit).
Switch to the ⅛” tapered bit and run a roughing pass LEAVING ZERO STOCK. Feeds and speeds for cutting aluminum with a tapered bit is experimental so it’s only listed here at this time. 17000RPM | 1000mm/min Feedrate | 320mm/min Plunge Feedrate | 0.1mm Stepover | 0.12mm Stepdown
Shift your machine zero downwards by 0.12mm and run the finishing pass. You will need to lower your stepover to 0.02mm and exclusively use climb milling to obtain a good surface finish.
