May 3 – May 10, 2024 “Multiple Bits Projects” Contest

Hey all! Thank you for sharing your cool LaserBeam projects with us.

Last Week’s Winners

We are happy to announce that Don Rideout, Dave Parkerson, Créations Namily, Paul Mathers, Bruce MacDonald, and Jeff Richardson are the LaserBeam projects contest winners. A prize is on its way! 

This Week’s Theme: Multiple Bits Projects

Share your LongMill projects utilizing multiple bits (at least 2 or more) for this week’s theme. We’ll select our favorite projects and send prizes to the creators!

Have ideas for themes? Let us know by commenting below!

Happy building!

May 2024 Production Updates

Hey guys, things continue to chug along at Sienci Labs.

Testing the fit of the aluminum guitar made on the AltMill

Growing the team

We’re looking to expand the team! If you’re interested in working for us, please check out our blog post here.

There are now some specific job postings available on Indeed.

LongMill MK2

Production for LongMills continues to move along.

Spring-loaded anti-backlash nuts continue to be a hot-selling item, with now over 560 sets of the T8 and 200 of the T12 sold. We have received another 1300 nuts (325 sets) with another few thousand in production. We expect to clear the backlog in the next week or so as we do assembly and testing.

We have gotten reports that the nuts work well, however, users should ensure that the M5 screws that hold the nuts to the gantry are not overtightened to prevent the nut from deforming and causing jamming issues. Hand tightening to ensure that the locking washers are is flush enough to keep them in place.

We are continuing to work our way through the materials from Batch 8 and are waiting on Batch 9 parts to arrive. There may be a chance that we will run out of stepper motors for the LongMill a few weeks before the new ones arrive, and so the lead time for the LongMill has been adjusted to reflect a potential slowdown.

We have discovered a small issue with the fit of the injection molded feet for the Y axis rails, and so we are not swapping over from 3D printed feet just yet. Our production and QA team are looking to fixing this problem so that we can implement them into the future batch. For now we have made a system/jig to grind them down to size. I should note that this part does not offer any performance advantages, they are just for ease of manufacturing, and so users should not be concerned about which version they have received.

LaserBeam and Vortex

LaserBeams and Vortex continue to ship out as usual, most are shipping out within a few days.

Now with the SuperLongBoard out in the world, we are working on supporting full 4-axis functionality. This means that the Vortex can be used without the switch and move around simultaneously with the Y-axis. Keep an eye out for more news in the coming months. The Vortex can still be used with the switch to change between rotary and regular milling mode with the SLB.

AltMill

We continue to hammer out things with the AltMill. We are now in production for the first 50 machines. Here’s what’s going on:

  • The first test boards for SLB-EXT have arrived and are going through assembly and testing. We are expecting the remainder to arrive first week of May. Once testing is complete, we will build another approximately 200 units
  • The first 50 power supplies have arrived and are undergoing testing. We are expecting another 50 to arrive in about a month.
  • The first 50 gantries and extrusions are completed and going through QA and assembly. Another 150-200 sets are finishing production this month and are expected to arrive in June.
  • Fasteners have arrived and are being used for assemble of some of the major assemblies
  • Parts for the spindle and VFD are in production now and are expected to arrive in the end of May.
  • We have been working on some closed-loop stepper testing for longer-term use.
  • We have the bristles for the dust shoes in production and are finalizing the 3D printing design.

At the current rate, we have parts being made as quickly as possible, but there may be some stragglers that we may end up waiting on close to the end of the month that will determine the exact timing of the shipment.

These parts will probably be with the:

  • Closed loop stepper motor cables
  • Spindle and spindle components
  • The production version of the SLB-EXT

This means that the first 50 AltMill customers should prepare to receive their machines in June, although we are working as hard as possible to start shipping in May.

In the meantime, we are prepping everything as we receive parts so that we can ship everything as quickly as we can once we do get everything.

Additionally, the team is hard at work in developing the resources and assembly guide for the AltMill. We don’t expect to have an assembly video this month, but are planning to make it soon as we get through the first batch of machines.

SLB EXT

Prototype dust shoe

Fasteners with pre-applied thread locker
AltMill power supply

We needed to have something to test the AltMill with, so Mike made this guitar out of aluminum.

Aluminum guitar made on the AltMill

SuperLongBoard

We’re excited to announce that the first batch of SLBs have now shipped and we have just over 475 controllers in the wild. You can now find all of the setup instructions at www.sienci.com/slb

We are now in production for another 1500 controllers, with more to start shipping in the end of May/June 2024.

Based on Chris’ updates in our production meetings, while there are a few bugs to iron out, the launch of the new SLB has gone fairly smoothly. We expect to make some small tweaks to the fit and finish of the controllers and periphery materials soon to improve the assembly of the boards.

Sienci Router

As we discussed in the last update, one of the main things we needed to iron out was the reaction time of the driver of the speed control. Basically, when the router would go under load, it would slow down and speed up again, but the time for it to happen was slower than what we wanted.

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We figured the only way to solve this was to send a working prototype to the motor manufacturer in China to do the testing and tuning directly. We are happy to share that the tuning as far as we can tell has greatly improved. At this stage, we still need to do our own testing in house to make sure everything functions properly, but this seems to be a promising step forward.

This also does bring us to something of an impasse, as we believe that we are reaching the limit of the speed response we can get from a sensorless motor (which is what we are using here). Any further tuning improvements may not be able to be implemented without a sensored motor.

Doing this was no small feat, as we needed to create testing processes and a makeshift dyno in-house thanks to help from the students. This dyno can help measure the power output and speed of different motors.

Some of the main things on our list to figure out now is the complete mechanical design, cooling, and safety certification. We are currently starting production on a small batch of prototype parts to build some working test setups.

Johann with a 3D printed test prototype

CO2 Laser Development Update Log 1

We’re thrilled to share an update on the progress of our CO2 laser project – introducing the UltraBeam! After nearly a year of development in CO2 laser technology, we’re eager to share what we have accomplished and what we’re currently working on.

Understanding CO2 Laser Technology

The UltraBeam combines CO2 laser technology with a CNC platform, offering precision and versatility. Like a CNC router, it uses computer control, but instead of traditional tools, it employs a CO2 laser beam for cutting and engraving materials with exceptional accuracy. This integration enhances its capabilities, making it a powerful tool for various applications.

UltraBeam Specifications: Redefining Speed, Precision, and Power

At the core of the UltraBeam lies its potent CO2 laser, boasting an impressive optical power of 75W. Surpassing typical diode lasers, this power ensures swift operations, with a maximum speed of 600mm per second. Coupled with its spacious work area of 24 inches by 36 inches, the UltraBeam accelerates project completion and broadens the scope of potential applications.

Imagine the UltraBeam moving at ten times the speed of your average CNC router. This feat is achieved through meticulous optimization of its mechanics, resulting in remarkable agility and accuracy. Experience consistently smooth and precise outcomes with every use, setting new standards in speed and precision.

V1 Prototype

Achieving Consistency Through Rigorous Testing

Before the UltraBeam arrives at your workshop, we’ve undertaken a series of meticulous testing procedures to ensure unparalleled performance and reliability:

Focus Consistency: Meticulous checks to ensure the laser maintains uniform focus across the entire working bed, guaranteeing consistent results regardless of project size or complexity.

Mirror Alignment: Precise alignment of mirrors is crucial for accurate laser targeting. We rigorously test and fine-tune this process to ensure optimal performance.

System Reliability: Stress tests under various operating conditions are conducted to ensure the UltraBeam operates reliably and consistently over time, meeting the demands of your projects.

Regulatory Compliance: Adherence to regulatory standards set by bodies like FCC, FDA, and the European Union is paramount. Rest assured, the UltraBeam will meet all safety and quality standards.

Pre-Production Design Changes

In the pre-production phase, we’re considering several key design changes. One significant decision revolves around the choice between a moving glass tube and a fixed glass tube for our laser system. We’re leaning towards the moving glass tube option due to its potential to facilitate easier laser focusing for end-users.

Y-Axis Speed Considerations

In the context of CO2 lasers, high speed in the Y-axis is optional, as raster engraving heavily utilizes only one axis. The X-axis, being lightweight, is already well-suited for this purpose.

Shipping Priorities

When evaluating the shipping implications of both glass tube options, our primary concern is to prevent any damage to the glass tubes during transit. This consideration takes precedence above all others.

Beam System Enclosure

We’re exploring the possibility of enclosing the beam system. This not only enhances safety but also has the potential to improve cutting performance by minimizing airborne particulates that could interfere with the beam path.

Selection of Linear Bearings

Selecting appropriate linear bearings is another crucial aspect of our design process. These bearings are vital in ensuring smooth and precise movement within the system.

Design for Pre-Assembly and Packaging

One of our main focuses is on designing for pre-assembly and packaging efficiency. However, fitting all components into a single box poses a significant challenge. We may need to ship certain components in separate boxes to accommodate the system’s complexity.

Maintaining Alignment During Transit

A key concern is ensuring that the alignment of mechanics and the mirror/beam system remains intact during transit and handling. This will require careful consideration and possibly additional protective measures to safeguard against any potential misalignment issues.

What’s on the Horizon?

Our goal is to make high-quality laser technology accessible to all users at an affordable price point. We’re diligently addressing design refinements based on received feedback and conducting more testing. We aim to commence pre-orders by the end of summer, with pricing anticipated to range from USD 2,000 to USD 2,500.

Join Us on the UltraBeam Journey

Stay tuned for our next update on the ongoing evolution of the UltraBeam prototype and any progress made toward a more pre-production-ready unit! We’d love for you to join us on this exciting R&D journey, and we’re eager to hear your thoughts. Please take a moment to share your insights through our quick survey. If you’re interested in staying up to date with the UltraBeam development process, feel free to sign up for our email newsletter. For more information on the UltraBeam, click the button below.

April 26 – May 3, 2024 “LaserBeam Projects” Contest

Happy Friday! Thanks for sharing the amazing LongMill projects you’ve gifted.


Last Week’s Winners

We are happy to announce that Danio Morgan, John Heitzman, Thomas Lowe, Micheal Ergang, Ryan Konkin, and Terry Tarchala are the gifted projects contest winners. Watch out for a prize!


This Week’s Theme: LaserBeam Projects

This week’s contest theme: LaserBeam projects. Share your best ones for a chance to win awesome prizes!

Have ideas for themes? Let us know by commenting below!

Happy creating!

April 19 – April 26, 2024 “Gifted Projects” Contest

Hi everyone! Thank you for posting your amazing furniture projects made on the LongMill.


Last Week’s Winners

We are happy to announce that Chas Eveson, Bill Iverson, Marcus Pedroza, Brewsquito Craft Workshop, Mike Rickard, and Walter Heck are the furniture projects contest winners. Watch out for a prize!


The Theme of the Week: Gifted Projects

Share a project you’ve gifted! Whether it’s a custom sign, a unique gift, or anything crafted with the LongMill, post it here. We’ll pick our favorites and reward our makers with cool stuff.

Have ideas for themes? Let us know by commenting below!

Happy crafting!

April 12 – April 19, 2024 “Furniture Projects” Contest

Happy Friday! Thanks for sharing your awesome around the world projects made on the LongMill.


Last Week’s Winners

We are happy to announce that Dale Hache, Mark Lesinski, Craig Hashey, Christopher Armstrong, Sheldon Isaiah, and HBD are the around the world projects contest winners. A prize is on its way!


This Week’s Theme: Furniture Projects

This week’s theme: “Furniture Projects.” Show us your tables, chairs, cabinets, desks, beds, and more created with the LongMill for a chance to win prizes!

Have ideas for themes? Let us know by commenting below!

Happy making!

Time to grow the team at Sienci Labs

As we talked about in the blog post “Everything You Need to Know About the AltMill”, the launch of this new machine represents a pretty big shift in our company, what we do, and what we can do in the future. The AltMill now brings in a significant amount of revenue, which allows us to expand our capabilities and development as a company. Additionally, we can amplify the value of work we do with economies of scale and be able to share development and knowledge between the LongMill and AltMill.

We have some preconceptions in what we need and priorities in our hiring, but we also know that we have the opportunity to grow our team in a meaningful way and expand our collective expertise beyond what we’re familiar with. This is why I made a “general form” where folks who are interested in working with us at Sienci Labs can share a bit about them and we can see if there’s a potential fit.

To provide some transparency and information, here’s some stuff you should know:

Company focus

With both Chris and I being technical founders(we met while studying mechanical engineering in university), we both have a passion for engineering and technology. It brings us the most amount of joy and fun, and we are thankful to have a business that can support those passions. This sort of bring us to the general goal for both of us, which is

  1. Have a team of people who we can work with build really cool things
  2. Have a team of people who can take care of the stuff that doesn’t involve building really cool things so that we can focus our energy towards building cool things

We are a very technical team, with roughly half of us working in some form of development, production, or R&D.

Working environment

I think most people would consider the working environment at Sienci Labs to be “pretty chill”. Here are some things about our workplace:

  • We don’t have any specific working hours
  • Most employees are working some form of hybrid or remote
  • People bring their dogs and kids to the office

That being said, it should be pointed out that with some of the roles, especially with engineering and production, we do need people to come into the office since we do a lot of hands-on things at the office.

Who we’re probably going to hire first

Here are the primary roles we are planning to focus on hiring for:

  • Engineer with experience in mechanical and/or electrical engineering
  • Customer service and resource development for the AltMill
  • Web development with a focus on e-commerce
  • Engineer with experience in production, QA, and manufacturing

You will probably see some of these roles come up down the line on some job boards eventually.

That being said, we want to have a general form so that if you think we should be looking for people outside of these roles, we want to know! So feel free to share your info with us.

April 5 – April 12, 2024 “Around the World Projects” Contest

Hi everyone! Thanks for posting the beautifully painted projects you’ve created on the LongMill.

Last Week’s Winners

We are happy to announce that Graham Coulter, Keith Marx, Kenny Swett, Thomas Andrew, Richard Bertrand, and Louis Van Pelt are the painted projects contest winners. Watch out for a prize!


This Week’s Theme: Around the Word Projects

Join us in exploring the globe! Share your LongMill projects inspired by the world for a chance to win prizes in this week’s contest. From landmarks to culturally inspired projects, show us what embodies different parts of the world!

Have ideas for themes? Let us know by commenting below!

Happy building!

April 2023 Production Updates

April fools

LongMill MK2

LongMills continue to ship out as usual. We received another batch of controllers after being out for another few days.

Batch 9 production continues and we continue to focus on getting some of the new things such as:

  • Spring-loaded anti-backlash nut
  • Injection molded feet
  • SuperLongboard

This also includes existing changes and improvements that already exist on the LongMills that are currently shipping.

  • Motor to leadscrew couplers using M5 hardware
  • New ACME locking nuts

To reflect the changes to the LongMill MK2, we will be calling this update the LongMill MK2.5.

We are expecting Batch 9 to start in June. At this point, we will increase pricing for the LongMill MK2 to the MK2.5 to reflect the addition of primarily the SuperLongBoard and other additions. Pricing for this new version is to increase by $150CAD/$110USD approximately.

LaserBeam and Vortex

LaserBeam and Vortex orders are shipping out as usual within a few days.

Ikenna and Abeku have been working on a magnetic mounting system for the LaserBeam to allow for faster and easier mounting and dismounting of the laser, and folks should expect more information to come out soon near the end of April. They also let me know that while the mount is suitable for the LongMill, they are continuing to work to improve the stability of the mount to work with AltMill and higher speeds.

The magnetic mounting system should work on all mounts either on the right or left side, or just on the front, depending on the version. More info to come soon.

Prototype magnetic mount

AltMill

The AltMill can now be ordered on the AltMill product page.

Check out the Launch live stream below:

A couple of things going on with production:

  • Due a random failure with one of the closed-loop steppers used in testing, we have started testing motors from 4 different companies to nail down the highest quality motor for the AltMill and ensure that we can understand the reasons for the motor to stop working.
  • The gantries for the AltMill are done and have gone through an anodization process to make them black. This should improve the aesthetics of the machine and make it look more polished
  • We are testing and manufacturing the dust covers for the linear guides on the Y-axis. Based on our testing results, this may become a standard included part of the AltMill
  • We are working on testing a 4KW spindle to push the limits of the AltMill
  • Testing on the relay and power distribution control board are being tested now. This control board allows us to distribute power from the power supply to the motors and kill power in an emergency setting, improving the machine’s safety

Additional parts for the first 50 AltMills are expected to arrive mid-April and we will start assembly as soon as they arrive.

Test fit of new gantries

Sienci Router

The Sienci Router project continues to move along. We have now received two controller boards, but have not been satisfied by the level of speed response we’ve gotten. For a bit of context, traditional motors will slow down when under load. In the case for CNC milling, we don’t want our router or spindle speed to go down, as it increases the chipload. If an end mill rotates at a set speed, each rotation takes a certain amount of cut per pass. If the end mill rotates slower, then each cut has to remove a large amount of material, which can overload the bit and cause a crash.

With the first two boards, because the motor slows down too much under load, it would not be optimal for CNC. We believe that there were some communication issues and misunderstandings with the motor manufacturer for this requirement, and so after a lot of back and forth and some group testing on a video call, we were able to sort everything out and are expecting to test the third version soon.

What is exciting is that the manufacturer has been able to get a response time of around 40ms, which is faster than the original Makita RT0701 and its brushless motor counterpart. Although in practice, this probably won’t make too much of a difference since users are not likely to load their motors to the extent we had in testing, this in theory means that the cutting speeds and loads will stay more consistent.

There are still some details to iron out for the motor, however, primarily in the additional tuning of the motor.

We’ve started doing some testing of loading the motor a certain amount and releasing the load quickly. You can see there is an initial amount of time where the motor slows down at first, and then when the load is released, it speeds up for a moment before returning to its original speed. The main reason we suspect this is happening is because the tuning of the motor was originally done using a motor without the larger shaft holding the collet. Because the final assembly of the router has more inertia, the tuning of the motor is not correct.

To fix this issue, we’ve sent one of our prototypes to the manufacturer to do additional tuning to reduce this variation.

We believe that there may be some limitations in the technology on how quickly the motor can react to changes in load, and so we are exploring other methods such as using an encoder or speed sensor in line with the motor. However, we do believe that with proper tuning, the motor will be able to perform within the scope of this project.

In the meantime, our co-op students are building a bit of a makeshift dyno to test the routers and spindles.

Dyno project
RPM logging

SuperLongBoard

Check out the completed SLB box, which will be the ones reaching the first 475 users soon! We have received our first batch of SLBs and are prepping them for shipping.

Due to some delays on the die for the box and the e-stop PCBs, there may be a few days we are waiting next week, but we are working on shipping the first 100 SLB before the end of the week if possible.

Testing jig for SLB

CO2 Laser

I’m excited to have witnessed the first firing and testing of the CO2 Laser currently in development. Ikenna will be making an update post soon so keep an eye out for that!

First burn tests and focusing on the UltraBeam

March 29 – April 5, 2024 “Painted Projects” Contest

It’s Friday at last! Thanks for sharing the incredible decorative projects you’ve crafted using the LongMill.


Last Week’s Winners

We are happy to announce that Chuck Lalonde, David Cummins, Steph McGraw, Eric MacConnell, John Teskey, and Walter Heck are the decorative projects contest winners. A prize is on its way!


P.S. We will be closed on Friday, March 29th for Good Friday and back in the office on Monday, April 1st.


This Week’s Theme: Painted Projects

This week’s theme: “Painted Projects”! Share your painted LongMill creations for a chance to win cool prizes.

Have ideas for themes? Let us know by commenting below!

Happy creating!