Category: Production Updates

We know that there are lots of folks eagerly waiting for their LongMills. Here’s an update on the production for the LongMills.

As far as components go, all parts for the LongMill are currently in the shop being packed now with the exception of two of the components because we are waiting for them to be delivered.

• Control boxes
• Control boards

We currently have a partial batch and waiting for the balance to be delivered for

• TB6600 drivers
• Power supplies

There has been a ton of changes we have made to our production to improve the quality and speed of our packaging and assembly, as well as to reduce the chance of errors. We are also working to ensure that we can ship machines as quickly as possible once our inventory is fully stocked again.

Control boards and boxes

We’ll start by talking about the current bottleneck in our production which is with the control boards and the control boxes.

The control boards are currently delayed by two weeks. We are currently having them assembled in China, and due to the coronavirus, factory workers did not start work again until the 17th. I have been told that the boards are expected to complete production and ship next week. All of the PCBs have been made, but we are waiting on the assembly to finish.

In the meantime, we have tested and checked the first batch of drivers to be installed into the control boards so that they are ready to go as soon as the boards arrive.

Control boxes are also in the process of being made. We have made significant changes to the design to 1) decrease assembly time 2) improve durability 3) add mounting holes for mounting to your table. The first 200 sets of parts for the control boxes were completed yesterday and have been delivered to be powder coated. We currently have the first 150 acrylic top panels completed as well, with the remaining expected to be finished at the start of March.

From batch 1, our biggest bottleneck in production has been in the assembly of the control boxes. With the new design, assembly is significantly faster and easier, reducing the bottleneck.

I am expecting this to increase our overall speed in which we can ship machines and get machines into our users sooner.

Aluminum rails, drag chains, and lead screws

Here’s Dylan diligently putting together rails into sets. We are now packing all rails, drag chains, and lead screws into one package to simplify our packaging and process.

This was one of the most time consuming and physically demanding parts of our packing process from the last batch, but we have been able to greatly speed up the packing by using a custom made stand that eliminates the need for two people to wrap the rails together.

Gantries and sheet metal parts

We have received all the gantries and other sheet metal parts ahead of schedule, and have started the packing and assembly for these parts.

Currently, we have all 400+ Y-axis gantries packed and on the shelf ready to go, and many of the Z-axis motor mounts packed as well.

Here’s Esteban putting together the gantries for the X and Z axis. We do this process in house as it can be tricky to get the proper alignment in the linear guides, as well as due to the chance of losing the ball bearings if the linear guide block comes off the rail. Esteban and Jeemin, two students working at Sienci Labs this term, designed and assembled a new jig design (amongst many others being used in production currently) to help align and assemble these gantries.

With the new jig and the threaded holes in the linear guides that were not on the previous version, we have been able to reduce assembly time significantly as well. We currently have around 96 completed assemblies, so just over 300 more to go!

3D printed parts

With the new filament material, improved part designs, and upgraded components on our 3D printers, we have dramatically increased the efficiency in 3D printing. Currently, we have 34-35 printers online churning out parts.

One major upgrade was to the extruders on the Ender 3s. We had done so much printing on the machines that the tensioning arm for our printers were completely worn through.

Other changes include using magnetic PEI sheet beds on all Ender 3s that helps us remove parts quickly and easily, as well as continually improving our print slicer settings to increase print strength and quality.

There have also been some small changes to some of the 3D printed parts to improve the fit and finish of the parts as well (seating nuts, sliding rails through, etc.).

To speed up our packing process and improve our organization, we now will pack all of the 3D printed components into one separate box (as shown in the photo).

Power supplies, fasteners, and Z-axis motor mount plates

We’ve packed and put the power supply, fasteners, and z-axis motor mount plates into another box to pre-pack and prepare for shipping.

We also had all of the fasteners pre-packed and labeled with their size at the factory, to speed up packing and make the assembly process easier.

NEMA 23 stepper motors

One of the most time-consuming part of our packing process has been to wrap and pack the NEMA 23 stepper motors. We’ve now pre-packed all of the motors in cartons in foam, along with the wires together to eliminate this step.

They also have our logo laser engraved on them along with whether they are threaded or not threaded as well, also eliminating us needing to label them as well.

Conclusion

Packing and production continues on and we are working towards getting machines out the door as quickly as possible. Based on our current pace and expected delivery time for the remaining components, I expect that we will start shipping machines early to mid-March.

Our current plan is to start shipping machines as soon as the control box and control board parts arrive and start to ramp up our shipping to 50ish units per week. This means that most of the backlog will ship near the tail end of March and folks that placed their orders in the past month may be seeing their machines sooner than the 8-10 week estimate, but please plan for those estimates to stay the same if you have any time-sensitive projects.

We do have a chance of shipping earlier still if the control boards arrive on time. From our experience with our powder coating company, they often can provide the parts sooner than their lead-time estimates, but I will provide estimates assuming that they stick to the lead times I have been told. If there are significant changes to production I will make sure to post them.

Hi everyone! I just wanted to provide a quick production update and let you guys know what we’ve been up to, as well as some things that you might see in your LongMill. Please note, we are working on making small changes that will improve the performance and ease of assembly of the LongMill. The changes mentioned in this post may or may not show up in the final production version.

We’ve been spending a lot of time the past week to get the parts prepared overseas and taking advantage of the economies of scale to make some small modifications to the hardware to improve performance and assembly for the LongMills. Here are some of those things:

Parts printing has started

We’ve been continuously been printing parts for almost two weeks now, fine tuning the settings on the parts and making adjustments if needed. We are starting with printing the middle Y axis rail supports and X axis rail brackets (Chris calls them “shoulders”), since the designs are finalized on those. Other parts that are being finalized for printing include the X axis motors mounts and the Z axis motor mount. We have asked our motor manufacturer to add threaded holes to the mounting face of the motors to make assembly easier, but we need to have the samples come in for us to make sure that everything comes together perfectly. Samples should arrive in the next week, so we should be able to see how that turns out pretty soon.

We are currently running our two Prusa i3 Mk3s about 16 hours a day. We have two Cetus printers that just went through some TLC so we will have those up and running soon. We are planning to grow the farm by an extra 4 to 8 printers once we finish up the calculations on print time and see how many we need to keep pace with orders.

Using an off the shelf aluminum router mount over a 3D printed mount

We’ve found a good option for an aluminum router mount to replace our 3D printed mount. This means that

• We can save on printing time
• Potentially secure routers better and with more rigidity (but we still need to test this)
• Customers and builders can source the mount from multiple sources if needed

The exciting part of using this off the shelf router mount is that it comes in several sizes, making it easier and more secure to attach some of the larger routers and spindles. We will have to do some testing to see what the Z axis performance is like in terms of moving larger spindles (52mm to 80mm), but it is good to know that it is a possibility.

If we find that the performance isn’t as good, we will stick to printing our mounts. Test mounts are on the way and should show up in the next week and a half.

Taller Y axis plates and Y axis dust protection

We’ve gone and adjusted the height of the Y axis to allow for the LongMill’s Y axis to be flipped to the other side. This can help if you:

• Want make the machine more narrow
• Are worried about dust getting into the lead screws
• Fit more stuff underneath the machine and cut thicker items

One downside of flipping the axis is that it is trickier to set up the drag chain along the Y axis. We’ve come up with another way to make a “shield” that works as well to help block dust. JUST A QUICK DISCLOSURE… all of the machines we’ve been testing and using have had no dust protection on the Y axis and have worked fine over all of the testing. We’ve concluded that this is just an optional precaution if you really want it.

The Sienci Mill One V3 comes with both major and minor changes to the Mill One V2 design. A special thanks to our customers, engineers, and community of makers who have helped by contribution ideas and designs that have made its way into this new iteration.

Please note: some of these updates have been iterative and may already be in place in your Mill One V2 machines. Please check your included Changelogs for more information.

Updates:

• New two-part Y axis bed design. The Mill One now comes with a lower gantry plate on the Y axis with mounting points so that users can bolt on the standard size wasteboard (included in the kit) or make their own custom workholding solutions. The wasteboard design has been created to allow users to easily mill them at home out of any 1/2″ or thicker material. The two-part bed system is significantly more rigid.

You can read our post about it here

 

• New XZ gantry design. The addition of notches allows the Mill One to travel further along the X axis, increasing the total working area of the Mill One. ¹

Credits to David Whiddon for the design suggestion.

 

• Additional mounting holes on the Z axis for the router mount. Increases rigidity and allows for more mounting options. ²
• Leadscrew on the Z axis has been shortened slightly, allowing more clearance under the router.

Credits to Tom’s 3D for the suggestion and contribution

 

• Change from 45mm to 48mm tall NEMA 17 motors with longer cables.

(Left: new model with better torque use in V3)  (Right: model used in V2)

• New clip-on type electronics holder, which is less prone to falling off.
  
• Improved ACME nut mount design. Prevents cracking during assembly. ³
• Update from GRBL v1.1e to v1.1g, with faster acceleration and max feedrates. You can read about it here.

 

Community shout-outs:

1. Credits given to David Whiddon, who recommended adding notches to the gantry plate design expanding the Mill One’s work area.
2. Credits for Josh Kubassek and Tom’s 3D for the contribution to adding extra mounting points for the routers to improve rigidity.
3. Credits to Ilya Nikiforov for sharing his unboxing experience and identifying areas for improvement with our ACME nut mount design.

 

 

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!

I (Andy) usually try to blog at least two times a week, but things have been pretty busy since sales for the Mill One have picked up a fair amount over the last two or three weeks, so I haven’t had a chance to blog.

So here’s a bunch of stuff that has happened over the last few weeks (in no particular chronological order).

Wooden iPhone Case Video

I put together another video to showcase a project you can do with the Mill One. I found a 3D model of the iPhone 6 case online, which I modified a bit and cut in half, so I could made the bottom from poplar and the top from oak. The whole milling process took about one and a half hours using a 2mm bit.

The phone case came out really well, and looks pretty stylish. My friend Lily let me borrow her phone to model in this video since I had a thick screen protector on my phone that got in the way, so thank you to her!

Tom’s unboxing update

So we sent Tom Salanderer a Mill One to test out and review. You might have watched the livestream unboxing where he went and put everything together, but had some issues with sending the gcode (he was using incompatible software – not the machine’s fault).

On the next day, the video was set to private. Here’s why:

If you don’t want to watch the whole thing, here’s what happened. The first part of the assembly went fairly smoothly. However near the end, with all the software, Tom got aggravated with all the unhelpful comments on the livestream chat, especially since it was past midnight in Germany. So he decided to end the livestream and put out a video later about the Mill One in more detail.

The livestream is back online and you can check it out here:

New T-shirts

New t shirts. We have 14 of them (someone bought one from us already) in small, medium, and large. What should we do with them? Should we sell them on the store? Should we do a giveaway? Let us know via email or through social media!

Vacation time

I will be heading out to see family in BC this week and returning to Ontario on the 15th. Chris will be out for a few days starting on the 10th. We have someone else taking care of fulfillment and so orders placed between the 3rd and the 15th will be shipped within a week. If you have an urgent order, send us a message and we can arrange something.