I want to start outby saying Sienci Labs has been pretty good on resolving all of my problems. Just a bit slow. Here is my list: 1) Altmill arrives about 6 months after I ordered it, just short 1 whole box. Other box arrives a week later but short the bracket to mount the VFD on. 2). After assembly the Z axis will only go down. Sent me a new motor and cable. Motor fixed the problem. 3). Nut was stripped on spindle, Sent me a new nut 4) Ran first file no problems, second file the z axis suddenly bottomed out breaking the bit, sent in diagnostics file and was told I had selected the wrong machine, don’t know how that changed. 5). Selected the 4x4 with spindle as told but the same thing happened, another broken bit. 6). I bumped one of the wires to the x axis motor and pulled them out of the connector, installed new wire that I was sent earlier and ordered protective covers. 7). Now gsender wont open… Guess you can say I’m not too happy with this machine
I can second this. Have you tried asking for compensation due to the poor quality? I’ve already lost hundreds in lost business due to my issues.
I only had to wait 4 months, but I have had similar problems, Sienci have provided/are providing spares. The contact I have had with people has been very good, it’s just that you only get 1 response every 24-72 hours, which means resolving issues takes ages.
- The X axis was damaged during shipping (not their fault)
- I had missing bolts and damaged threads on the ball screw blocks.
- The pre-assembled Z axis had the wrong coupler
- One of the limit switch plugs on the SLB doesn’t work
- The machine gives constant ‘alarm 10’ on gsender, so requires a new estop alarm
I feel that the machine is very capable, if it works, but the quality coming from sienci is not good enough to provide customers with a consistent experience.
You are funny - asking for compensation for lost business? Seriously? If you are in business you don’t depend on a new machine to be up and working when it comes in the door nor do you wait for 4 months for a machine when you could be making money with something that is available now.
So you had some issues, Sienci looked after you which is great. Getting a response in 24-72 hours is A LOT better support than what 95% of the businesses out there provide.
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Something touched a nerve, it was a question to the original poster…
An issue or two is not unreasonable, but the quantity of quite basic things I’ve experienced make me question. I suspect it’s related to the popularity of the machine, as their marketing is very good, and they’ve struggled to maintain high standards whilst trying to increase volumes.
On one occasion, after waiting over 72 hours for an email response, I had to call their number 50 times before it got answered.
There is room for improvement that’s all, I am sure I’ll be very impressed with the machine when I eventually get it working. The people I have dealt with have been excellent.
Yeah, doing 50 attempts to reach them via phone is excessive (unless you tried calling during a Canadian holiday) and yes, there is always room for improvement.
I can’t really imagine how they do QC on every machine but they are hand built and are subject to human error. I was lucky enough not to have had any significant issues with my Altmill and they replaced my gControl unit surprisingly quickly without making me jump through a dozen hoops (which unfortunately is pretty common nowadays).
As I wait for my AltMil, it’s a bit unsettling to hear about so many QC issues. How common are they?
I think you will be impressed with your new mill once it arrives - I was. You also know that Sienci will take care of any QC issues that might arise. I wouldn’t worry.
Second that, I’d expect there to be an issue which means it won’t work straight out of the box, but Sienci will resolve it for you.
The machine to look at, and feel is impressive, it’s very rigid and strong.
Every thing here appears to be amateur user errors and not understanding the machine and for sure not following instructions very well laid out in several areas of resources. Also they have made it very easy and clear how to contact support and it is not through email or phone calls it’s through the process on the website. Good luck any of us users are happy to help as needed. I have both the Longmill Mk2 and the Altmill and have had zero issues with either that I couldn’t figure out myself, have never needed to contact support. Shipping damage is unfortunate for sure. Good day.
I think I need to answer your ill founded judgement that these issues are user error, and close the topic now I have my machine working. You also clearly need education on how support works, the tickets start life on the website, but then become via emails for updates. I then had no choice but to use the phone to chase for updates when over 48 hours had passed.
I’d recommend the altmill still, in the few days I have had to work with if, it’s been amazing, it’s so fast and rigid. But never the less I had a frustrating 5-6 weeks to get it working, none of which were user error, and at times it was compounded by slower than I expected response times.
That being said, the responses I did get from people were excellent, and it’s fair that no company is perfect and I’d tether have their resources designing a great CNC machine.
It took 4 shipments to finish my assembly.
- The original shipment was missing some bolts and had 3 stripped threads on the ball screw blocks. Plus parts damaged by the couriers.
- Once the above was resolved with this shipment, I then found the pre-assembled Z axis assembly had the wrong coupler, it was for the X and Y axis and was too big. I also had an issue with Alarm 10 constantly appearing.
- Sienci sent a new coupler which fixe me the Z axis but sent an SLB instead of a SLB-EXT, frustrating as more wastes time.
- They sent the correct SLB-EXT board which fixed the alarm 10 issue