Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “First Look: The Longmill CNC Router”.
Welcome to make workshop, where we check out tools, toys and tech built for makers. Today we’re going to look at a benchtop, cnc router that won’t break the bank. This is the longmill by sciencey labs. Now, before i even get into it, you’ll notice that this thing is kind of levered way out hanging off the edges of my my little workbench here during this video. That is not the recommended way to operate it and i actually didn’t even run it that way, but i do have it that way so that i can film this video.
I wanted to get that out of the way, so people didn’t get the wrong idea. When i operated it, it was in a big flat spot either on the ground or on something else that i have here in the shop. The longmill by scienceylabs is a kit. Cnc router, you get the parts in a box, you assemble them quick and easy. No soldering required pretty much just putting screws in in various places and mounting all the pieces. The kit comes with everything you need at least the way i had it.
Configured comes with everything you need, except for the computer, to run it and the waste board, which also serves as the mounting board for everything else. This allows it to be shipped much cheaper and easier and cuts the cost down as well as this is with every option selected and the biggest variation that they sell. This was about thirteen hundred dollars, which is an incredible price. There’S a 12 by 12 version, a 12 by 30 version and a 30 inch by 30 inch version, which this one is all of them, mount directly onto the waste board and the 30 inch by 30 inch.
The largest will fit in a four foot by four foot waste board that you can buy at most big box stores. Now they recommend mdf, but really anything will do. My big box store was all out of mdf and i was initially going to mount it on plywood which they did have there, but, as you can see, plywood can have some bow to it, and i was a bit concerned about that and i happened to find In my piles of stuff, in my workshop that i had a piece of mdf large enough to mount this to the long wheel, uses an interesting configuration of these extruded aluminum rails with little v, wheels that capture the rail and slide back and forth. Now the whole thing is driven, of course, by these uh lead screws in every axis here, which gives it quite a bit of torque to pull the router around more than maybe you would see from like a belt drive system which others in this kind of size And price bracket typically, are it uses an off-the-shelf router which mine came with as an option? You can save some money if you’ve already got a router by not having it included. They have a few options for mounting brackets and i believe you can even try to get a custom one from them made. The z-axis has about four and a half inches of travel, which for most projects on something like this, is going to be plenty. But the interesting thing about this is that it is quasi-portable you can lift it. I can lift this myself. It is extremely awkward, but with another person i can lift it pretty easily, which means you could cut out the center of your waste board and use it on larger objects or get more z. Travel than maybe you need here.
Playing with a cnc router has got to be one of my favorite things to do. Actually the results that you see are so quick and so um. I don’t know it’s just something really fun about watching the end mill, tear away that material and reveal the pattern underneath that you designed – and i have people ask me all the time how to get started. What software to use, how to get to that point. Getting the machine is easy. Designing.
The files is a little more complicated. We actually have at make a special offer right now of five books that you should pick up. We’Ve reduced the price down for this bundle of books for learning cnc.
It’S 35 bucks gets you five books on learning, cnc, there’s design for cnc fusion 360 for makers getting started with 3d carving getting started with cnc workshop mastery with jimmy deresta and modern leather work from makers. These are great books that are going to teach you tips and tricks for designing in cnc and using it on actual projects, click the link above or below to get that special offer to control this you’re gon na have to generate g-code in something. Personally, i use fusion 360 or a program called vcarve, and then, after that, you use software called ugs to send the g-code to the machine.
This is free software that you download and run on your machine and allows you to control the system on your computer. I really like this construction method. I like how quickly and easily it went together and i’ve got some ideas for projects i’ll. Do utilizing the fact that i could carry this to something and actually mill into it or or onto it. I think i’m going to do some fun projects with this utilizing that idea to learn more about the longmill and its variations go to sciencey.com. It’S spelled a little bit funny check the link below to find that information. As i was saying before, this one is the most expensive version. With every option available.
It was about thirteen hundred dollars. You can get the cheaper version, smaller, less options for about eight hundred ninety nine hundred dollars somewhere in there. Thanks for joining me, i hope you had a great time. We have so much more cool stuff coming, be sure to like this video and subscribe to this website click the little notification bell so that you can get notified.
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