Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Adrian, PA 16210
Many have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Adrian, PA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest many people. There’s only on location to get the at a sensible cost and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Going with a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Of course, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a bonus. The schedule of tooling for each of these designs is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a variety of designs from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are extremely little. Sherline likewise provides WW collet sets for very tiny work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. The majority of prefer ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, a lot of truly do not care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers one of the most versatility and many tool options. You can discover lots of reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise can be found in CNC, manual and CNC all set variations. Just recently, they have included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the web if you want a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Adrian.
Taig likewise provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In reality, you can find a lot of videos and posts describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide a lot more stiff ways and usually more “sturdy” overall. The Taig motors are quite weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like a completely various mill or lathe. Taig also provides a good CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can also choose their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the very same problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they offer. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The nice thing is that they now provide a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both manufactures is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline provides many parts and accessories, however very little to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This indicates the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with really little mass indicates the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as good and based on vibration problems. For instance, they offer numerous lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole has to be small because the bearings are small. There is a similar problem with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Adrian, Pennsylvania 16210 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Adrian
There are other machine alternatives too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other suppliers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t real good. Many end up either very disappointed or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Excellent upgrades are ballscrews, updated brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you desire to go with a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or much of the hardware choices in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it offers consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. Nevertheless, they were cumbersome at finest and really only aimed at amature use. Centroid is a well recognized industrial manufacture of mills. A lot of which are 5 axis makers. The best servos to utilize for CNC on the Sherline or Taig are either DMM, Clearpath or GlockCNC brands. Combine that with the Centroid Acorn and you will have an effective machine. We will also produce reviews of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill using the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Numerous grumble that the small chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On alternative is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you go with bigger bearings.