Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Alexander, NC 28701
Many have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Alexander, NC. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to numerous individuals. There’s just on place to get the at a reasonable rate and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Choosing a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Obviously, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a bonus. The accessibility 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 come in a variety of models from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline also offers WW collet sets for really tiny work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. The majority of choose ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, most really do not care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers one of the most flexibility and numerous tool options. You can discover numerous evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise been available in CNC, manual and CNC prepared versions. Recently, they have actually added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you desire an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Alexander.
Taig likewise offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competitors. In fact, you can find a great deal of videos and posts describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer a lot more stiff methods and normally more “sturdy” overall. The Taig motors are quite weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a totally different mill or lathe. Taig also uses a nice CNC all set mill and lathe. You can also choose their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the 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 choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both manufactures is the absence of severe upgrades.
Sherline provides lots of parts and attachments, but very little to make it a much better machine. To start with, they headstock usages bad quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This suggests the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with really little mass means the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as good and based on vibration problems. For instance, they provide numerous lathe devices, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole has to be little due to the fact that the bearings are little. There is a similar concern with the mill. You can only utilize ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Alexander, North Carolina 28701 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Alexander
There are other machine options too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other suppliers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t genuine good. Lots of wind up either extremely dissatisfied 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 prefer to opt for a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far better than Mach3 or much of the hardware alternatives 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 several years. Nevertheless, they were cumbersome at finest and actually only aimed at amature use. Centroid is a well established business manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis machines. The very best servos to use for CNC on the Sherline or Taig are either DMM, Clearpath or GlockCNC brand names. Integrate 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? Many grumble that the small chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On alternative is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open up more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you opt for larger bearings.