Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Altona, NY 12910
Numerous have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Altona, NY. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest many individuals. There’s only on location to get the at an affordable cost which’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Choosing a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Obviously, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a reward. The availability of tooling for each of these models is exceptional. 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 really little. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for very tiny work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Many prefer ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, a lot of truly do not care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It uses the most flexibility and many tool options. You can find many reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise come in CNC, handbook and CNC prepared versions. Just recently, they have actually added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you want an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Altona.
Taig also offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In fact, you can discover a great deal of videos and articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products provide a lot more rigid methods and generally more “sturdy” overall. The Taig motors are quite weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a completely various mill or lathe. Taig likewise provides a good CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can also select their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the same issues as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they offer. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now provide a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both manufactures is the lack of major upgrades.
Sherline provides lots of parts and accessories, however not much to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock usages bad quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This indicates the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with very little mass implies the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as good and subject to vibration problems. For instance, they offer many lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole has to be little since the bearings are small. There is a similar concern with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this limits its use. Of course those in Altona, New York 12910 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Altona
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. Obviously the quality isn’t real excellent. Many end up either extremely disappointed or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Exceptional upgrades are ballscrews, updated brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you desire to opt for a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or many of the hardware alternatives in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for several years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at best and actually just aimed at amature use. Centroid is a well established commercial manufacture of mills. A lot of which are 5 axis devices. 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 much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Numerous complain that the small chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On alternative is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you go with bigger bearings.