Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Andover, ME 04216
Numerous are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Andover, ME. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest numerous people. There’s only on place to get the at a reasonable cost which’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Opting for a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Naturally, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a perk. The availability of tooling for each of these designs is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a range of models from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for very small work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. A lot of choose ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, many actually don’t care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers the most versatility and many tool choices. You can find numerous reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise can be found in CNC, handbook and CNC all set versions. Recently, they have added ballscrew variations for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the web if you want an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Andover.
Taig likewise uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In fact, you can find a lot of videos and articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items offer far more rigid methods and typically more “strong” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like an absolutely different mill or lathe. Taig also offers a nice CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can likewise go with their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the exact same problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they provide. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now provide a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both makes is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline offers many parts and attachments, 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 implies the spindle itself requires to be small. A spindle with really little mass means the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as great and subject to vibration problems. For instance, they offer many lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole needs to be little because the bearings are little. There is a comparable issue with the mill. You can just utilize ER16 collets and this limits its use. Of course those in Andover, Maine 04216 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Andover
There are other machine alternatives too. You can likewise purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other suppliers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real great. Lots of wind up either very dissatisfied or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Exceptional upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you desire to go with a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or a number of the hardware choices in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it provides continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at best and actually only targeted at amature usage. Centroid is a well established commercial manufacture of mills. A number of which are 5 axis makers. The very best servos to utilize for CNC on the Sherline or Taig are either DMM, Clearpath or GlockCNC brands. Integrate that with the Centroid Acorn and you will have an effective machine. We will also produce evaluations of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill utilizing the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many grumble that the small chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On choice is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open up more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you choose larger bearings.