Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Atherton, CA 94027
Numerous have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Atherton, CA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest many people. There’s only on place to get the at a reasonable cost and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Going with a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Obviously, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a benefit. The accessibility of tooling for each of these designs is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a variety of designs from the factory. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline likewise offers WW collet sets for extremely small work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Many 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 best. For Sherline mills, a lot of actually 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 lots of tool choices. You can find lots of evaluations 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, manual and CNC all set versions. Recently, they have actually included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much 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 Atherton.
Taig also provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competitors. In truth, you can find a great deal of videos and posts describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items use a lot more stiff ways and usually more “heavy duty” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like a totally different mill or lathe. Taig likewise provides a nice CNC all set mill and lathe. You can likewise select 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 little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they use. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The nice thing is that they now use a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both produces is the lack of major upgrades.
Sherline uses many parts and accessories, but very little to make it a much better machine. To start with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This implies the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with extremely little mass means the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as good and based on vibration issues. For instance, they provide many lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole needs to be small due to the fact that the bearings are small. There is a comparable issue with the mill. You can only utilize ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in Atherton, California 94027 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Atherton
There are other machine options too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real great. Numerous wind up either extremely dissatisfied or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Excellent upgrades are ballscrews, updated brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you desire to opt for a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or a lot of the hardware options in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for several years. However, they were clunky at finest and really just targeted at amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized business manufacture of mills. Many of which are 5 axis machines. The best servos to use for CNC on the Sherline or Taig are either DMM, Clearpath or GlockCNC brand names. Combine that with the Centroid Acorn and you will have an effective machine. We will likewise 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 complain that the little chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On option 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 choose bigger bearings.