Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Baton Rouge, LA 70809
Many are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Baton Rouge, LA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to many people. There’s only on place to get the at a reasonable rate and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Opting for a 5C is ideal 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 very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a range of designs from the factory. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for really tiny work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. The majority of choose ER25, ER32 or 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, many really 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 versatility and many tool options. You can discover many reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also been available in CNC, manual and CNC ready versions. Recently, they have actually added ballscrew variations for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the internet if you desire a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Baton Rouge.
Taig likewise provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In truth, you can find a lot of videos and articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide far more stiff ways and typically 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 completely various mill or lathe. Taig also provides a good CNC all set mill and lathe. You can also select their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the exact same problems 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 great thing is that they now provide a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both produces is the lack of severe upgrades.
Sherline provides many parts and attachments, however very little to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This means the spindle itself requires to be small. A spindle with really little mass means the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as excellent and subject to vibration issues. For instance, they offer many lathe accessories, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole has to be small because the bearings are little. There is a comparable issue with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70809 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Baton Rouge
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. Obviously the quality isn’t genuine good. Lots of wind up either really 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 want to go with a CNC machine, your best choice 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 provides continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for several years. Nevertheless, they were cumbersome at finest and really only focused on amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized business manufacture of mills. Many of which are 5 axis makers. The very best servos to use 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 evaluations of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill using the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of grumble that the little 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 integrated in. This can open up more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you choose bigger bearings.