Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Conroe, TX 77304
Many have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Conroe, TX. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract many people. There’s only on place to get the at a reasonable rate and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Opting for a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Of course, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a reward. The schedule of tooling for each of these designs is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts can be found in a range of models from the factory. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for extremely small work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Many prefer ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, most really 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 discover many evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also come in CNC, handbook and CNC ready versions. Just recently, they have included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you desire an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Conroe.
Taig likewise offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competitors. In reality, you can find a lot of videos and articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products use far more rigid ways and usually more “heavy duty” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a totally different mill or lathe. Taig also uses a great CNC ready mill and lathe. You can likewise opt for 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 small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they use. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The great thing is that they now provide a ballscrew option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both produces is the lack of severe upgrades.
Sherline provides numerous parts and accessories, but not much to make it a much 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 little. A spindle with very little mass implies the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as great and based on vibration problems. For instance, they offer many lathe devices, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole has to be little since the bearings are small. There is a comparable concern with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Conroe, Texas 77304 may have different needs.
There are other machine options too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t genuine great. Numerous end up either very dissatisfied or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Outstanding upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you want to opt for a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or much of the hardware options 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. However, they were cumbersome at best and actually only targeted at amature usage. Centroid is a well established business manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis devices. The very 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 a powerful 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? Numerous grumble that the little 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 integrated in. This can open more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you opt for larger bearings.