Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Cottonport, LA 71327
Many have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Cottonport, LA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract lots of people. There’s only on place to get the at a sensible cost and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading 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 schedule of tooling for each of these models is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a variety of models from the factory. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline likewise provides WW collet sets for very tiny work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Many 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 best. For Sherline mills, a lot of really don’t care for the MT1 and hardly 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 lots of reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also come 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 desire an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Cottonport.
Taig likewise provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In fact, you can discover a lot of videos and short articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products use a lot more rigid methods and normally more “strong” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a completely different mill or lathe. Taig also uses a good 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 same issues as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they use. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The nice thing is that they now offer a ballscrew option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both makes is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline provides lots of parts and accessories, however very little to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock usages bad quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This suggests the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with really little mass implies the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as good and based on vibration problems. For example, they provide lots of lathe accessories, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go 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 use ER16 collets and this limits its use. Of course those in Cottonport, Louisiana 71327 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Cottonport
There are other machine choices too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other suppliers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t real excellent. Numerous wind up either really disappointed or doing a lot 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 want to choose a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far better than Mach3 or many of the hardware options in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it offers consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for many years. However, they were clunky at best and truly just focused on amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized commercial manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis devices. 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 a powerful machine. We will likewise 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 small chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On alternative is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you opt for bigger bearings.