Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Damascus, GA 31741
Numerous have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Damascus, GA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to many people. There’s only on place to get the at a sensible rate and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Opting for a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Naturally, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a bonus offer. The schedule of tooling for each of these models is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a range of designs from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really small. Sherline likewise offers WW collet sets for very tiny work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Many prefer ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle go through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, the majority of really don’t care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It provides the most versatility and lots of tool choices. You can find numerous reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also can be found in CNC, handbook and CNC prepared versions. Recently, they have included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you want a review or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Damascus.
Taig likewise uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In fact, you can find a lot of videos and articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items use far more stiff methods and usually more “strong” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like a completely various mill or lathe. Taig also offers a good CNC ready mill and lathe. You can also go with their digital CNC system which uses 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 design they offer. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now use a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both manufactures is the absence of severe upgrades.
Sherline offers many parts and attachments, however not much to make it a much better machine. To start with, they headstock usages bad quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This indicates the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with extremely little mass suggests the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as excellent and based on vibration issues. 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 has to be little due to the fact that the bearings are little. There is a similar problem with the mill. You can just utilize ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Damascus, Georgia 31741 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Damascus
There are other machine options too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t genuine excellent. Many wind up either extremely 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 go with a CNC machine, your best bet 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 rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it provides continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for several years. However, they were cumbersome at best and truly only targeted at amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized business manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis machines. 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 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? Numerous grumble that the small chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On alternative is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you opt for larger bearings.