Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Danbury, NH 03230
Many are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Danbury, NH. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest many individuals. There’s only on location to get the at an affordable rate which’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Choosing a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Of course, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a bonus. The accessibility of tooling for each of these models is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a variety of models from the factory. Generally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are extremely little. Sherline also offers WW collet sets for very small work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Most choose 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, the majority of really don’t care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It provides one of the most flexibility and numerous tool choices. You can find lots of evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise come in CNC, manual and CNC ready variations. Just recently, they have actually included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you desire a review or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Danbury.
Taig also offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In fact, you can find a lot of videos and short articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items offer a lot more stiff ways and generally more “heavy duty” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like an absolutely different mill or lathe. Taig likewise offers a great CNC all set mill and lathe. You can also opt for their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the exact same issues as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they use. 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 offer a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both makes is the lack of serious upgrades.
Sherline provides numerous parts and attachments, but very little to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This means the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with very little mass means the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as good and based on vibration issues. For example, they provide lots of lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole has to be little because the bearings are little. There is a similar problem with the mill. You can just utilize ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Danbury, New Hampshire 03230 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Danbury
There are other machine alternatives too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other suppliers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t real good. Lots of wind up either extremely dissatisfied or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Outstanding upgrades are ballscrews, updated brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you prefer to go with a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or much of the hardware choices 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 requirement for several years. However, they were clunky at best and really only focused on amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized commercial manufacture of mills. Many of which are 5 axis devices. The 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 an effective machine. We will likewise produce reviews of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill utilizing the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of grumble that the little chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On option is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you choose bigger bearings.