Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Duchesne, UT 84021
Many are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Duchesne, UT. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract many individuals. There’s only on location to get the at an affordable rate and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal 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 perk. The accessibility of tooling for each of these models is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a range of models from the factory. Generally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline also offers WW collet sets for very small work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. A lot of choose ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, a lot of really don’t 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 numerous tool choices. You can find numerous evaluations 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 prepared variations. Just recently, they have actually added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the web if you desire a review or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Duchesne.
Taig likewise uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competitors. In reality, you can discover a great deal of videos and posts describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer much more stiff ways and typically 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 various mill or lathe. Taig likewise offers a nice CNC ready mill and lathe. You can also select their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the very same problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they provide. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The nice thing is that they now provide a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both makes is the lack of major upgrades.
Sherline uses lots of parts and accessories, however not much to make it a much better machine. To start with, they headstock usages bad quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This means the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with really little mass implies the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as great and based on vibration issues. For instance, they offer numerous lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole has to be small due to the fact that the bearings are little. There is a comparable problem with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this limits its use. Of course those in Duchesne, Utah 84021 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Duchesne
There are other machine alternatives too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t real good. Lots of end up either extremely dissatisfied or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Excellent upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you prefer to go with a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far much 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 offers consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for several years. However, they were clunky at best and truly only targeted at amature usage. Centroid is a well established commercial manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis makers. The best servos to utilize for CNC on the Sherline or Taig are either DMM, Clearpath or GlockCNC brands. Combine that with the Centroid Acorn and you will have a powerful machine. We will also produce reviews of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill using the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many grumble that the little chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On option is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you opt for larger bearings.