Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for East Walpole, MA 02032
Lots of are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the East Walpole, MA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest many people. There’s just on place to get the at an affordable rate and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Going with a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Naturally, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a benefit. The availability of tooling for each of these designs is exceptional. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a variety of designs from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really little. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for very tiny work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Many prefer ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle go 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 barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers one of the most flexibility and many tool options. 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 likewise can be found in CNC, handbook and CNC all set versions. Recently, they have included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you desire a review or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near East Walpole.
Taig also offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competitors. In fact, you can find a great deal of videos and posts describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer much more rigid ways and generally more “sturdy” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like a totally different mill or lathe. Taig likewise uses a great CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can also select their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. 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 offer. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The great thing is that they now offer a ballscrew option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both produces is the absence of severe upgrades.
Sherline uses lots of parts and attachments, however very little to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This implies the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with extremely little mass means the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as great and based on vibration problems. For example, they offer lots of lathe devices, but 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 problem with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in East Walpole, Massachusetts 02032 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in East Walpole
There are other machine alternatives too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other suppliers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t genuine excellent. Many end up either very dissatisfied or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Outstanding upgrades are ballscrews, updated brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you want 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 a lot of the hardware choices in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for several years. However, they were cumbersome at best and truly just targeted at amature use. Centroid is a well established commercial manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis machines. The very best servos to use 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 using the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Numerous complain that the small chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On option is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you choose bigger bearings.