Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Eveleth, MN 55734
Numerous are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Eveleth, MN. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest many people. There’s only on location to get the at a reasonable price and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Going with a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Obviously, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a benefit. 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 can be found in a variety of models from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline also offers WW collet sets for really small work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. A lot of prefer ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, a lot of actually don’t care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It provides one of the most flexibility and numerous tool options. You can discover lots of reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also been available in CNC, manual and CNC ready versions. Just recently, they have included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you desire an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Eveleth.
Taig also provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In truth, you can discover a lot of videos and short articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items use far more stiff methods and normally more “strong” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like an absolutely different mill or lathe. Taig likewise offers a good CNC prepared 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 very same problems 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 deal a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both manufactures is the lack of major upgrades.
Sherline offers many parts and accessories, but not much to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This indicates the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with extremely little mass suggests the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as great and based on vibration issues. For instance, they provide numerous lathe accessories, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole needs to be little since the bearings are little. There is a similar issue with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Eveleth, Minnesota 55734 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Eveleth
There are other machine choices too. You can likewise buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other suppliers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t genuine great. Lots of end up either very dissatisfied or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Exceptional upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you prefer to choose a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or a number of the hardware alternatives in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. However, they were cumbersome at best and truly only focused on amature use. Centroid is a well recognized commercial manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis machines. The best servos to utilize for CNC on the Sherline or Taig are either DMM, Clearpath or GlockCNC brand names. 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 better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of complain that the little chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On option is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you go with bigger bearings.