Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Ford Cliff, PA 16228
Many have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Ford Cliff, PA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest lots of people. There’s just on location to get the at an affordable price and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Opting for a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Of course, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a reward. The accessibility of tooling for each of these designs is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts can be found in a range of designs from the factory. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline likewise uses WW collet sets for extremely small work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. The majority of prefer ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, most actually do not care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It uses the most versatility and numerous tool options. You can discover lots of evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also come in CNC, handbook and CNC ready variations. Just recently, they have included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you want an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Ford Cliff.
Taig likewise uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In truth, you can find a great deal of videos and short articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items use far more rigid methods and usually more “heavy duty” overall. The Taig motors are quite weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a completely different mill or lathe. Taig likewise offers a good CNC ready mill and lathe. You can also choose their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the very same issues as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they offer. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The nice thing is that they now use a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both manufactures is the absence of severe upgrades.
Sherline provides numerous parts and accessories, but not much to make it a much better machine. To start with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This suggests the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with really little mass suggests the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as good and subject to vibration issues. For example, they use lots of lathe devices, but 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 concern with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this limits its use. Of course those in Ford Cliff, Pennsylvania 16228 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Ford Cliff
There are other machine choices too. You can likewise buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other suppliers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t genuine great. Lots of end up either really disappointed or doing a lot 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 want to opt for a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far 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 provides continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for several years. However, they were cumbersome at best and actually just aimed at amature usage. Centroid is a well established commercial manufacture of mills. Many of which are 5 axis makers. The best servos to use 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 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 little chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On choice is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you choose bigger bearings.