Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Goodwell, OK 73939
Many have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Goodwell, OK. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract lots of people. There’s only on location to get the at a reasonable rate and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Going with a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Of course, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a benefit. The schedule of tooling for each of these models is exceptional. For 5C collet sets, you can get great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts can be found in a variety of models from the factory. Generally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline also offers WW collet sets for extremely tiny work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. The majority of prefer ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle go through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, many really don’t care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers the most versatility and lots of tool choices. You can discover numerous 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 prepared variations. Recently, they have included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the internet if you desire an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Goodwell.
Taig likewise offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In truth, you can find a great deal of videos and posts referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items offer far more rigid ways and typically more “sturdy” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a totally different mill or lathe. Taig likewise offers a good CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can likewise go with their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the same problems as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they offer. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now use a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both manufactures is the lack of severe upgrades.
Sherline uses lots of parts and attachments, but very little to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This suggests the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with very little mass indicates the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as great and based on vibration issues. For example, they offer numerous lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole has to be small because the bearings are little. There is a comparable problem with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Goodwell, Oklahoma 73939 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Goodwell
There are other machine choices too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other suppliers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t genuine good. Numerous end up either extremely dissatisfied or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Exceptional upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you prefer to choose a CNC machine, your best choice 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 provides consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for several years. However, they were clunky at best and actually just targeted at amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized commercial manufacture of mills. A number 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. Integrate that with the Centroid Acorn and you will have an effective 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? Many grumble that the small 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 more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you choose bigger bearings.