Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Greenville, SC 29602
Numerous are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Greenville, SC. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest many people. There’s only on place to get the at a reasonable cost which’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Choosing 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 bonus. The accessibility of tooling for each of these models is exceptional. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts can be found in a range of models from the factory. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for really tiny work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Most 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, most actually don’t care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It uses one of the most flexibility and numerous tool choices. You can find numerous evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also come in CNC, manual and CNC all set versions. Just recently, they have added ballscrew variations 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 Greenville.
Taig likewise offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competitors. In truth, you can find a great deal of videos and articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer far more rigid methods and normally more “sturdy” overall. The Taig motors are quite weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like a totally different mill or lathe. Taig also uses a good CNC ready mill and lathe. You can also select their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the exact same issues as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design 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 offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both manufactures is the absence of serious upgrades.
Sherline provides numerous parts and attachments, however very little to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This implies the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with really little mass indicates the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as good and based on vibration issues. For example, they use many lathe accessories, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole has to be small since the bearings are small. There is a comparable concern with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Greenville, South Carolina 29602 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Greenville
There are other machine options too. You can likewise buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other providers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t real good. Many wind up either really dissatisfied or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Excellent upgrades are ballscrews, updated brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you want to go with a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or a lot 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 many years. However, they were clunky at best and actually only targeted at amature usage. 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 brand names. Combine 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 utilizing the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of grumble that the small chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On option is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you choose larger bearings.