Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Heron Lake, MN 56137
Many have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Heron Lake, MN. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract lots of people. There’s only on place to get the at a sensible rate which’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Choosing a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Of course, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a perk. The availability of tooling for each of these designs is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get great 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 little. Sherline likewise offers WW collet sets for really small work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Many prefer ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle go through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, many truly do not care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It uses the most flexibility and numerous tool choices. You can find many reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs 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 added ballscrew variations for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the web if you want an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Heron Lake.
Taig also uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competitors. In fact, you can find a great deal of videos and short articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer much more rigid ways and typically more “strong” overall. The Taig motors are quite weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like a completely different mill or lathe. Taig also provides a good CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can also choose their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the very same issues as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they provide. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now offer a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both produces is the lack of severe upgrades.
Sherline uses numerous parts and accessories, however not much to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This indicates the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with really little mass means the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as excellent and subject to vibration problems. For example, they offer lots of lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole has to be little because the bearings are little. There is a similar issue with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Heron Lake, Minnesota 56137 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Heron Lake
There are other machine options too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other suppliers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real good. Lots of end up either very dissatisfied or doing a lot 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 go with a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far better than Mach3 or a number of the hardware options in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it offers continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for many years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at best and really just focused on amature use. Centroid is a well established commercial manufacture of mills. A number of which are 5 axis devices. The very 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 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? Numerous complain that the little 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 go with larger bearings.