Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Juneau, AK 99811
Many have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Juneau, AK. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract lots of people. There’s only on location to get the at a reasonable rate which’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Choosing a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Of course, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a bonus. The availability of tooling for each of these models is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a variety of designs from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline likewise offers WW collet sets for really tiny work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Many choose ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle go through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, the majority of truly 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 flexibility and many tool options. You can find 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 can be found in CNC, manual and CNC ready variations. Recently, they have actually added ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the web if you desire an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Juneau.
Taig also offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In fact, you can discover a lot of videos and short articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer far more rigid methods and generally more “sturdy” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like a totally various mill or lathe. Taig likewise offers a good CNC ready mill and lathe. You can also go with their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the same problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they provide. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The nice thing is that they now provide a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both manufactures is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline offers numerous parts and accessories, but very little to make it a 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 little. A spindle with very little mass indicates the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as excellent and subject to vibration problems. For example, they offer many lathe devices, but 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 comparable concern with the mill. You can just utilize ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Juneau, Alaska 99811 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Juneau
There are other machine options too. You can likewise purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t genuine good. Lots of end up either extremely dissatisfied or doing a great deal 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 and hardware is far better than Mach3 or many of the hardware choices 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 standard for several years. However, they were clunky at best and truly just aimed at amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized commercial manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis makers. 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 a powerful machine. We will also produce evaluations of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill using the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many complain that the small chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On alternative is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you go with bigger bearings.