Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Kenwood, CA 95452
Lots of are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Kenwood, CA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to lots of people. There’s just on place to get the at a sensible cost which’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Choosing 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 benefit. The accessibility of tooling for each of these models 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. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline also offers WW collet sets for really tiny work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. A lot 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 best. For Sherline mills, many actually don’t care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It provides one of the most flexibility and numerous tool choices. You can find 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 can be found in CNC, manual and CNC ready variations. Recently, they have added ballscrew variations 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 Kenwood.
Taig likewise provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In fact, you can discover a lot of videos and articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items offer much more stiff ways and usually more “strong” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a completely various mill or lathe. Taig also offers a good CNC all set mill and lathe. You can also select 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 small. 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 option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both manufactures is the lack of major upgrades.
Sherline uses many parts and accessories, however not much 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 little. A spindle with very little mass implies the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as great and subject to vibration problems. For instance, they provide many lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole needs to be small due to the fact that the bearings are little. There is a comparable problem with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this limits its use. Of course those in Kenwood, California 95452 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Kenwood
There are other machine choices too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other suppliers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t real excellent. Many end up either very dissatisfied or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Excellent 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 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 provides consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. Nevertheless, they were cumbersome at finest and truly just aimed at amature use. Centroid is a well recognized industrial manufacture of mills. A lot 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 brand names. Integrate that with the Centroid Acorn and you will have an effective 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 grumble that the little chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On alternative is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you opt for bigger bearings.