Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Kirwin, KS 67644
Many are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Kirwin, KS. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest lots of people. There’s just on place to get the at a reasonable rate and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Going with a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Naturally, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a bonus offer. The availability of tooling for each of these models is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a range of models from the factory. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for very tiny work. Mainly 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 best. For Sherline mills, a lot of really 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 many tool options. You can discover lots of reviews 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, handbook and CNC prepared versions. Recently, they have included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the web if you want a review or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Kirwin.
Taig likewise provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In fact, you can find a lot of videos and short articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer far more rigid methods and usually more “sturdy” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like a completely various mill or lathe. Taig likewise provides a great CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can likewise go with their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the 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 provide a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both makes is the lack of serious upgrades.
Sherline offers many parts and accessories, however not much to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock usages bad quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This means the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with extremely little mass means the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as great and subject to vibration issues. For instance, they offer lots of lathe devices, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole has to be small due to the fact that the bearings are small. There is a comparable problem with the mill. You can only utilize ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in Kirwin, Kansas 67644 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Kirwin
There are other machine choices too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other suppliers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t real great. Lots of end up either extremely dissatisfied or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Outstanding upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you prefer to opt for a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or much of the hardware alternatives in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for many years. However, they were clunky at best and truly only targeted at amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized commercial manufacture of mills. A number of which are 5 axis makers. The very best servos to utilize 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 much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of complain that the little chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On option is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you choose bigger bearings.