Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Larkspur, CA 94939
Many are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Larkspur, CA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest lots of people. There’s only on place to get the at a sensible cost and that’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 likewise a bonus offer. The availability of tooling for each of these models is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts can be found in a variety of models from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline likewise provides WW collet sets for really small work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Most choose ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, a lot of actually do not care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It provides the most versatility and many tool options. You can discover many reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise come in CNC, manual and CNC prepared variations. 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 contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Larkspur.
Taig likewise provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In truth, you can find a great deal of videos and posts referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items offer much more stiff ways and usually more “sturdy” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a totally different mill or lathe. Taig also uses a good CNC all set 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 problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they provide. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The nice thing is that they now offer a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both manufactures is the lack of serious upgrades.
Sherline offers lots of parts and attachments, but very little to make it a much better machine. To start with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This implies the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with very little mass indicates the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as excellent and subject to vibration issues. For example, they use many lathe devices, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole has to be little due to the fact that the bearings are little. There is a similar concern with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Larkspur, California 94939 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Larkspur
There are other machine choices too. You can likewise buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other suppliers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real good. Many wind up either extremely dissatisfied or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Excellent upgrades are ballscrews, updated brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you prefer to go with a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much 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 offers continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for many years. However, they were cumbersome at best and really just aimed at amature use. Centroid is a well recognized industrial manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis machines. The 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 a powerful 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 won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On alternative is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you go with bigger bearings.