Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Meriden, CT 06454
Numerous have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Meriden, CT. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest numerous people. There’s only on place to get the at an affordable price and that’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 need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a perk. 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 can be found in a variety of designs from the factory. Generally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for extremely small work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Many prefer ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle travel 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 one of the most flexibility and lots of 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, handbook and CNC prepared variations. Recently, they have included ballscrew versions 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 Meriden.
Taig also uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In reality, you can find a great deal of videos and posts describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items use far more stiff methods and generally more “sturdy” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like an absolutely different mill or lathe. Taig also uses a great CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can likewise opt for their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the exact same issues as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they offer. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The nice thing is that they now use a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both makes is the lack of severe upgrades.
Sherline uses many parts and attachments, however not much to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This implies the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with really little mass suggests the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as great and subject to vibration problems. For example, they provide many lathe accessories, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole needs to be little since the bearings are little. There is a comparable concern with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Meriden, Connecticut 06454 may have different needs.
There are other machine choices too. You can likewise purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other providers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t real great. Lots of end up either really disappointed 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 want to choose a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far better than Mach3 or many of the hardware alternatives in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it offers constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for several years. However, they were cumbersome at best and actually only aimed at amature use. Centroid is a well recognized industrial 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 brands. Integrate that with the Centroid Acorn and you will have a powerful machine. We will also produce reviews of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill utilizing the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of grumble that the little chucks won’t 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 options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you choose bigger bearings.