Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Mobile, AL 36641
Numerous are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Mobile, AL. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract numerous individuals. There’s only on location to get the at a sensible price and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Going with a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Naturally, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a benefit. The schedule of tooling for each of these designs is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a range of designs from the factory. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for extremely tiny work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. The majority of choose ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle go through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, a lot of really 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 many tool choices. You can find numerous 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 all set versions. Just recently, they have actually included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you desire a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Mobile.
Taig also uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competitors. In reality, you can discover a great deal of videos and posts describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer much more rigid ways and normally more “heavy duty” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a completely various mill or lathe. Taig also uses a good CNC all set mill and lathe. You can also go with their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the same issues as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they use. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The great thing is that they now use a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both makes is the absence of serious upgrades.
Sherline provides lots of parts and accessories, but not much to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This suggests the spindle itself requires to be small. A spindle with really little mass suggests the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as excellent and based on vibration issues. For instance, they offer numerous lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole has to be little because the bearings are little. There is a comparable concern with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Mobile, Alabama 36641 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Mobile
There are other machine alternatives too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other suppliers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real good. Lots of end up either really disappointed or doing a lot 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 prefer to opt for a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or a lot of the hardware options in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at best and actually only focused on amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized commercial manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis makers. The 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 an effective machine. We will also produce reviews of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill using the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of grumble that the small 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 up more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you opt for larger bearings.