Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Montpelier, VT 05601
Lots of have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Montpelier, VT. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to numerous people. There’s just on location to get the at a reasonable cost which’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 reward. The accessibility of tooling for each of these models is exceptional. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts can be found in a variety of designs from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really little. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for very tiny work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Most prefer ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, the majority 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 one of 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 can be found in CNC, manual and CNC ready versions. Just recently, they have added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you desire an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Montpelier.
Taig likewise uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competitors. In truth, you can find a great deal of videos and posts referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items use far more rigid methods and generally more “heavy duty” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like a completely different mill or lathe. Taig also offers a good CNC ready mill and lathe. You can also select their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the exact same problems as the Sherline. They are far too little. 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 provide a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both manufactures is the absence of serious upgrades.
Sherline offers numerous parts and attachments, however not much to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This indicates the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with extremely little mass implies the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as great and based on vibration issues. For instance, they provide lots of lathe devices, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole needs to be small since the bearings are small. There is a similar issue with the mill. You can just utilize ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Montpelier, Vermont 05601 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Montpelier
There are other machine choices too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other suppliers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t genuine great. Many end up either really dissatisfied or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Exceptional 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 application and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or a lot of the hardware choices in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it offers constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. However, they were cumbersome at finest and really just aimed at amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized commercial manufacture of mills. A number 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. 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 utilizing the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many grumble that the small chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On alternative is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you go with bigger bearings.