Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Mount Shasta, CA 96067
Lots of have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Mount Shasta, CA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to lots of people. There’s just on place to get the at a sensible price and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Going with a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Of course, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a benefit. The availability of tooling for each of these models is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts can be found in a range of designs from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline likewise provides WW collet sets for really tiny work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. A lot of 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, most really don’t care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It provides one of the most versatility and lots of tool choices. You can find numerous reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise been available in CNC, handbook and CNC prepared versions. Recently, they have actually included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you want an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Mount Shasta.
Taig also provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In truth, you can discover a great deal of videos and posts referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items offer a lot more stiff 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 look like an absolutely different mill or lathe. Taig also provides a good CNC all set mill and lathe. You can also select their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the very same problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they provide. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The great thing is that they now offer a ballscrew option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both makes is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline offers numerous parts and attachments, however not much to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This indicates the spindle itself requires to be small. A spindle with very little mass indicates the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as good and based on vibration problems. For instance, they provide lots of lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole needs 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 use. Of course those in Mount Shasta, California 96067 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Mount Shasta
There are other machine choices too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t genuine excellent. Lots of end up either extremely dissatisfied or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Outstanding 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 much of the hardware alternatives 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. Nevertheless, they were clunky at best and actually only focused on amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized industrial manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis machines. 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 better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of grumble that the little chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On option is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you go with larger bearings.