Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for New Paltz, NY 12561
Many have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the New Paltz, NY. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest numerous people. There’s only on location to get the at a reasonable rate which’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Opting for a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Obviously, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a perk. The schedule of tooling for each of these designs is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a range of models from the factory. Generally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for very tiny work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. A lot of choose ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, many really do not care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers the most flexibility and many tool options. You can discover many evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise come in CNC, manual and CNC prepared versions. 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 comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near New Paltz.
Taig likewise offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In reality, you can find a lot of videos and short articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items use much more rigid methods and generally more “sturdy” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like a completely various mill or lathe. Taig also uses a great CNC ready mill and lathe. You can also opt for their digital CNC system which uses 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 use. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The great thing is that they now offer a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both makes is the lack of major upgrades.
Sherline provides many parts and accessories, however very little to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This indicates the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with really little mass suggests the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as excellent and subject to vibration issues. For instance, they provide numerous lathe accessories, 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 small. There is a similar concern with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in New Paltz, New York 12561 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in New Paltz
There are other machine options too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t real excellent. Lots of end up either really disappointed or doing a great deal 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 choose a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far better than Mach3 or much of the hardware choices in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it provides consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for several years. However, they were clunky at finest and truly just aimed at amature use. Centroid is a well established commercial 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. Combine 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 better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many grumble that the small chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On alternative is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you opt for bigger bearings.