Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Palmdale, FL 33944
Many have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Palmdale, FL. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to lots of people. There’s only on place to get the at an affordable rate and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Going with 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 benefit. The availability of tooling for each of these designs is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts can be found in a variety of models from the factory. Generally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really small. Sherline likewise provides WW collet sets for extremely tiny work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. A lot of choose ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, most actually do not care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers one of the most flexibility and lots of tool options. You can discover numerous reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also come in CNC, manual and CNC prepared variations. Just recently, they have added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you desire an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Palmdale.
Taig likewise provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In truth, you can find a lot of videos and articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer a lot more stiff ways and normally more “strong” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like an absolutely different mill or lathe. Taig also uses a great CNC ready mill and lathe. You can also go with their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. 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 an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The great thing is that they now offer a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both produces is the lack of major upgrades.
Sherline provides lots of parts and attachments, but not much to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This means the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with really little mass indicates the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as excellent and subject to vibration issues. For instance, they provide numerous lathe accessories, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole has to be little because the bearings are little. There is a similar issue with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Palmdale, Florida 33944 may have different needs.
There are other machine alternatives too. You can likewise purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t genuine good. Many wind up either extremely dissatisfied or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Excellent upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you want to go with a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or much of the hardware options 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 standard for many years. Nevertheless, they were cumbersome at best and really only focused on amature usage. Centroid is a well established business manufacture of mills. Many of which are 5 axis devices. The very 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 reviews of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill utilizing the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of 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 integrated in. This can open up more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you choose bigger bearings.