Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Parowan, UT 84761
Many have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Parowan, UT. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest numerous individuals. There’s just on place to get the at a reasonable price which’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Opting for a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Naturally, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a reward. The accessibility of tooling for each of these designs is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a variety of models from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline likewise uses WW collet sets for really small work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Many choose ER25, ER32 and 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 uses one of the most flexibility and many tool choices. You can find many evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs 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 variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you want an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Parowan.
Taig likewise offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In fact, you can find a lot of videos and short articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer far more stiff methods and generally more “strong” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, similar to 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 prepared mill and lathe. You can likewise 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 little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they use. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The nice thing is that they now use a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both produces is the absence of severe upgrades.
Sherline uses numerous parts and accessories, however not much to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This suggests the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with really little mass suggests the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as excellent and based on vibration issues. For example, they offer numerous lathe accessories, however 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 little. There is a comparable issue with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Parowan, Utah 84761 may have different needs.
There are other machine options too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other suppliers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real excellent. Lots of end up either extremely dissatisfied or doing a great deal 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 choose a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or a number of the hardware alternatives in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it provides consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at best and truly only aimed at amature use. Centroid is a well recognized industrial manufacture of mills. A number of which are 5 axis devices. The best servos to utilize 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 utilizing the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of complain that the little chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On option is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you choose larger bearings.