Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Pasadena, TX 77504
Numerous have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Pasadena, TX. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest many people. There’s only on place to get the at a sensible rate and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Choosing a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Obviously, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a benefit. The accessibility of tooling for each of these models is exceptional. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good 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 small. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for extremely small work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Many choose ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, a lot of truly 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 lots of tool choices. You can find many reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also can be found in CNC, manual and CNC prepared versions. Recently, they have included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you desire an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Pasadena.
Taig also uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In truth, you can find a great deal of videos and short articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products provide far more rigid methods and usually more “sturdy” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like an absolutely different mill or lathe. Taig likewise offers a good CNC all set mill and lathe. You can likewise choose their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the same problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they provide. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now provide a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both makes is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline uses lots of parts and accessories, but very little 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 requires to be little. A spindle with extremely little mass implies the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as excellent and subject to vibration issues. For instance, they use numerous lathe devices, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole needs to be little because the bearings are small. There is a similar issue with the mill. You can only utilize ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Pasadena, Texas 77504 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Pasadena
There are other machine options too. You can likewise buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other suppliers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real good. Many wind up either really disappointed or doing a lot 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 want to opt for a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or a lot of the hardware choices in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it provides constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for several years. However, they were cumbersome at best and really only targeted at amature use. Centroid is a well established commercial manufacture of mills. A lot of which are 5 axis makers. The best servos to utilize for CNC on the Sherline or Taig are either DMM, Clearpath or GlockCNC brands. Integrate that with the Centroid Acorn and you will have an effective machine. We will likewise 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 complain that the little chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On option is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you choose bigger bearings.