Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Pattonsburg, MO 64670
Lots of have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Pattonsburg, MO. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest numerous individuals. There’s just on place to get the at a sensible price which’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Opting for a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Of course, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a benefit. The availability of tooling for each of these designs is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a variety of designs from the factory. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really small. Sherline likewise uses WW collet sets for very tiny work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Many prefer ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, the majority of really don’t care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It uses the most flexibility and lots of tool options. You can find numerous 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, handbook and CNC ready versions. Just recently, they have included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you want an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Pattonsburg.
Taig also offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In reality, you can discover a lot of videos and short articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer far more stiff ways and usually more “sturdy” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like a totally different mill or lathe. Taig also uses a great CNC prepared 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 same issues as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they use. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The great thing is that they now use a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both manufactures is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline provides lots of parts and accessories, however very little to make it a much better machine. To start with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This means the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with very little mass implies the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as good and based on vibration problems. For instance, they provide numerous lathe devices, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole has to be small due to the fact that the bearings are little. There is a comparable problem with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this limits its use. Of course those in Pattonsburg, Missouri 64670 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Pattonsburg
There are other machine alternatives too. You can likewise buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other providers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t genuine great. Many wind up either extremely disappointed or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Outstanding upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you want to choose a CNC machine, your best option 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 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 clunky at finest and actually just targeted at amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized industrial manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis machines. The best servos to utilize 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? Many grumble that the small chucks won’t 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 more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you go with bigger bearings.