Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Paxton, NE 69155
Lots of are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Paxton, NE. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract lots of people. There’s just on location to get the at a sensible cost and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Choosing a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Of course, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a benefit. The accessibility of tooling for each of these designs is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts can be found in a range of models from the factory. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline likewise provides WW collet sets for very tiny work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Most prefer ER25, ER32 or 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, 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 the most versatility and lots of tool options. You can discover many 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, handbook and CNC ready versions. Just recently, they have actually added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the web if you want an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Paxton.
Taig likewise uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In reality, you can find a lot of videos and short articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products use much more stiff ways and usually more “heavy duty” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, similar to 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 prepared mill and lathe. You can also select their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the exact same problems as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they offer. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The great thing is that they now provide a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both produces is the lack of major upgrades.
Sherline offers lots of parts and accessories, however not much to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This suggests the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with very little mass suggests the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as good and subject to vibration problems. For example, they offer lots of lathe accessories, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole needs to be small since the bearings are little. There is a similar concern with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Paxton, Nebraska 69155 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Paxton
There are other machine alternatives too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other providers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real great. Lots of end up either really disappointed 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 go with a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software application 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 continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for many years. However, they were clunky at best and really only focused on amature use. Centroid is a well recognized industrial manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis makers. The very 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 using the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many grumble that the little chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On choice is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you opt for bigger bearings.