Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Punta Gorda, FL 33951
Lots of have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Punta Gorda, FL. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to lots of people. There’s only on location to get the at a sensible price and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Opting for a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Obviously, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a bonus. The availability of tooling for each of these models is exceptional. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a range of designs from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really little. Sherline also offers WW collet sets for extremely small work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Many choose ER25, ER32 and even 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, many actually 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 numerous tool options. You can discover many evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise can be found in CNC, manual and CNC ready versions. Recently, they have added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the internet if you desire an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Punta Gorda.
Taig likewise offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In fact, you can find a lot of videos and short articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products use a lot more rigid ways and normally more “sturdy” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like an absolutely various mill or lathe. Taig also uses a great CNC ready mill and lathe. You can also select their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the same issues as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they provide. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The nice thing is that they now use a ballscrew option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both produces is the lack of major upgrades.
Sherline uses lots of parts and attachments, however not much to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock usages bad quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This suggests the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with very little mass means the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as excellent and based on vibration issues. For example, they offer numerous lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole has to be small since the bearings are little. There is a comparable problem with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Punta Gorda, Florida 33951 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Punta Gorda
There are other machine options too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t real great. Many wind up either really dissatisfied or doing a lot 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 desire to go with a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far 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 requirement for many years. However, they were cumbersome at best and actually only targeted at amature use. Centroid is a well recognized business manufacture of mills. Many 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. 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 using the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many grumble that the small chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On choice is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you choose bigger bearings.