Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Reston, VA 20191
Numerous have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Reston, VA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to many individuals. There’s just on location to get the at an affordable cost and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Choosing a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Naturally, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a bonus. The accessibility of tooling for each of these models is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a variety of designs from the factory. Generally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for very tiny work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. A lot of choose ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle go through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, the majority of truly 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 versatility and lots of tool options. You can find numerous evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise can be found in CNC, manual and CNC ready versions. Just recently, they have actually included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far 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 Reston.
Taig likewise offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competitors. In fact, you can discover a lot of videos and short articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer a lot more stiff methods and typically 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 a totally different mill or lathe. Taig also uses a good CNC ready 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 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 good thing is that they now provide a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both manufactures is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline offers lots of parts and attachments, but not much to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock usages bad quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This implies the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with extremely little mass indicates the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as excellent and subject to vibration issues. For instance, they provide many lathe accessories, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole needs to be little since the bearings are little. There is a comparable issue with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this limits its use. Of course those in Reston, Virginia 20191 may have different needs.
There are other machine choices too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other providers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t real excellent. Many wind up either extremely dissatisfied or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Excellent 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 options in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at best and really only aimed at amature use. Centroid is a well recognized business manufacture of mills. A number of which are 5 axis makers. The very best servos to use 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 also produce evaluations of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill utilizing the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many complain that the small chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On alternative is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you choose bigger bearings.