Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Scroggins, TX 75480
Many have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Scroggins, TX. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest lots of individuals. There’s just on place to get the at an affordable rate which’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Opting for a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Of course, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a bonus. The availability of tooling for each of these designs is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a range of designs from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for extremely tiny work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Most prefer ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very 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 uses the most versatility and numerous tool options. 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 likewise can be found in CNC, manual and CNC prepared versions. Recently, they have included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you want an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Scroggins.
Taig likewise uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competitors. In truth, you can find a lot of videos and short articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide much more stiff ways and usually more “sturdy” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a completely various mill or lathe. Taig likewise provides a nice CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can also go with their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. 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 use. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The great thing is that they now provide a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both produces is the lack of severe upgrades.
Sherline uses many parts and accessories, however very little to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This means the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with really little mass indicates the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as excellent and subject to vibration problems. For example, they use numerous lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole needs to be small because the bearings are small. There is a comparable problem with the mill. You can just utilize ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Scroggins, Texas 75480 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Scroggins
There are other machine options 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 genuine great. Lots of wind up either extremely dissatisfied or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Exceptional upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you prefer to go with a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or much of the hardware options in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it offers continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for several years. However, they were cumbersome at best and truly only targeted at amature use. Centroid is a well recognized commercial 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 an effective machine. We will likewise 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 small chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On option is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you choose larger bearings.