Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Shawnee Mission, KS 66209
Numerous are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Shawnee Mission, KS. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to lots of people. There’s just on location to get the at a reasonable cost which’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Choosing a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Obviously, 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 designs is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a variety of designs from the factory. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for really small work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Many prefer ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, the majority of really don’t care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers one of the most flexibility and numerous tool choices. 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 been available in CNC, handbook and CNC prepared versions. Just recently, they have actually included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the web if you want a review or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Shawnee Mission.
Taig also provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In fact, you can discover a lot of videos and posts describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer a lot more stiff ways and normally more “sturdy” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a totally various mill or lathe. Taig also offers 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 exact same issues as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they offer. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The nice 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 lack of severe upgrades.
Sherline provides many parts and attachments, however not much to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This implies the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with really little mass implies the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as great and based on vibration issues. For instance, they offer lots of lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole needs to be little since the bearings are small. There is a similar concern with the mill. You can just utilize ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Shawnee Mission, Kansas 66209 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Shawnee Mission
There are other machine options too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other providers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t genuine good. Many end up either extremely dissatisfied or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Excellent upgrades are ballscrews, updated brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you want to opt for a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far better than Mach3 or a number of the hardware alternatives in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for several years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at best and actually just aimed at amature usage. Centroid is a well established commercial manufacture of mills. Many 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 likewise 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? Lots of grumble that the small chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will simply 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 opt for larger bearings.