Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Stillmore, GA 30464
Lots of have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Stillmore, GA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to many individuals. There’s only on location to get the at a reasonable rate which’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Going with a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Naturally, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a perk. The accessibility of tooling for each of these designs is exceptional. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a range of models from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for very small work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Most choose ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle go through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the 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 uses the most versatility and numerous tool choices. You can find lots of 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, handbook and CNC ready versions. Just recently, they have included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you want a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Stillmore.
Taig also uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In truth, you can find a great deal of videos and short articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide much more rigid ways and normally more “sturdy” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like an absolutely different mill or lathe. Taig likewise provides a good CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can likewise select their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the same problems 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 use a ballscrew option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both produces is the absence of severe upgrades.
Sherline uses many parts and attachments, however very little to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This indicates the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with really little mass means the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as excellent and based on vibration issues. For instance, they provide numerous lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole has to be small since the bearings are small. There is a comparable problem with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Stillmore, Georgia 30464 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Stillmore
There are other machine choices too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t real good. Many wind up either really disappointed or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Excellent upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you desire to choose a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far better than Mach3 or many of the hardware choices in the market. You can do rigid 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. However, they were clunky at finest and actually only targeted at amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized industrial manufacture of mills. A number of which are 5 axis machines. 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 a powerful machine. We will also produce evaluations of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill using the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Numerous complain that the little chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On alternative is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open up more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you opt for larger bearings.