Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Stitzer, WI 53825
Lots of are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Stitzer, WI. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest numerous individuals. There’s only on place to get the at a sensible rate and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect 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 likewise a benefit. The availability of tooling for each of these designs is excellent. 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. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for very tiny work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. A lot of choose ER25, ER32 and 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 really do not care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It provides one of the most flexibility and many 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 come in CNC, manual and CNC ready versions. Recently, they have added ballscrew variations for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you want an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Stitzer.
Taig likewise provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In fact, you can find a great deal of videos and articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items use a lot more rigid methods and generally more “heavy duty” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like an absolutely different 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 problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they offer. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now use a ballscrew option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both produces is the absence of severe upgrades.
Sherline offers numerous parts and accessories, however not much to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock usages bad quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This means the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with very little mass means the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as excellent and based on vibration problems. For instance, they offer numerous lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole needs to be little due to the fact that the bearings are small. There is a comparable issue with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Stitzer, Wisconsin 53825 may have different needs.
There are other machine options too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other suppliers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t genuine excellent. Numerous end up either really disappointed 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 prefer to opt for a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or much of the hardware choices in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it provides constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. However, they were clunky at best and actually only targeted at amature use. Centroid is a well recognized commercial manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis devices. 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 using the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of complain that the little chucks won’t 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 up more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you go with bigger bearings.