Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Sulphur, LA 70665
Lots of are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Sulphur, LA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest lots of people. There’s just on place to get the at a sensible rate and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Opting for a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Obviously, you would require 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 great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a variety of models from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really small. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for really tiny work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. A lot of choose ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, the majority of truly don’t care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers the most versatility and numerous tool choices. You can discover numerous reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also can be found in CNC, manual and CNC ready versions. Just recently, they have added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you desire an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Sulphur.
Taig also offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In reality, you can discover a lot of videos and posts describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products use much more rigid ways and usually more “strong” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like an absolutely various mill or lathe. Taig also uses a great CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can also select their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the same problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they provide. 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 offer a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both produces is the lack of serious upgrades.
Sherline offers many parts and attachments, however very little to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This suggests the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with very little mass means the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as excellent and based on vibration issues. For instance, they provide lots of lathe devices, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole has to be small since the bearings are little. There is a comparable problem with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in Sulphur, Louisiana 70665 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Sulphur
There are other machine options too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real great. Many wind up either very disappointed or doing a great deal 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 opt for a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far better than Mach3 or much 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 many years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at best and actually only targeted at amature usage. Centroid is a well established industrial manufacture of mills. Much 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 reviews 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 small chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On option is to buy 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.