Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Troutdale, OR 97060
Lots of are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Troutdale, OR. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to lots of people. There’s only on location to get the at a sensible price which’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Going with a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Obviously, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a perk. The schedule of tooling for each of these models is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a variety 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. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. A lot of choose ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, a lot of truly don’t care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers one of the most versatility and lots of tool options. 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 been available in CNC, manual and CNC prepared versions. Just recently, they have included ballscrew versions 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 Troutdale.
Taig likewise provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In fact, you can find a great deal of videos and posts referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide far more stiff methods and typically more “sturdy” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like an absolutely different mill or lathe. Taig likewise provides a nice CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can also select their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the same issues as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they use. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The nice thing is that they now provide a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both makes is the lack of severe upgrades.
Sherline offers lots of parts and attachments, however not much to make it a much better machine. To start with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This indicates the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with extremely little mass suggests the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as excellent and subject to vibration issues. For example, they offer numerous lathe accessories, 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 only use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Troutdale, Oregon 97060 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Troutdale
There are other machine options too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other suppliers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real excellent. Lots of end up either extremely disappointed or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Outstanding upgrades are ballscrews, updated brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you desire to choose a CNC machine, your best choice 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 standard for many years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at finest and actually only focused on amature use. Centroid is a well established business manufacture of mills. A number of which are 5 axis machines. The very best servos to use for CNC on the Sherline or Taig are either DMM, Clearpath or GlockCNC brand names. 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 won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On option is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open up more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you go with bigger bearings.