Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Tuscumbia, MO 65082
Many are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Tuscumbia, MO. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract numerous people. There’s only on place to get the at a reasonable price which’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Opting for a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Obviously, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a perk. The schedule of tooling for each of these models is exceptional. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts can be found in a range of designs from the factory. Generally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline also offers WW collet sets for really tiny work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Most choose ER25, ER32 or even 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 actually 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 lots of tool choices. You can find numerous reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also come in CNC, handbook and CNC all set versions. Just recently, they have actually included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you want a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Tuscumbia.
Taig also uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competitors. In truth, you can find a great deal of videos and articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products use far more rigid ways and generally more “heavy duty” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a totally different mill or lathe. Taig likewise provides a nice CNC ready mill and lathe. You can likewise choose their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the same problems 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 good thing is that they now offer a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both manufactures is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline provides lots of parts and accessories, but not much to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This implies the spindle itself requires to be small. A spindle with very little mass means the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as good and based on vibration problems. For example, they provide numerous lathe devices, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole needs to be little because the bearings are little. There is a similar problem with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this limits its use. Of course those in Tuscumbia, Missouri 65082 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Tuscumbia
There are other machine options too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other providers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t genuine great. Many end up either really disappointed or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Outstanding upgrades are ballscrews, updated brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you want to choose a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or much of the hardware alternatives in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it provides continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for many years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at finest and actually just aimed at amature usage. Centroid is a well established business manufacture of mills. A number of which are 5 axis machines. The very best servos to utilize 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 a powerful machine. We will also produce evaluations of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill utilizing the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of complain that the small chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On alternative is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you opt for bigger bearings.