Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Union Grove, NC 28689
Numerous have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Union Grove, NC. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to numerous people. There’s only on location to get the at an affordable cost and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Choosing a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Naturally, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a reward. The availability of tooling for each of these designs is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a range of designs from the factory. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are extremely small. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for extremely small work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Many prefer 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, most really don’t care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It uses the most versatility and many tool options. You can find lots of reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise can be found in CNC, handbook and CNC ready versions. Recently, they have actually included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the web if you want an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Union Grove.
Taig also uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In fact, you can discover a great deal of videos and posts describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products use much more rigid methods and generally 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 various mill or lathe. Taig likewise uses a nice CNC ready mill and lathe. You can also select their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the exact same issues as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they offer. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The nice thing is that they now provide a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both manufactures is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline uses numerous parts and attachments, however not much to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This means the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with very little mass indicates the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as great and based on vibration problems. For example, they use many lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole has to be small because the bearings are little. There is a similar concern with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Union Grove, North Carolina 28689 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Union Grove
There are other machine choices too. You can likewise purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t real good. Lots of end up either extremely 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 go with a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or many of the hardware options in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it offers continuous 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. A lot of which are 5 axis devices. The best servos to utilize for CNC on the Sherline or Taig are either DMM, Clearpath or GlockCNC brands. Combine 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 utilizing the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many complain that the small chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On option is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open up more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you opt for larger bearings.