Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Veedersburg, IN 47987
Numerous have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Veedersburg, IN. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to many individuals. There’s only on place to get the at a sensible cost and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal 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 also a benefit. The accessibility of tooling for each of these models is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a range of models from the factory. Generally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really small. Sherline likewise offers WW collet sets for extremely small work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. A lot of prefer ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, a lot of truly do not 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 choices. 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 also can be found in CNC, handbook and CNC ready versions. Recently, they have actually added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you want an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Veedersburg.
Taig likewise offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In reality, you can find a great deal of videos and short articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products use far more stiff ways and typically more “heavy duty” overall. The Taig motors are quite weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like a completely various mill or lathe. Taig also uses a great CNC all set mill and lathe. You can also opt for their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the exact same problems as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they use. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The great thing is that they now offer a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both produces is the lack of serious upgrades.
Sherline provides lots of parts and accessories, but not much to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This means the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with very little mass indicates the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as good and based on vibration issues. For example, they provide many lathe accessories, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole has to be little due to the fact that the bearings are little. There is a comparable issue with the mill. You can just utilize ER16 collets and this limits its use. Of course those in Veedersburg, Indiana 47987 may have different needs.
There are other machine options too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other providers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real great. Many end up either very dissatisfied or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Excellent upgrades are ballscrews, updated brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you prefer to go with a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software application 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 offers consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for many years. However, they were clunky at finest and truly just aimed at amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized business manufacture of mills. Many 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. Combine 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 using the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of complain that the small 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 alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you opt for larger bearings.