Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Watsontown, PA 17777
Lots of are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Watsontown, PA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest lots of people. There’s only on location to get the at an affordable price and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Going with a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Of course, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a bonus offer. The availability of tooling for each of these designs is exceptional. For 5C collet sets, you can get great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a range of models from the factory. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really little. Sherline also offers WW collet sets for really small work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Many prefer ER25, ER32 or perhaps 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, many truly do not 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 numerous tool options. You can find lots of evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs 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 included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far 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 Watsontown.
Taig likewise uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In fact, you can discover a great deal of videos and posts referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer much more rigid methods and generally more “strong” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a totally different mill or lathe. Taig likewise uses a nice CNC all set mill and lathe. You can also go with 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 small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they offer. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The great thing is that they now offer a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both manufactures is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline offers numerous parts and accessories, however very little to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This implies the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with really little mass suggests the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as good and based on vibration issues. For example, they provide lots of lathe devices, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole needs to be little due to the fact that the bearings are little. There is a similar issue with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in Watsontown, Pennsylvania 17777 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Watsontown
There are other machine options too. You can likewise purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t real great. Many wind up either really dissatisfied 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 go with a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or many of the hardware alternatives 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. Nevertheless, they were clunky at finest and truly only aimed at amature use. Centroid is a well established business manufacture of mills. Many 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 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 better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many 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 integrated in. This can open more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you go with larger bearings.