Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for West Dummerston, VT 05357
Numerous are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the West Dummerston, VT. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to numerous individuals. There’s just on location to get the at a reasonable cost and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Choosing a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Obviously, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a perk. The availability of tooling for each of these designs is excellent. 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 extremely little. Sherline likewise provides WW collet sets for really tiny work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Many choose ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle pass 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 offers the most flexibility and many tool options. You can discover lots of evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also come in CNC, handbook and CNC ready versions. Just recently, they have added ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you want an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near West Dummerston.
Taig likewise uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In truth, you can discover a great deal of videos and short articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products provide a lot more stiff ways and normally more “heavy duty” overall. The Taig motors are pretty 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 uses a good CNC all set mill and lathe. You can likewise choose their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the same problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they use. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now provide a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both manufactures is the absence of severe upgrades.
Sherline offers lots of parts and attachments, however not much to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock usages bad quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This means the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with very little mass implies the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as good and based on vibration problems. For example, they provide lots of lathe accessories, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole has to be small since the bearings are small. There is a similar concern with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in West Dummerston, Vermont 05357 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in West Dummerston
There are other machine alternatives 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. Numerous end up either really dissatisfied or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Outstanding upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded 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 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 consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for many years. However, they were clunky at best and really only targeted at amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized commercial 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 reviews of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill utilizing 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 just fall out. On option is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you opt for larger bearings.