Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Young America, MN 55558
Numerous are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Young America, MN. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract numerous people. There’s only on place to get the at a reasonable cost and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Going with a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Naturally, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a bonus. The accessibility of tooling for each of these designs is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a variety of designs from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are extremely small. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for very tiny work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. The majority of prefer ER25, ER32 and 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, a lot of really 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 many tool choices. You can discover many evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise been available in CNC, handbook and CNC all set variations. Just recently, they have added ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you want a review or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Young America.
Taig likewise uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In fact, you can find a great deal of videos and articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide far more rigid ways and generally more “heavy duty” overall. The Taig motors are quite weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like an absolutely different mill or lathe. Taig also offers a great CNC prepared 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 very same problems 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 good thing is that they now offer a ballscrew option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both manufactures is the lack of serious upgrades.
Sherline uses many parts and accessories, but very little to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This means the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with extremely little mass indicates the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as great and subject to vibration problems. For instance, they offer many lathe devices, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole needs to be little since the bearings are small. There is a similar concern with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in Young America, Minnesota 55558 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Young America
There are other machine choices too. You can likewise purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other providers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t genuine good. Many end up either extremely dissatisfied or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Excellent upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you want to go with a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or a number of the hardware alternatives in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at best and actually just targeted at amature usage. Centroid is a well established industrial manufacture of mills. A lot of which are 5 axis machines. The 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 using the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of grumble that the small chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On choice is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you go with larger bearings.