Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Alameda, CA 94501
Lots of are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Alameda, CA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to numerous individuals. There’s only on place to get the at a reasonable cost which’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 also a bonus offer. The accessibility of tooling for each of these designs is exceptional. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a range of designs from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are extremely small. Sherline likewise offers WW collet sets for really tiny work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. The majority of prefer ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, most actually don’t 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 lots of tool options. You can find 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 can be found in CNC, handbook and CNC all set versions. Just recently, they have included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you want a review or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Alameda.
Taig likewise provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In reality, you can discover a lot of videos and articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide much more rigid ways and normally more “heavy duty” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a completely various mill or lathe. Taig also uses a nice CNC ready mill and lathe. You can likewise opt for their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the same issues 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 offer a ballscrew option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both makes is the lack of serious upgrades.
Sherline provides numerous parts and attachments, however very little to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This implies the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with very little mass suggests the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as great and based on vibration issues. For example, they offer many lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole has to be little since the bearings are little. There is a similar problem with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Alameda, California 94501 may have different needs.
There are other machine choices too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other suppliers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t genuine good. Many end up either really disappointed 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 choose a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far better than Mach3 or many of the hardware choices in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it offers consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. However, they were clunky at best and really only focused on amature use. Centroid is a well recognized industrial manufacture of mills. Many of which are 5 axis makers. 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 evaluations of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill using the Acorn hardware.
What about a much 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 built in. This can open more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you go with bigger bearings.