Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Alexis, IL 61412
Lots of have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Alexis, IL. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to lots of people. There’s only on location to get the at a reasonable cost and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Choosing a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Of course, you would require 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 very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts can be found in a range of designs from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really little. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for very small work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Many prefer ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, many actually do not care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers the most flexibility and numerous tool options. You can find many reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also been available in CNC, handbook and CNC prepared versions. Recently, they have included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you desire a review or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Alexis.
Taig also provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In fact, you can discover a lot of videos and articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items use far more rigid methods and normally more “sturdy” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a totally various mill or lathe. Taig likewise uses a nice CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can likewise choose 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 offer. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now offer a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both manufactures is the absence of severe upgrades.
Sherline provides many parts and attachments, but not much to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This implies the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with really little mass implies the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as excellent 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 go through hole needs to be small since the bearings are little. There is a comparable problem with the mill. You can only utilize ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Alexis, Illinois 61412 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Alexis
There are other machine choices too. You can likewise buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t genuine great. Lots of end up either very disappointed 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 prefer to choose a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far better than Mach3 or many of the hardware options 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 several years. Nevertheless, they were cumbersome at best and truly just aimed at amature use. Centroid is a well recognized commercial manufacture of mills. A lot of which are 5 axis makers. The best servos to use 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 better jaw chuck for the lathe? Numerous grumble that the little chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On option is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you go with larger bearings.