Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Angola, NY 14006
Numerous have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Angola, NY. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to lots of people. There’s only on place to get the at a sensible cost which’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Going with a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Of course, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a benefit. The accessibility of tooling for each of these models is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a variety of designs from the factory. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really small. Sherline likewise provides WW collet sets for extremely small work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Many 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, many actually 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 flexibility and lots of 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 likewise been available in CNC, handbook and CNC all set variations. Just recently, they have included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the internet if you desire an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Angola.
Taig also offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In fact, you can find a great deal of videos and short articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide far more rigid ways and normally more “heavy duty” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like an absolutely different mill or lathe. Taig likewise uses a great CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can also go with their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the same issues as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they provide. We will do an evaluation 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 disadvantage with both makes is the lack of serious upgrades.
Sherline offers lots of parts and attachments, however very little to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This suggests the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with very little mass means the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as great and subject to vibration problems. For instance, they provide many lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole needs to be small due to the fact that the bearings are little. There is a comparable issue with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Angola, New York 14006 may have different needs.
There are other machine choices too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real good. Numerous end up either very disappointed or doing a great deal 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 desire to go with a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or a lot of the hardware options in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it offers continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for several years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at best and actually only targeted at amature usage. 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. Combine that with the Centroid Acorn and you will have an effective machine. We will likewise 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 won’t 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 up more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you choose larger bearings.