Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Arcade, NY 14009
Lots of have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Arcade, NY. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to numerous individuals. There’s only on place to get the at an affordable price and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Opting for a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Obviously, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a reward. The schedule of tooling for each of these models is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts can be found in a range of models from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are extremely small. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for really small work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Most prefer ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, the majority of really don’t care for the MT1 and barely 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 discover many evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also been available in CNC, handbook and CNC ready variations. Just recently, they have included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you desire an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Arcade.
Taig likewise uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competitors. In truth, you can discover a great deal of videos and posts referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items use far more rigid ways and usually 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 an absolutely various mill or lathe. Taig also uses a nice CNC all set mill and lathe. You can also select their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the exact same problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they offer. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now offer a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both manufactures is the absence of serious upgrades.
Sherline uses numerous parts and attachments, but very little to make it a much better machine. To start with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This suggests the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with really little mass indicates the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as good and based on vibration issues. For instance, they use lots of lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole needs to be little because the bearings are small. There is a comparable problem with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this limits its use. Of course those in Arcade, New York 14009 may have different needs.
There are other machine choices too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other suppliers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t genuine great. Many end up either extremely disappointed or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. 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 choices 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 standard for many years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at finest and actually only focused on amature use. Centroid is a well established industrial manufacture of mills. A number of which are 5 axis devices. 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 an effective 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? Many grumble that the small chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On alternative is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you opt for bigger bearings.