Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Bowling Green, KY 42104
Numerous are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Bowling Green, KY. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract many people. There’s only on place to get the at an affordable cost which’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal 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 likewise a bonus offer. The availability of tooling for each of these designs is outstanding. 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. Generally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for very tiny work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. A lot of prefer ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, a lot of truly do not care for the MT1 and barely 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 numerous evaluations 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 variations. Recently, they have included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the web if you desire an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Bowling Green.
Taig also provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In truth, you can discover a great deal of videos and articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items use much more rigid methods and typically more “strong” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like a completely various mill or lathe. Taig also offers a nice CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can also select 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 model they provide. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now use a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both makes is the absence of serious upgrades.
Sherline uses lots of parts and attachments, but very little to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This implies the spindle itself requires to be small. A spindle with very little mass indicates the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as great and subject to vibration issues. For example, 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 due to the fact that the bearings are small. There is a similar issue with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Bowling Green, Kentucky 42104 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Bowling Green
There are other machine choices too. You can likewise purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other suppliers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t genuine excellent. Numerous wind up either really dissatisfied or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Excellent upgrades are ballscrews, updated brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you want 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 number of the hardware alternatives in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for several years. However, they were clunky at best and actually only aimed at amature use. Centroid is a well recognized 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 brands. 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 much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of grumble that the small chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On choice is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open up more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you choose larger bearings.