Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Boyne Falls, MI 49713
Many are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Boyne Falls, MI. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract lots of individuals. There’s only on location to get the at a sensible cost which’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Going with a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Of course, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a bonus offer. The schedule of tooling for each of these designs is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a range of designs from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are extremely little. Sherline also offers WW collet sets for really tiny work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Many prefer ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, the majority of truly do not care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers one of the most flexibility and lots of tool options. You can find lots of evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also come in CNC, handbook and CNC ready 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 Boyne Falls.
Taig likewise uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In truth, you can find a great deal of videos and articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products use far more rigid methods and typically more “heavy duty” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like a totally different mill or lathe. Taig also provides a great CNC ready mill and lathe. You can also go with their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the same issues as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they use. 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 deal a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both manufactures is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline offers many parts and attachments, however 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 extremely little mass indicates the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as good and based on vibration issues. For example, they use lots of lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole needs to be little since the bearings are little. There is a comparable problem with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this limits its use. Of course those in Boyne Falls, Michigan 49713 may have different needs.
There are other machine alternatives too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other suppliers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t genuine good. Many wind up either really dissatisfied or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Exceptional upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you want to go with a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much 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 standard for several years. However, they were clunky at best and actually only focused on amature use. Centroid is a well established commercial 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. Combine 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 using the Acorn hardware.
What about a 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 buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open up more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you choose bigger bearings.