Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Caguas, PR 00727
Numerous are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Caguas, PR. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest many people. There’s only on location to get the at a sensible rate which’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Choosing a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Naturally, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also 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 come in a variety of models from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really little. Sherline also offers WW collet sets for really small work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. A lot of choose 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, most really do not care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers one of the most flexibility and numerous tool choices. You can find many evaluations 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 ready variations. Just recently, they have included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the internet if you desire a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Caguas.
Taig likewise offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In fact, you can find a lot of videos and short articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide much more rigid ways and normally more “heavy duty” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like a completely various mill or lathe. Taig likewise uses a good CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can also choose their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the very same issues 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 nice thing is that they now use a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both manufactures is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline offers lots of parts and accessories, however very little to make it a better machine. To begin 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 extremely little mass suggests the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as good and based on vibration issues. For example, they offer many lathe devices, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole has to be little since the bearings are small. There is a similar issue with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in Caguas, Puerto Rico 00727 may have different needs.
There are other machine alternatives too. You can likewise purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other suppliers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t genuine good. Lots of end up either extremely dissatisfied or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Exceptional upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you prefer to choose a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or much of the hardware alternatives in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it provides continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. However, they were clunky at best and really only targeted at amature use. Centroid is a well recognized business manufacture of mills. Many of which are 5 axis devices. The very 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 a powerful machine. We will also produce reviews of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill using the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of complain 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 built in. This can open up more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you opt for bigger bearings.