Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Cerulean, KY 42215
Lots of are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Cerulean, KY. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract many people. There’s just on place to get the at a reasonable price 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. The schedule of tooling for each of these models is exceptional. 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. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline likewise provides WW collet sets for very small work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Most choose ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, many truly do not care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It provides the most flexibility and numerous tool options. You can find many 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 variations. Recently, they have added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much 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 Cerulean.
Taig likewise uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In reality, you can discover a lot of videos and posts describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products use far more stiff ways and usually more “heavy duty” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a completely different mill or lathe. Taig likewise uses a great CNC ready mill and lathe. You can also choose their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the same problems as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they offer. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The great thing is that they now offer a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both produces is the absence of severe upgrades.
Sherline provides many parts and accessories, but not much to make it a much better machine. To start with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This implies the spindle itself requires to be small. A spindle with extremely little mass suggests the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as great and based on vibration issues. For example, they offer many lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole has to be small because the bearings are small. There is a similar issue with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Cerulean, Kentucky 42215 may have different needs.
There are other machine alternatives too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other providers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t genuine good. Lots of wind up either extremely disappointed 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 desire to opt for a CNC machine, your best choice 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 rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it offers constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for many years. However, they were cumbersome at best and truly just aimed at 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 brands. Integrate that with the Centroid Acorn and you will have an effective machine. We will also 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 grumble that the small chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On option is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you go with bigger bearings.