Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Cheyenne, WY 82003
Numerous are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Cheyenne, WY. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest numerous people. There’s just on place to get the at an affordable price and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Going with a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Obviously, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a benefit. The accessibility 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 variety of designs from the factory. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for extremely small work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Many prefer ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, a lot of really don’t care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers the most flexibility and lots of tool options. You can discover numerous reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also come in CNC, manual and CNC ready variations. Recently, they have actually included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the web if you desire a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Cheyenne.
Taig likewise offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In fact, you can find a great deal of videos and short articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products use far more rigid methods and usually more “sturdy” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like a totally various mill or lathe. Taig also uses a great CNC all set mill and lathe. You can also opt for their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the same issues as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they use. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The nice thing is that they now provide a ballscrew option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both manufactures is the lack of severe upgrades.
Sherline provides many 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 small. This means the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with really little mass suggests the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as good and subject to vibration problems. For example, they use many lathe devices, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole needs to be little since the bearings are little. There is a comparable concern with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Cheyenne, Wyoming 82003 may have different needs.
There are other machine alternatives too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t genuine great. Numerous wind 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 better than Mach3 or much of the hardware choices in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it provides consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for several years. However, they were cumbersome at best and really just aimed at amature usage. Centroid is a well established commercial manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis machines. The very 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 a powerful 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? Many complain that the small chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On choice is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you choose bigger bearings.