Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Columbus, GA 31909
Lots of are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Columbus, GA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest lots of individuals. There’s only on place to get the at a reasonable price and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Choosing a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Of course, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a perk. The availability of tooling for each of these designs is exceptional. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a range of models from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for very tiny work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. The majority of prefer ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, most truly do not care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers the most flexibility and numerous tool choices. You can find lots of 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, handbook and CNC prepared variations. Recently, they have included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far 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 Columbus.
Taig likewise offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In truth, you can find a lot of videos and articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer a lot more stiff ways and usually more “strong” 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 totally different mill or lathe. Taig likewise provides a good CNC all set mill and lathe. You can also go with 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 design they use. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The nice thing is that they now offer a ballscrew option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both manufactures is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline offers numerous parts and attachments, however not much to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This implies the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with extremely little mass suggests the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as great and based on vibration issues. For instance, they offer many lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole has to be little due to the fact that the bearings are small. There is a comparable concern with the mill. You can only utilize ER16 collets and this limits its use. Of course those in Columbus, Georgia 31909 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Columbus
There are other machine options too. You can likewise purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other suppliers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real good. Lots of wind up either very disappointed or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Outstanding upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you prefer to opt for a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far better than Mach3 or a number of the hardware choices in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. However, they were clunky at finest and actually only focused on amature use. Centroid is a well established industrial manufacture of mills. A number of which are 5 axis makers. The very best servos to utilize for CNC on the Sherline or Taig are either DMM, Clearpath or GlockCNC brand names. 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 utilizing the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Numerous complain 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 up more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you choose bigger bearings.