Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Decatur, NE 68020
Lots of are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Decatur, NE. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest many individuals. There’s only on place to get the at an affordable rate and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Opting for a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Of course, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a benefit. The schedule of tooling for each of these models is exceptional. For 5C collet sets, you can get great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts can be found in a variety of models from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are extremely little. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for extremely tiny work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. The majority of choose ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle go through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, the majority of actually don’t care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It uses the most flexibility and many 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 been available in CNC, handbook and CNC ready variations. Recently, they have added ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the web if you desire an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Decatur.
Taig also provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In truth, you can discover a lot of videos and posts referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items use a lot more stiff ways and generally more “heavy duty” overall. The Taig motors are pretty 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 nice CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can also select their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the same problems as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they use. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The nice thing is that they now provide a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both makes is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline provides numerous parts and attachments, but not much to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This indicates the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with very little mass implies the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as great and based on vibration issues. For instance, they provide lots of lathe accessories, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole needs to be little because the bearings are small. There is a comparable problem with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this limits its use. Of course those in Decatur, Nebraska 68020 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Decatur
There are other machine alternatives too. You can likewise purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other suppliers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real good. Many wind up either really disappointed or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Outstanding upgrades are ballscrews, updated brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you desire to go with a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or a lot of the hardware options in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for several years. However, they were clunky at best and actually just targeted at amature use. Centroid is a well established commercial manufacture of mills. A lot of which are 5 axis makers. 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 a powerful 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? Lots of grumble that the little chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On alternative is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you opt for bigger bearings.