Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Dighton, MA 02715
Many have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Dighton, MA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract lots of people. There’s only on place to get the at an affordable rate which’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Choosing a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Naturally, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a benefit. The availability of tooling for each of these designs is exceptional. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a range of models from the factory. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline likewise offers WW collet sets for extremely tiny work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. The majority of prefer ER25, ER32 or 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 truly 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 many tool options. You can discover lots of reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise can be found in CNC, manual and CNC ready variations. Just recently, they have added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you want an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Dighton.
Taig also uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competitors. In truth, you can discover a lot of videos and articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products provide a lot more stiff methods and typically more “strong” overall. 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 nice CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can likewise select 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 small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they use. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The great thing is that they now offer a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both produces is the lack of major upgrades.
Sherline offers many parts and attachments, but not much to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This indicates the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with extremely little mass implies the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as good and based on vibration problems. For example, they offer lots of lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole has to be small since the bearings are small. There is a similar concern with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Dighton, Massachusetts 02715 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Dighton
There are other machine options too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other suppliers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t real great. Lots of wind up either very disappointed or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Outstanding upgrades are ballscrews, updated 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 many of the hardware choices in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for several years. However, they were clunky at finest and truly only targeted at amature use. Centroid is a well recognized business manufacture of mills. Many 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 brands. 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 using the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many complain that the little chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On alternative is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open up more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you choose larger bearings.