Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Dover, MA 02030
Many are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Dover, MA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest lots of people. There’s just on place to get the at a sensible rate and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Going with a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Of course, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a bonus. 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 variety of models from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really little. Sherline also offers WW collet sets for very tiny work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. A lot of choose ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, many actually do not care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It uses the most versatility and many tool choices. You can discover lots of reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise been available in CNC, manual and CNC prepared versions. Just recently, they have actually included 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 Dover.
Taig likewise provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In reality, you can discover a lot of videos and short articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer far more stiff ways and typically more “heavy duty” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like an absolutely different mill or lathe. Taig also 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 exact 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 good thing is that they now use a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both manufactures is the lack of major upgrades.
Sherline offers numerous parts and accessories, however not much to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This implies the spindle itself requires to be small. A spindle with very little mass implies the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as good and based on vibration issues. For example, they provide 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 since the bearings are little. There is a comparable issue with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Dover, Massachusetts 02030 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Dover
There are other machine alternatives too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other suppliers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t real good. Lots of wind up either extremely disappointed or doing a great deal 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 prefer to opt for a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far much 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 uses consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. However, they were clunky at best and actually just aimed at amature usage. Centroid is a well established commercial manufacture of mills. A lot of which are 5 axis devices. 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 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? Lots of grumble that the small chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On choice 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 choose bigger bearings.