Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Dudley, GA 31022
Lots of are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Dudley, GA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to many people. There’s just on place to get the at a sensible price and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Going with a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Naturally, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a benefit. The schedule of tooling for each of these designs is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a variety of designs from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are extremely little. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for really small work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Most choose ER25, ER32 or perhaps 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 truly don’t care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It uses one of the most flexibility and many tool options. You can find many reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also can be found in CNC, manual and CNC ready versions. Just recently, they have added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you desire a review or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Dudley.
Taig likewise provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In reality, you can discover a lot of videos and articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products use much more stiff methods and generally more “sturdy” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like a completely various mill or lathe. Taig also provides a good CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can also go with their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. 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 great thing is that they now offer a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both manufactures is the lack of severe upgrades.
Sherline provides many parts and attachments, but not much 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 very little mass suggests the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as good and based on vibration problems. For instance, they offer numerous lathe accessories, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole needs to be small since the bearings are little. There is a similar issue with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Dudley, Georgia 31022 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Dudley
There are other machine options too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other suppliers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t genuine excellent. Lots of wind up either extremely disappointed or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Exceptional upgrades are ballscrews, updated brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you prefer to opt for a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far better than Mach3 or much of the hardware alternatives in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for several years. However, they were cumbersome at best and truly just focused on amature use. Centroid is a well established commercial manufacture of mills. A lot of which are 5 axis devices. The best servos to utilize 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 an effective 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? Lots of grumble that the little chucks won’t 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. Specifically if you opt for larger bearings.