Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Eugene, OR 97403
Lots of have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Eugene, OR. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest lots of people. There’s just on place to get the at a sensible cost which’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Choosing a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Obviously, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a benefit. The availability 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 range of designs from the factory. Generally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are extremely small. Sherline also offers WW collet sets for extremely tiny work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Many prefer ER25, ER32 and 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 actually don’t care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers one of the most versatility and many 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 can be found in CNC, handbook and CNC all set variations. Recently, they have actually added ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you want an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Eugene.
Taig also offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In reality, you can discover a lot of videos and posts referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide much more stiff methods and usually 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 seem like a completely different mill or lathe. Taig also provides a good CNC ready mill and lathe. You can also select their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the very same problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they provide. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The nice 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 makes is the absence of serious upgrades.
Sherline offers many parts and attachments, but not much to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock usages bad quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This indicates the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with extremely little mass indicates the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as excellent and based on vibration issues. For example, they offer numerous lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole needs to be little due to the fact that the bearings are small. There is a similar problem with the mill. You can only utilize ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in Eugene, Oregon 97403 may have different needs.
There are other machine alternatives too. You can likewise buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other providers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t genuine great. Many wind up either really dissatisfied or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Outstanding upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you desire to go with a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far better than Mach3 or a number of the hardware alternatives in the market. You can do stiff 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 clunky at best and actually only targeted at amature usage. Centroid is a well established business manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis devices. The best servos to utilize for CNC on the Sherline or Taig are either DMM, Clearpath or GlockCNC brands. 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 utilizing the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many complain that the small chucks will not 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 options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you opt for larger bearings.