Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Finger, TN 38334
Numerous are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Finger, TN. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to numerous people. There’s only on place to get the at a sensible 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. Obviously, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a perk. The accessibility of tooling for each of these designs is exceptional. For 5C collet sets, you can get great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a variety of models from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for really tiny work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Many prefer ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, a lot of actually do not care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It provides one of the most flexibility and many tool options. You can find lots of evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also come in CNC, handbook and CNC prepared variations. Recently, they have included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you desire a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Finger.
Taig also provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In reality, you can discover a lot of videos and articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide a lot more rigid methods and typically more “heavy duty” overall. The Taig motors are quite 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 uses a great CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can likewise choose their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the same problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they use. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The nice 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 absence of severe upgrades.
Sherline uses numerous parts and attachments, but not much to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This indicates the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with really little mass implies the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as excellent and based on vibration problems. For instance, they offer lots of lathe devices, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole needs to be little because the bearings are small. There is a comparable problem with the mill. You can only utilize ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in Finger, Tennessee 38334 may have different needs.
There are other machine options too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other providers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t real excellent. Numerous end up either really dissatisfied 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 go with a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software 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 provides continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for several years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at best and really only aimed at amature usage. Centroid is a well established 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 brand names. 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 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 option 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 larger bearings.