Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Flint, MI 48532
Numerous have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Flint, MI. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest lots of individuals. There’s only on location to get the at an affordable rate and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Choosing a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Naturally, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a bonus offer. The availability of tooling for each of these models is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a range of designs from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for very tiny work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. The majority of choose ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, many really do not 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 numerous reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also come in CNC, handbook and CNC prepared versions. Just recently, they have actually added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you want a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Flint.
Taig also uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competitors. In fact, you can discover a lot of videos and articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide much more rigid methods and usually more “sturdy” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like an absolutely different mill or lathe. Taig likewise uses a great 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 small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they offer. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The nice thing is that they now offer a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both makes is the lack of severe upgrades.
Sherline uses many parts and accessories, but not much to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This suggests the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with really little mass suggests the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as good and based on vibration issues. For instance, they provide lots of lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole has to be small due to the fact that the bearings are little. There is a comparable problem with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Flint, Michigan 48532 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Flint
There are other machine choices 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 good. Lots of wind up either very disappointed or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Exceptional upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you desire to choose a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much 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 continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for several years. However, they were clunky at best and really just targeted at amature usage. Centroid is a well established industrial manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis makers. 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 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? Numerous complain that the little 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 more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you choose larger bearings.