Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Fort Lauderdale, FL 33329
Many are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Fort Lauderdale, FL. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest many individuals. There’s only on place to get the at a reasonable 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 reward. The schedule of tooling for each of these designs is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts can be found in a variety of designs from the factory. Generally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are extremely small. Sherline also offers WW collet sets for very tiny work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Many choose ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, a lot of really don’t care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers the most flexibility and numerous tool choices. 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 likewise come in CNC, handbook and CNC prepared versions. Recently, they have added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you want an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Fort Lauderdale.
Taig also offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In truth, you can discover a lot of videos and posts describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products use far more rigid 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 seem like a completely various mill or lathe. Taig likewise uses a nice CNC ready mill and lathe. You can also select their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. 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 provide. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now use a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both produces is the lack of severe upgrades.
Sherline provides numerous parts and attachments, but very little to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This suggests the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with very little mass implies the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as great and subject to vibration issues. For example, they offer numerous lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole needs to be little since the bearings are little. There is a comparable issue with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33329 may have different needs.
There are other machine options too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other suppliers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t real great. Lots of end up either really disappointed or doing a great deal 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 opt for a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far better than Mach3 or a lot of the hardware alternatives in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it provides constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for many years. However, they were cumbersome at finest and really just focused on amature use. Centroid is a well established commercial manufacture of mills. Many of which are 5 axis devices. The very best servos to use 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 better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of grumble that the little chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On alternative is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open up more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you opt for larger bearings.