Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Gloucester, MA 01930
Lots of are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Gloucester, MA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest lots of people. There’s only on location to get the at a sensible price which’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Choosing a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Of course, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a benefit. The availability of tooling for each of these models is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a variety of models from the factory. Generally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really small. Sherline also offers WW collet sets for very tiny work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. A lot of choose ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, most actually do not care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It uses the most flexibility and many tool choices. You can discover 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 been available in CNC, handbook and CNC ready variations. Recently, they have included ballscrew variations 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 Gloucester.
Taig likewise offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In fact, you can find a great deal of videos and posts describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer a lot more rigid ways and normally more “heavy duty” overall. The Taig motors are quite weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like a totally different mill or lathe. Taig also offers 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 model they provide. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now offer a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both produces is the absence of severe upgrades.
Sherline uses lots of parts and attachments, however not much to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This suggests the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with very little mass means the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as good and subject to vibration problems. For example, they use numerous lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole has to be small due to the fact that the bearings are small. There is a similar issue with the mill. You can just utilize ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in Gloucester, Massachusetts 01930 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Gloucester
There are other machine choices too. You can likewise purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other providers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t genuine good. Many end up either really disappointed or doing a lot 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 want to opt for a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far better than Mach3 or a number of the hardware choices in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for several years. However, they were cumbersome at finest and truly just aimed at amature use. Centroid is a well established industrial manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis makers. The best servos to use for CNC on the Sherline or Taig are either DMM, Clearpath or GlockCNC brands. Combine that with the Centroid Acorn and you will have an effective machine. We will likewise 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 small chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On choice is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you go with bigger bearings.