Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Granby, VT 05840
Lots of have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Granby, VT. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract numerous people. There’s just on place to get the at a reasonable rate and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Going with a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Of course, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a bonus offer. The schedule of tooling for each of these models is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a range of models from the factory. Generally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline also offers WW collet sets for really small work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Many choose ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle go through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the 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 the most versatility and lots of tool options. 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 been available in CNC, manual and CNC all set variations. Just recently, they have added ballscrew versions 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 Granby.
Taig likewise provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In fact, you can find a lot of videos and short articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items use much more rigid methods and typically more “heavy duty” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like a completely various mill or lathe. Taig also provides 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 problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they offer. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The good 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 produces is the absence of serious upgrades.
Sherline provides lots of parts and accessories, however very little to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This suggests the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with extremely little mass indicates the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as good and subject to vibration problems. For instance, they provide lots of lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole has to be small since the bearings are little. There is a similar issue with the mill. You can just utilize ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Granby, Vermont 05840 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Granby
There are other machine alternatives too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other suppliers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t genuine good. Lots of end up either very dissatisfied or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Excellent upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you desire to opt for a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or much of the hardware options in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it offers continuous 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 commercial manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis makers. The best servos to utilize 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 likewise produce evaluations of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill using the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Numerous complain that the small chucks won’t 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 alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you choose bigger bearings.