Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Greensburg, KS 67054
Many have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Greensburg, KS. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract numerous individuals. There’s just on place to get the at a reasonable cost which’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Opting for 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 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 been available in a variety of models from the factory. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are extremely small. Sherline likewise provides WW collet sets for extremely small work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. The majority of choose ER25, ER32 or 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, the majority of really do not care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It uses one of the most versatility and lots of tool choices. You can discover many reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise come in CNC, handbook and CNC prepared versions. Just recently, they have included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the web if you want a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Greensburg.
Taig likewise offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In fact, you can find a lot of videos and posts referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide much more rigid methods and typically more “strong” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a totally different mill or lathe. Taig likewise offers a nice CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can also opt for 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 little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they provide. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The nice thing is that they now offer a ballscrew option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both makes is the lack of serious upgrades.
Sherline offers many parts and accessories, however not much to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This implies the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with very little mass implies the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as excellent and subject to vibration issues. For example, they use lots of lathe accessories, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole needs to be small since the bearings are small. There is a similar concern with the mill. You can only utilize ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Greensburg, Kansas 67054 may have different needs.
There are other machine choices too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other suppliers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real great. Many wind up either really disappointed or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Outstanding upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you want to go with 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 alternatives in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it offers constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for several years. However, they were clunky at best and really just targeted at amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized business manufacture of mills. Many of which are 5 axis devices. 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 using the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many complain that the little chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On option is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you go with bigger bearings.