Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Hardinsburg, KY 40143
Lots of have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Hardinsburg, KY. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract numerous individuals. There’s just on place to get the at an affordable rate which’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Choosing a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Naturally, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a bonus. 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. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline likewise offers WW collet sets for really small work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. A lot of prefer ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle go through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, most truly don’t care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It uses the most versatility and many tool options. 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 variations. Just 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 Hardinsburg.
Taig also offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In fact, you can find a great deal of videos and posts describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items offer much more rigid methods and usually more “sturdy” in general. The Taig motors are pretty 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 good CNC ready mill and lathe. You can also choose their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the same problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design 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 deal a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both makes is the absence of serious upgrades.
Sherline uses many parts and accessories, but not much to make it a better machine. To start 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 extremely little mass suggests the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as excellent and subject to vibration issues. For example, they provide many lathe devices, however 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 small. There is a similar issue with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in Hardinsburg, Kentucky 40143 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Hardinsburg
There are other machine options too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other suppliers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real good. Numerous end up either really dissatisfied or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Excellent upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you prefer to choose a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far better than Mach3 or much of the hardware choices in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. However, they were cumbersome at best and truly just aimed at amature use. Centroid is a well established business manufacture of mills. A lot of which are 5 axis devices. The best servos to use for CNC on the Sherline or Taig are either DMM, Clearpath or GlockCNC brand names. Integrate that with the Centroid Acorn and you will have a powerful machine. We will also produce evaluations 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 won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On option is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you choose bigger bearings.