Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Harrisburg, PA 17103
Many are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Harrisburg, PA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract lots of people. There’s just on location to get the at an affordable rate which’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Opting for a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Obviously, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a reward. The availability of tooling for each of these models is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a variety of designs from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really little. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for really tiny work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Most choose ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle go through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, many actually don’t care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It provides the most flexibility and many tool options. You can find numerous evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise can be found in CNC, handbook and CNC prepared versions. Recently, they have actually included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the internet if you want an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Harrisburg.
Taig also provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In truth, you can find a great deal of videos and short articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products use a lot more rigid ways and generally more “strong” overall. The Taig motors are quite weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like an absolutely various mill or lathe. Taig also uses a good CNC ready mill and lathe. You can also go with their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the exact same problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they use. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The nice 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 makes is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline uses lots of parts and accessories, however not much to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This means the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with extremely little mass implies the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as great and subject to vibration issues. For example, they use many lathe devices, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole needs to be small because the bearings are little. There is a comparable concern with the mill. You can just utilize ER16 collets and this limits its use. Of course those in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17103 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Harrisburg
There are other machine alternatives too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other providers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t real great. Many wind up either really disappointed 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 prefer to opt for a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or much of the hardware alternatives in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it provides consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for several years. However, they were clunky at best and truly just focused on amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized business manufacture of mills. A lot of which are 5 axis makers. The very 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 an effective machine. We will also produce evaluations of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill using the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of 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 integrated in. This can open up more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you choose larger bearings.