Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Hewitt, TX 76643
Numerous are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Hewitt, TX. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract lots of people. There’s only on place to get the at an affordable cost which’s GlockCNC. Updating 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 accessibility of tooling for each of these models is exceptional. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a variety of designs from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline also offers WW collet sets for extremely tiny work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Most prefer ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, a lot of actually don’t care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It provides one of the most flexibility and numerous tool choices. 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 prepared variations. Recently, they have added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the web if you desire a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Hewitt.
Taig also provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In truth, you can discover a lot of videos and articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products use much more rigid ways and generally more “strong” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like a totally various mill or lathe. Taig also uses a great CNC all set mill and lathe. You can also go with 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 little. 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 disadvantage with both produces is the absence of severe upgrades.
Sherline provides many parts and attachments, however not much to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This indicates the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with extremely little mass suggests the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as great and based on vibration issues. For instance, they provide numerous lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole has to be small due to the fact that the bearings are small. There is a comparable concern with the mill. You can just utilize ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in Hewitt, Texas 76643 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Hewitt
There are other machine alternatives too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t genuine great. Lots of wind up either very dissatisfied or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Excellent upgrades are ballscrews, updated brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you desire to opt for a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much 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 offers continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for many years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at best and truly just focused on amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized commercial manufacture of mills. A number 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. 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? Lots of grumble that the small chucks will not 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 more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you choose larger bearings.