Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Hutchinson, KS 67502
Many are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Hutchinson, KS. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest lots of individuals. There’s only on location to get the at a sensible 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 benefit. The accessibility of tooling for each of these designs is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a variety of designs from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for extremely small work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. A lot of choose 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 really do not care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers one of the most versatility and many tool choices. You can discover numerous reviews 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, manual and CNC all set versions. Just recently, they have included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much 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 Hutchinson.
Taig also uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In fact, you can find a lot of videos and articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide a lot more stiff ways and generally more “strong” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like an absolutely various mill or lathe. Taig also offers a nice CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can also choose their digital CNC system which uses 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 offer. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now provide a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both produces is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline uses lots of parts and accessories, but very little to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This suggests the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with very little mass means the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as good and subject to vibration problems. For example, they provide lots of lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole needs to be small because the bearings are little. There is a comparable issue with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in Hutchinson, Kansas 67502 may have different needs.
There are other machine alternatives too. You can likewise buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other suppliers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t genuine good. Many end up either really disappointed or doing a lot 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 want to opt for a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far 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 provides continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for many years. Nevertheless, they were cumbersome at best and really only aimed at amature use. Centroid is a well established commercial manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis devices. The very best servos to utilize for CNC on the Sherline or Taig are either DMM, Clearpath or GlockCNC brands. Combine 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 using the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many grumble that the little chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On alternative is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open up more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you go with bigger bearings.