Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Keene, TX 76059
Numerous are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Keene, TX. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest numerous individuals. There’s just on location to get the at a reasonable cost and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Opting for a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Of course, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a perk. The accessibility of tooling for each of these models is exceptional. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a range of designs from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are extremely small. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for really small work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Most prefer ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle go through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, many really don’t 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 flexibility and lots of tool choices. You can find lots of evaluations 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, manual and CNC ready variations. Just recently, they have added ballscrew variations for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you want an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Keene.
Taig also offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In reality, you can discover a lot of videos and articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items use a lot more rigid methods and generally more “strong” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a totally different mill or lathe. Taig also uses a great CNC all set mill and lathe. You can likewise opt for their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the exact same issues as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they use. 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 offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both produces is the absence of severe upgrades.
Sherline uses many parts and attachments, however not much to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This indicates the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with very little mass indicates the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as good and subject to vibration problems. For instance, they provide numerous lathe accessories, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole needs to be little because the bearings are little. There is a comparable concern with the mill. You can just utilize ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Keene, Texas 76059 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Keene
There are other machine choices too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other suppliers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t real good. Many end up either very dissatisfied 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 prefer to go with a CNC machine, your best option 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 provides constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. However, they were clunky at finest and really only focused on amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized commercial manufacture of mills. A lot 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 likewise produce evaluations of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill utilizing the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many grumble 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 more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you go with bigger bearings.