Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Kieffer, WV 24950
Lots of have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Kieffer, WV. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest lots of individuals. There’s just on place to get the at a sensible price and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Going with a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Naturally, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a benefit. The availability of tooling for each of these designs is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a range of designs from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are extremely little. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for extremely tiny work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Many choose ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle go through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, a lot of really don’t care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers the most flexibility and lots of tool options. You can find numerous reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also come in CNC, handbook and CNC all set variations. Recently, they have added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you desire a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Kieffer.
Taig also provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In fact, you can discover a great deal of videos and short articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide much more rigid methods and typically more “sturdy” overall. The Taig motors are quite weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like a totally different mill or lathe. Taig also uses a nice CNC prepared 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 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 lack of serious upgrades.
Sherline offers numerous parts and accessories, but not much to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This implies the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with extremely little mass indicates the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as excellent and based on vibration issues. For instance, they provide numerous lathe devices, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole has to be little since the bearings are small. There is a similar problem with the mill. You can only utilize ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Kieffer, West Virginia 24950 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Kieffer
There are other machine choices too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other suppliers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real great. Numerous wind up either extremely dissatisfied 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 desire to opt for a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or a lot of the hardware alternatives in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it offers consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for many years. Nevertheless, they were cumbersome at best and actually just aimed at amature usage. Centroid is a well established commercial manufacture of mills. A lot of which are 5 axis devices. The 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 an effective machine. We will likewise produce reviews of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill utilizing the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of complain that the little chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On choice is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you opt for larger bearings.