Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Lake Elsinore, CA 92530
Numerous have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Lake Elsinore, CA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to lots of people. There’s only on place to get the at an affordable rate and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Choosing a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Of course, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a benefit. The availability of tooling for each of these models is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a variety of models from the factory. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really small. Sherline likewise uses WW collet sets for really small work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Many 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, many truly 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 versatility and lots of tool options. You can find numerous reviews 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. Recently, they have included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you want a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Lake Elsinore.
Taig also offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In truth, you can find a lot of videos and posts referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer much more stiff ways and normally more “heavy duty” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like an absolutely various mill or lathe. Taig also uses a good CNC ready mill and lathe. You can likewise choose 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 offer. 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 offer a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both produces is the lack of serious upgrades.
Sherline offers numerous parts and attachments, but not much to make it a much better machine. To start with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This means the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with very little mass suggests the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as great and subject to vibration issues. For instance, they offer many lathe devices, however 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 small. There is a comparable concern with the mill. You can only utilize ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Lake Elsinore, California 92530 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Lake Elsinore
There are other machine options too. You can likewise buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t real great. Many end up either very disappointed or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Outstanding upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you want to go with 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 options 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. However, they were cumbersome at finest and really just aimed at amature use. Centroid is a well recognized commercial manufacture of mills. Many of which are 5 axis machines. The best servos to use 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 using the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Numerous grumble that the little chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On option is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you go with larger bearings.