Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Londonderry, VT 05148
Numerous have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Londonderry, VT. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract many people. There’s only on place to get the at an affordable price which’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Opting for a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Naturally, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a bonus. The availability 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 models from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for extremely small work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. A lot of prefer ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, most actually don’t care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It provides the most versatility and lots of tool options. You can discover many 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 all set variations. Just recently, they have actually added ballscrew variations for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you want an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Londonderry.
Taig likewise provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In fact, you can find a lot of videos and posts referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide much more stiff ways and typically more “sturdy” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like a totally different mill or lathe. Taig likewise provides a nice CNC ready mill and lathe. You can also opt for their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the very same problems as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they offer. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The nice thing is that they now offer a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both manufactures is the lack of serious upgrades.
Sherline offers lots of parts and accessories, but very little to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This indicates the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with very little mass indicates the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as good and subject to vibration problems. For instance, they use numerous lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole has to be little due to the fact that the bearings are small. There is a comparable problem with the mill. You can only utilize ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Londonderry, Vermont 05148 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Londonderry
There are other machine options too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t genuine good. Many end up either very disappointed or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Exceptional upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you prefer to opt for a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far better than Mach3 or a lot of the hardware choices in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. Nevertheless, they were cumbersome at best and really only focused on amature use. Centroid is a well established industrial manufacture of mills. A lot of which are 5 axis machines. The best servos to use 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 reviews of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill utilizing the Acorn hardware.
What about a 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 alternative is to purchase 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.