Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Longleaf, LA 71448
Many are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Longleaf, LA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to lots of people. There’s only on location to get the at a reasonable rate and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Opting for a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Obviously, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a benefit. The accessibility of tooling for each of these designs is exceptional. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available 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 tiny work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Most choose ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle go through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, many really don’t care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It provides the most flexibility and numerous tool choices. You can find many reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also been available in CNC, handbook and CNC prepared variations. Just recently, they have actually added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the internet if you desire an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Longleaf.
Taig also offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In reality, you can find a great deal of videos and articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer far more rigid methods and usually more “sturdy” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a completely different mill or lathe. Taig likewise provides a nice CNC all set mill and lathe. You can also select their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the exact same problems 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 nice thing is that they now use a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both produces is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline uses lots of parts and attachments, but very little to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This means the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with extremely little mass suggests the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as great 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 pass through hole has to be small due to the fact that the bearings are small. There is a similar concern with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Longleaf, Louisiana 71448 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Longleaf
There are other machine options too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other providers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t genuine good. Many end up either very dissatisfied or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Exceptional upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you prefer to choose a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or many of the hardware choices in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for several years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at best and really only targeted at amature usage. Centroid is a well established commercial manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis machines. The very 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 evaluations of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill using the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of grumble that the small chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On option is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you opt for larger bearings.