Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Macon, GA 31206
Lots of are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Macon, GA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest many people. There’s only on location to get the at a reasonable price and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Choosing a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Of course, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a bonus offer. The accessibility of tooling for each of these models is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a variety of models from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are extremely little. Sherline likewise provides WW collet sets for very tiny work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Most prefer ER25, ER32 or even 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 truly 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 flexibility and numerous tool choices. You can find numerous evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise been available in CNC, manual and CNC ready versions. Recently, they have included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the internet if you want a review or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Macon.
Taig likewise provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In fact, you can find a great deal of videos and short articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products provide much more stiff methods and typically more “strong” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a totally various mill or lathe. Taig likewise provides a good CNC all set mill and lathe. You can also go with their digital CNC system which utilizes 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 model they use. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The great thing is that they now use a ballscrew option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both makes is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline provides lots of parts and accessories, but very little to make it a much better machine. To start with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This indicates the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with very little mass indicates the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as good and subject to vibration issues. For instance, they provide numerous lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole needs to be small since the bearings are small. There is a similar concern with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this limits its use. Of course those in Macon, Georgia 31206 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Macon
There are other machine alternatives too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other suppliers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t genuine great. Many end up either extremely disappointed or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Exceptional upgrades are ballscrews, updated brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you prefer to choose a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far better than Mach3 or much of the hardware alternatives in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for several years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at finest and actually just targeted at amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized commercial manufacture of mills. A lot 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 brands. 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 utilizing the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Numerous 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 integrated in. This can open up more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you opt for larger bearings.