Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Mattituck, NY 11952
Lots of are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Mattituck, NY. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest lots of people. There’s just on location to get the at a sensible 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 need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a benefit. The accessibility of tooling for each of these designs is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts can be found in a variety of models from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really small. Sherline likewise offers WW collet sets for very small work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Many choose ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, many actually do not care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers one of the most versatility and numerous tool options. You can find lots of reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also can be found in CNC, manual and CNC prepared versions. Recently, they have actually added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the internet if you want an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Mattituck.
Taig likewise provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competitors. In fact, you can find a great deal of videos and posts describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide a lot more stiff methods and generally more “heavy duty” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like a completely different mill or lathe. Taig also offers a good CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can likewise go with their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the exact same problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they provide. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now provide a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both manufactures is the absence of serious upgrades.
Sherline uses lots of parts and attachments, however not much to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock usages bad quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This implies the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with very little mass means the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as excellent and subject to vibration problems. For instance, they offer 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 because the bearings are small. There is a similar concern with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in Mattituck, New York 11952 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Mattituck
There are other machine alternatives too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other providers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t genuine good. Many wind up either very disappointed 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 want 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 number of the hardware choices in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it provides consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. However, they were cumbersome at finest and truly only focused on amature use. Centroid is a well recognized business manufacture of mills. A number of which are 5 axis devices. 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 also produce reviews 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 will not hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On option is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you opt for bigger bearings.