Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Max, MN 56659
Lots of are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Max, MN. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to lots of people. There’s only on location to get the at an affordable cost and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Going with a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Obviously, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a perk. The schedule 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 designs from the factory. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline likewise offers WW collet sets for really tiny work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Many choose ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, a lot of really do not 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, handbook and CNC prepared versions. Just recently, they have added ballscrew variations for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you desire a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Max.
Taig likewise uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In reality, you can find a lot of videos and posts referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products provide far more rigid ways and generally more “heavy duty” overall. The Taig motors are quite weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like a totally different mill or lathe. Taig also offers a nice CNC all set 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 same problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. 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 use a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both produces is the lack of major upgrades.
Sherline provides many parts and accessories, but very little to make it a 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 extremely little mass suggests the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as great and based on vibration issues. For instance, they use lots of lathe accessories, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole needs to be little because the bearings are little. There is a comparable problem with the mill. You can only utilize ER16 collets and this limits its use. Of course those in Max, Minnesota 56659 may have different needs.
There are other machine alternatives too. You can likewise purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other providers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t real good. Numerous wind up either extremely dissatisfied or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Outstanding upgrades are ballscrews, updated brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you prefer to choose a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far better than Mach3 or a number of the hardware options in the market. You can do rigid 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 best and actually only focused on amature use. Centroid is a well established industrial manufacture of mills. A number of which are 5 axis machines. The very best servos to utilize for CNC on the Sherline or Taig are either DMM, Clearpath or GlockCNC brand names. Combine that with the Centroid Acorn and you will have a powerful machine. We will likewise produce reviews of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill utilizing the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of grumble that the little chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On alternative is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you choose bigger bearings.