Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Nellysford, VA 22958
Lots of have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Nellysford, VA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to many people. There’s only on place to get the at a reasonable price and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Choosing a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Obviously, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a bonus. The availability of tooling for each of these models is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a variety of models from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are extremely little. Sherline likewise offers WW collet sets for extremely small work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. A lot of choose ER25, ER32 and 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 truly 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 flexibility and numerous tool options. You can find lots of reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise come in CNC, handbook and CNC ready versions. Recently, they have included 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 Nellysford.
Taig also uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In fact, you can discover a great deal of videos and articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer far more stiff ways and normally more “strong” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like a completely various mill or lathe. Taig also offers a good CNC ready mill and lathe. You can also go with their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the same issues as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they provide. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now provide a ballscrew option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both produces is the absence of severe upgrades.
Sherline offers lots of parts and accessories, however not much to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This suggests the spindle itself requires to be small. A spindle with very little mass means the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as great and based on vibration problems. For example, they use lots of lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole needs to be little due to the fact that the bearings are small. There is a similar problem with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in Nellysford, Virginia 22958 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Nellysford
There are other machine choices too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other suppliers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t real excellent. Lots of wind up either very disappointed or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Excellent 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 stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it offers consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for many years. Nevertheless, they were cumbersome at best and really only focused on amature use. Centroid is a well recognized commercial manufacture of mills. A number of which are 5 axis makers. 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 an effective machine. We will likewise produce evaluations of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill using the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many complain that the small chucks will not 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 alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you opt for bigger bearings.