Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for New Haven, NY 13121
Numerous have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the New Haven, NY. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest many people. There’s just on location to get the at a sensible price which’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Choosing a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Naturally, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a benefit. The schedule of tooling for each of these designs is outstanding. 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. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline likewise provides WW collet sets for extremely small work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Many prefer ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, the majority of really do not care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It uses one of the most versatility and lots of tool choices. You can discover 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 been available in CNC, handbook and CNC all set variations. Recently, they have added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you want an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near New Haven.
Taig likewise uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In reality, you can discover a great deal of videos and articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products use much more rigid methods and typically more “strong” overall. The Taig motors are quite weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like a completely various mill or lathe. Taig likewise offers a nice CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can likewise select their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the same issues as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they provide. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now provide a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both manufactures is the absence of severe upgrades.
Sherline provides lots of 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 small. This indicates the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with very little mass suggests the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as excellent and subject to vibration problems. For instance, they use lots of lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel 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 usage. Of course those in New Haven, New York 13121 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in New Haven
There are other machine options too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other suppliers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t genuine good. Numerous wind up either very dissatisfied or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Excellent upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you desire to go with a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or many of the hardware options in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it provides constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for several years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at finest and actually just focused on amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized commercial manufacture of mills. Many of which are 5 axis machines. The best servos to use 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 an effective machine. We will also produce evaluations 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 will not 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 up more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you opt for bigger bearings.