Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for New Philadelphia, PA 17959
Lots of have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the New Philadelphia, PA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract lots of people. There’s just on place to get the at a reasonable cost and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Going with a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Naturally, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a perk. 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 been available in a variety of models from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are extremely small. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for really small work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. The majority of choose ER25, ER32 and 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, most truly do not care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It uses one of the most flexibility and numerous tool choices. You can find lots of evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise come in CNC, manual 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 want an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near New Philadelphia.
Taig also uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competitors. In fact, you can find a lot of videos and posts describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items use much more rigid ways and normally more “sturdy” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like an absolutely various mill or lathe. Taig likewise provides a great CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can also select their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the very same issues 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 good thing is that they now provide a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both produces is the lack of severe upgrades.
Sherline uses many parts and accessories, but not much to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This implies the spindle itself requires to be small. A spindle with really little mass indicates the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as good and subject to vibration problems. For instance, they provide many lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole needs to be little because the bearings are small. There is a comparable issue with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in New Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 17959 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in New Philadelphia
There are other machine alternatives too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real great. Lots of end up either very dissatisfied 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 go with a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or a lot of the hardware alternatives in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for several years. However, they were clunky at finest and actually only aimed at amature use. Centroid is a well established industrial manufacture of mills. Many of which are 5 axis makers. The best servos to utilize for CNC on the Sherline or Taig are either DMM, Clearpath or GlockCNC brands. Combine 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? Many grumble that the little chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On option is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you opt for larger bearings.