Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Phoenix, AZ 85035
Numerous have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Phoenix, AZ. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract lots of people. There’s just on place to get the at an affordable cost 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 reward. The schedule of tooling for each of these models is exceptional. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts can be found in a variety of designs from the factory. Generally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for very small work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Most choose ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, many really don’t care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It provides one of the most flexibility and many tool choices. You can find lots of evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise can be found in CNC, manual and CNC prepared variations. Recently, they have included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you desire an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Phoenix.
Taig likewise provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In fact, you can discover a lot of videos and posts referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide a lot more stiff ways and generally more “sturdy” overall. The Taig motors are quite weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like a completely various mill or lathe. Taig likewise provides a nice CNC all set mill and lathe. You can likewise opt for their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. 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 use. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The great thing is that they now offer a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both manufactures is the lack of severe upgrades.
Sherline provides many parts and accessories, but not much to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This implies the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with really little mass means the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as great and subject to vibration problems. For instance, they offer lots of lathe accessories, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole has to be little since the bearings are little. There is a similar issue with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Phoenix, Arizona 85035 may have different needs.
There are other machine alternatives too. You can likewise purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t genuine excellent. Numerous wind up either really dissatisfied or doing a lot 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 want to go with a CNC machine, your best bet 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 constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at best and actually only aimed at amature usage. Centroid is a well established business manufacture of mills. Much 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. 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 complain that the little chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On choice is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you go with bigger bearings.