Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Pittsburgh, PA 15230
Lots of have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Pittsburgh, PA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to lots of people. There’s only on location to get the at a sensible cost which’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Going with a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Obviously, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a perk. The accessibility of tooling for each of these models is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a range of designs from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really small. Sherline likewise provides WW collet sets for really small work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Many prefer ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, a lot of really don’t 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 many 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 likewise can be found in CNC, manual and CNC ready variations. Recently, they have included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you desire an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Pittsburgh.
Taig likewise uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In fact, you can discover a lot of videos and posts referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer much more stiff methods and typically more “heavy duty” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like a totally various mill or lathe. Taig also offers a nice CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can likewise select their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. 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 provide. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The nice thing is that they now provide a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both makes is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline offers many parts and attachments, however not much to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This implies the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with very little mass implies the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as great and based on vibration problems. For example, they provide numerous lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole needs to be little due to the fact that the bearings are small. There is a comparable issue with the mill. You can just utilize ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15230 may have different needs.
There are other machine options too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other providers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t real great. Many wind up either very disappointed or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Excellent 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 application and hardware is far much 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 offers consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. However, they were cumbersome at best and actually only aimed at amature usage. Centroid is a well established business manufacture of mills. A lot of which are 5 axis devices. 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 an effective machine. We will likewise produce reviews of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill using the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Numerous complain that the little chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On alternative is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open up more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you go with larger bearings.