Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Plessis, NY 13675
Many are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Plessis, NY. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest numerous people. There’s just on place to get the at a reasonable price which’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal 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 bonus offer. The schedule of tooling for each of these models is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a variety of models from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really little. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for really tiny work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. The majority of choose ER25, ER32 or 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 don’t care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers the most flexibility and numerous tool choices. You can find many 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 ready variations. Just recently, they have included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the internet if you desire a review or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Plessis.
Taig likewise uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In reality, you can discover a great deal of videos and articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide a lot more rigid ways and generally more “sturdy” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like a totally different mill or lathe. Taig also offers a good CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can also opt for their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the same problems as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they use. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The great thing is that they now use a ballscrew option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both makes is the lack of serious upgrades.
Sherline uses many parts and accessories, however not much to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This suggests the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with really little mass implies the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as good and based on vibration issues. For instance, they offer many lathe devices, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole has 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 Plessis, New York 13675 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Plessis
There are other machine choices 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 real good. Many end up either really dissatisfied or doing a great deal 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 want to go with a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far better than Mach3 or much of the hardware choices in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it provides consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. However, they were cumbersome at finest and truly just focused on amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized commercial manufacture of mills. A number of which are 5 axis devices. The very best servos to use 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 using 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 choice is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you choose larger bearings.