Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Rochester, NY 14603
Numerous are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Rochester, NY. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to many individuals. There’s only on location to get the at an affordable rate which’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Going with a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Of course, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a benefit. The availability of tooling for each of these designs 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. Normally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline also offers WW collet sets for extremely small work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. The majority of prefer ER25, ER32 and 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, most actually do not 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 many tool options. You can find lots of reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also can be found in CNC, handbook and CNC all set versions. Just recently, they have included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the internet if you want a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Rochester.
Taig likewise offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In reality, you can discover a lot of videos and posts referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer far more rigid methods and usually more “heavy duty” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a totally various mill or lathe. Taig also provides a nice CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can likewise choose their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. 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 offer. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The great thing is that they now offer a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both makes is the absence of severe upgrades.
Sherline provides lots of parts and accessories, however very little to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock usages bad quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This means the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with really little mass indicates the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as great and subject to vibration problems. For example, they offer many lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole needs to be small because the bearings are little. There is a similar problem with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Rochester, New York 14603 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Rochester
There are other machine options too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other providers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t real good. Many wind up either very disappointed or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Outstanding upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you prefer to opt for a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software 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 offers consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. Nevertheless, they were cumbersome at finest and really only targeted at amature usage. Centroid is a well established 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 brands. 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? Numerous complain that the small 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 integrated in. This can open more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you opt for larger bearings.