Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Rochester, PA 15074
Many have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Rochester, PA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest many people. There’s just on place to get the at an affordable price and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Choosing a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Of course, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a reward. 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 come in a variety of designs from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really little. Sherline likewise uses WW collet sets for extremely tiny work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. The majority of choose ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, many actually do not care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It provides one of the most flexibility and numerous tool choices. You can discover many reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise been available in CNC, manual and CNC ready variations. Just recently, they have added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you desire a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Rochester.
Taig likewise provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In fact, you can find a great deal of videos and posts describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products use a lot more rigid ways and typically more “strong” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like an absolutely different mill or lathe. Taig likewise provides a nice CNC all set mill and lathe. You can also choose their digital CNC system which utilizes 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 model they offer. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now provide a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both produces is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline uses lots of parts and attachments, however very little to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This means the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with very little mass means the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as good and based on vibration problems. For instance, they offer many lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole has to be little because the bearings are little. There is a comparable concern with the mill. You can just utilize ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in Rochester, Pennsylvania 15074 may have different needs.
There are other machine alternatives too. You can likewise purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other suppliers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t genuine excellent. Many end up either really dissatisfied or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Outstanding upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you want to choose a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far better than Mach3 or a lot of the hardware alternatives 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 standard for many years. However, they were clunky at finest and actually only focused on amature usage. Centroid is a well established 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 brand names. Integrate that with the Centroid Acorn and you will have an effective machine. We will also produce reviews of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill using the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many complain that the small chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On alternative is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you go with larger bearings.