Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Russellville, MO 65074
Numerous are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Russellville, MO. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest numerous people. There’s just on location to get the at a sensible cost 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 need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a bonus. The availability of tooling for each of these designs 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. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really small. Sherline likewise uses WW collet sets for extremely small work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Most prefer ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, most truly do not care for the MT1 and hardly 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 come in CNC, manual and CNC prepared versions. Just recently, they have added ballscrew variations for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you desire an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Russellville.
Taig also provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In truth, you can find a lot of videos and posts referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products use a lot more stiff ways and generally more “strong” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like an absolutely different mill or lathe. Taig likewise uses a good CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can also go with their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the exact same issues as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they offer. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The great thing is that they now provide a ballscrew option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both manufactures is the absence of serious upgrades.
Sherline uses many parts and attachments, but not much to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This indicates the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with very little mass indicates the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as good and based on vibration issues. For example, they offer many lathe accessories, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole needs to be little because the bearings are little. There is a similar concern with the mill. You can just utilize ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Russellville, Missouri 65074 may have different needs.
There are other machine options too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other suppliers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t genuine excellent. Numerous end up either extremely disappointed or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Excellent 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 much better than Mach3 or a lot of the hardware options 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 cumbersome at finest and actually only targeted at amature use. Centroid is a well recognized industrial 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 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 complain that the little chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On option is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you choose bigger bearings.