Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Santa Fe Springs, CA 90671
Lots of have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Santa Fe Springs, CA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract lots of people. There’s only on location to get the at a reasonable price which’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Opting for a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Naturally, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a benefit. The accessibility of tooling for each of these designs is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts can be found in a variety of models from the factory. Generally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really small. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for very small work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Many prefer ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, most actually don’t 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 versatility and lots of tool choices. You can find many reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also come in CNC, handbook and CNC prepared versions. Just recently, they have included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you want a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Santa Fe Springs.
Taig also uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In truth, you can find a lot of videos and short articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products provide far more rigid methods and normally more “sturdy” overall. The Taig motors are quite weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like a totally various mill or lathe. Taig likewise offers a great CNC ready 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 very same issues as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they provide. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The great thing is that they now offer a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both manufactures is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline offers many parts and attachments, however very little 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 needs to be little. A spindle with extremely little mass means the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as good and subject to vibration issues. For instance, they offer many lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole needs to be small since the bearings are small. There is a similar issue with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this limits its use. Of course those in Santa Fe Springs, California 90671 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Santa Fe Springs
There are other machine options too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other providers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t genuine excellent. Lots of end up either very dissatisfied 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 desire to go with a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or a lot of the hardware options in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it provides constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for several years. However, they were cumbersome at best and truly just focused on amature usage. Centroid is a well established industrial manufacture of mills. Many of which are 5 axis makers. The very best servos to utilize for CNC on the Sherline or Taig are either DMM, Clearpath or GlockCNC brands. Integrate that with the Centroid Acorn and you will have a powerful machine. We will also produce reviews of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill using the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many grumble that the small chucks will not 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 up more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you opt for bigger bearings.