Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Schulenburg, TX 78956
Many are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Schulenburg, TX. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract lots of people. There’s just on location to get the at an affordable price which’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Going with a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Of course, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise 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 can be found in a variety of designs from the factory. Generally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really little. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for extremely tiny work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Most 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 very best. For Sherline mills, most truly don’t care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It provides one of the most versatility and many 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, handbook and CNC prepared variations. Just recently, they have included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the web if you want an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Schulenburg.
Taig likewise provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In fact, you can find a great deal of videos and posts referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items offer a lot more rigid ways and generally more “heavy duty” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like an absolutely various mill or lathe. Taig also uses a great CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can likewise choose 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 model they provide. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now provide a ballscrew option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both produces is the absence of severe upgrades.
Sherline provides lots of parts and accessories, but not much to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This means the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with very little mass suggests the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as good and subject to vibration issues. For example, they offer numerous 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 small. There is a comparable issue with the mill. You can just utilize ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in Schulenburg, Texas 78956 may have different needs.
There are other machine options too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other suppliers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real great. Many wind up either extremely disappointed or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Exceptional upgrades are ballscrews, updated 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 a lot of the hardware choices in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for several years. However, they were cumbersome at best and really only aimed at amature usage. Centroid is a well established industrial manufacture of mills. Many 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 an effective machine. We will also produce evaluations of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill using the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Numerous complain that the small chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On alternative is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you choose larger bearings.