Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Scranton, PA 18512
Many are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Scranton, PA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest many people. There’s just on place to get the at a sensible cost and that’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 require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a benefit. The schedule 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. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really small. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for extremely tiny work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Most prefer ER25, ER32 or 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, many really 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 versatility and many tool choices. You can find lots of 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 ready versions. Recently, they have actually added ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the web if you want a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Scranton.
Taig likewise provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In fact, you can discover a lot of videos and posts describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products use a lot more stiff ways and generally more “sturdy” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like a completely different mill or lathe. Taig likewise provides a good 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 exact same problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. 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 choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both makes is the lack of severe upgrades.
Sherline uses lots of parts and attachments, but very little to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This indicates the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with very little mass implies the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as good and based on vibration issues. For instance, they use lots of lathe devices, 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 little. There is a similar problem with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in Scranton, Pennsylvania 18512 may have different needs.
There are other machine choices too. You can likewise buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other providers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t real good. Numerous wind up either really disappointed or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Excellent upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you prefer to go with a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far better than Mach3 or much of the hardware alternatives in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it provides consistent speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for several years. However, they were clunky at finest and actually just focused on amature use. Centroid is a well established business manufacture of mills. A lot 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 a powerful machine. We will likewise produce evaluations of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill utilizing the Acorn hardware.
What about a 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 buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you choose bigger bearings.