Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Seagraves, TX 79359
Numerous are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Seagraves, TX. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract many individuals. There’s just on place to get the at a reasonable rate and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Going with a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Obviously, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a bonus. The schedule 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 been available in a variety of models from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for very small work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. The majority of prefer ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, many truly do not care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers one of the most flexibility and many tool choices. You can discover 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 ready versions. 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 Seagraves.
Taig likewise uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In fact, you can find a lot of videos and posts describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide a lot more stiff ways and usually more “sturdy” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a totally various mill or lathe. Taig likewise uses a nice CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can also go with their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the very same issues as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they use. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now use a ballscrew option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both produces is the lack of serious upgrades.
Sherline offers lots of parts and attachments, but very little to make it a much better machine. To start with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This suggests the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with really little mass implies the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as great and based on vibration issues. For example, they use many lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole has to be small since the bearings are small. There is a similar concern with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in Seagraves, Texas 79359 may have different needs.
There are other machine choices too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other suppliers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t real great. Lots of end up either very 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 prefer to choose a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far much 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 offers constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for several years. However, they were clunky at best and actually just targeted at amature usage. Centroid is a well established commercial manufacture of mills. Many of which are 5 axis makers. The best servos to utilize 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 a powerful machine. We will likewise 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? Numerous grumble that the small chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On alternative is to buy a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you choose larger bearings.