Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for South Lee, MA 01260
Many are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the South Lee, MA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract many people. There’s only on place to get the at a sensible price and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Choosing a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Obviously, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a bonus. The availability 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 can be found in a variety of designs from the factory. Generally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really small. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for really tiny work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Most prefer ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle go through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, the majority of really don’t care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It uses the most flexibility and many tool options. You can discover numerous evaluations 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, manual and CNC prepared variations. Recently, they have actually included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you desire a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near South Lee.
Taig also offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In reality, you can find a lot of videos and articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer far more stiff methods and typically more “strong” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like an absolutely various mill or lathe. Taig likewise offers a great CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can likewise choose their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the very same problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they offer. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now offer a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both manufactures is the lack of serious upgrades.
Sherline offers many parts and attachments, however not much to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock usages poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This suggests the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with really little mass indicates the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as excellent and subject to vibration issues. For instance, they offer numerous lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole needs to be little because the bearings are small. There is a similar concern with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in South Lee, Massachusetts 01260 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in South Lee
There are other machine alternatives too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other suppliers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t real great. Numerous end up either really dissatisfied or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. 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 and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or much of the hardware choices 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 many years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at finest and truly just aimed at amature use. Centroid is a well established commercial 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 an effective 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? Lots of grumble that the little chucks will not 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 options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you choose bigger bearings.