Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Stoneville, NC 27048
Numerous are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Stoneville, NC. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest lots of people. There’s only on location to get the at a reasonable rate which’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Opting for a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Obviously, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a bonus. The availability of tooling for each of these models is exceptional. For 5C collet sets, you can get great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts can be found in a range of models from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline likewise provides WW collet sets for very small work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Many prefer ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, many truly don’t care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It uses one of the most flexibility and numerous tool options. You can find lots of reviews 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, manual and CNC ready versions. Recently, they have included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the internet if you want an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Stoneville.
Taig likewise offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In truth, you can find a lot of videos and posts referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items use a lot more stiff ways and normally more “sturdy” in general. The Taig motors are pretty weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like a totally various mill or lathe. Taig also uses a good CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can also choose 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 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 offer a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both makes is the absence of severe upgrades.
Sherline offers lots of parts and attachments, however very little to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This means the spindle itself requires to be small. A spindle with very little mass implies the lathe or mill the finish quality will not be as great and based on vibration problems. For instance, they offer many 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 concern with the mill. You can only utilize ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Stoneville, North Carolina 27048 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Stoneville
There are other machine alternatives too. You can likewise purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other suppliers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t genuine great. Lots of wind up either extremely disappointed or doing a lot 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 want to choose a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or a number of the hardware alternatives in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for many years. However, they were clunky at best and really just aimed at amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized commercial manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis machines. The best servos to utilize for CNC on the Sherline or Taig are either DMM, Clearpath or GlockCNC brand names. Combine that with the Centroid Acorn and you will have an effective machine. We will also produce reviews of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill utilizing the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Numerous complain that the little 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 up more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you opt for bigger bearings.