Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Sugar Loaf, NY 10981
Many are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Sugar Loaf, NY. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to lots of individuals. There’s only on location to get the at a sensible cost and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Choosing a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Of course, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a bonus. The accessibility 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 come in a range of designs from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for really small work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Most choose ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle go 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 barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers the most versatility 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 also come in CNC, handbook and CNC prepared variations. Just recently, they have included ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you want an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Sugar Loaf.
Taig likewise offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In truth, you can discover a great deal of videos and short articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items use a lot more stiff methods and generally more “heavy duty” overall. The Taig motors are quite weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like an absolutely different mill or lathe. Taig likewise uses a good CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can likewise opt for their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the very 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 use a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both produces is the absence of severe upgrades.
Sherline offers many parts and accessories, but very little to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This suggests the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with extremely little mass means the lathe or mill the surface quality won’t be as great and subject to vibration problems. For example, they use lots of lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole has to be little due to the fact that the bearings are little. There is a similar problem with the mill. You can just utilize ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Sugar Loaf, New York 10981 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Sugar Loaf
There are other machine options too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other providers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t real good. Lots of wind up either extremely dissatisfied or doing a great deal 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 desire to opt for a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far better than Mach3 or much of the hardware choices in the market. You can do rigid 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 cumbersome at best and truly just focused on amature use. Centroid is a well established commercial manufacture of mills. A lot of which are 5 axis makers. The very best servos to utilize 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 also produce evaluations of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill using the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of grumble that the little chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On choice is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you choose larger bearings.