Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Taos Ski Valley, NM 87525
Lots of have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Taos Ski Valley, NM. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest lots of people. There’s only on place to get the at a reasonable cost and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Choosing a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Naturally, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a benefit. The availability of tooling for each of these models is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a variety of designs from the factory. Generally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are extremely small. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for extremely tiny work. Primarily watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Many choose ER25, ER32 or perhaps 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, most truly do not care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It uses one of the most versatility and lots of tool choices. You can find numerous evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise been available in CNC, manual and CNC prepared variations. Recently, they have added ballscrew variations for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you want a review or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Taos Ski Valley.
Taig also uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In truth, you can discover a lot of videos and short articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer far more stiff ways and typically more “sturdy” overall. The Taig motors are quite weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like a completely various mill or lathe. Taig also uses a great CNC ready mill and lathe. You can likewise go with their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. The Taig spindles have the same problems as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they provide. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The nice 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 produces is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline provides many parts and attachments, however not much to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This indicates the spindle itself requires to be small. A spindle with really little mass suggests the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as good and based on vibration problems. For example, they use many lathe devices, however 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 little. There is a comparable problem with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico 87525 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Taos Ski Valley
There are other machine options too. You can likewise purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t real excellent. Many wind up either very disappointed or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Outstanding upgrades are ballscrews, updated brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you desire to choose a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or many of the hardware options in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it uses continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for several years. However, they were cumbersome at best and truly only focused on amature usage. Centroid is a well established business manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis machines. The very best servos to use 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 also produce reviews of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill utilizing the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many grumble that the small chucks won’t 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 more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you opt for bigger bearings.