Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Thor, IA 50591
Numerous have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Thor, IA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract numerous individuals. There’s only on location to get the at an affordable rate which’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Choosing a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Obviously, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a bonus. The accessibility of tooling for each of these designs is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get great quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a range of models from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are extremely small. Sherline likewise provides WW collet sets for really tiny work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. A lot of prefer ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, most really don’t care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It provides the most flexibility and many 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 can be found in CNC, handbook and CNC prepared versions. Just recently, they have included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you want an evaluation or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Thor.
Taig also provides 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 products offer far more stiff ways and usually more “heavy duty” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like a completely various mill or lathe. Taig also uses a great CNC all set mill and lathe. You can likewise choose 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 small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they provide. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now offer a ballscrew alternative for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both produces is the lack of major upgrades.
Sherline uses many parts and accessories, however very little to make it a much better machine. To start with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This means the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with really little mass implies the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as excellent and based on vibration issues. For example, they offer lots of lathe accessories, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the travel through hole has to be little due to the fact that the bearings are little. There is a similar concern with the mill. You can just utilize ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Thor, Iowa 50591 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in Thor
There are other machine alternatives too. You can likewise buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other suppliers that offer Chinese mills and lathes. Of course the quality isn’t genuine great. Lots of wind up either very 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 choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or many 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 several years. However, they were cumbersome at best and really just focused on amature usage. Centroid is a well recognized commercial manufacture of mills. A lot of which are 5 axis devices. The best servos to use 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 much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of grumble that the small chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On option is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you choose larger bearings.