Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Virginia Beach, VA 23458
Numerous have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Virginia Beach, VA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest lots of individuals. There’s just on location to get the at an affordable rate and that’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Opting for a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Naturally, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a reward. The availability of tooling for each of these models is outstanding. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts been available in a range of models from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline also provides WW collet sets for extremely small work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Most choose ER25, ER32 or perhaps ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle go through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, the majority of actually do not care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It provides one of the most flexibility and many tool options. You can discover 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 prepared versions. Recently, they have included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the internet if you desire an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Virginia Beach.
Taig also provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines main competition. In truth, you can find a great deal of videos and short articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig products offer a lot more rigid methods and generally more “heavy duty” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine look like a totally various mill or lathe. Taig also uses a good CNC all set mill and lathe. You can also choose their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the same issues as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they use. We will do an evaluation 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 uses numerous parts and attachments, however not much to make it a much better machine. To start with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This suggests the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with extremely little mass implies the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as good and based on vibration problems. For instance, they use numerous lathe devices, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole has to be little since the bearings are small. There is a comparable problem with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in Virginia Beach, Virginia 23458 may have different needs.
There are other machine options too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other suppliers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t genuine excellent. Lots of wind up either very disappointed or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Excellent upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you prefer 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 options in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it provides continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the requirement for many years. However, they were cumbersome at best and truly just focused on amature use. Centroid is a well established business manufacture of mills. Many 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 brands. Combine that with the Centroid Acorn and you will have an effective machine. We will also produce evaluations of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill using the Acorn hardware.
What about a much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of complain that the little chucks won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On option is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you opt for bigger bearings.