Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Warfordsburg, PA 17267
Many have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Warfordsburg, PA. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest many individuals. There’s only on location to get the at an affordable price which’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Going with a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Of course, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a benefit. The availability of tooling for each of these models is exceptional. For 5C collet sets, you can get excellent quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a range of models from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are really small. Sherline likewise uses WW collet sets for extremely tiny work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. A lot of prefer ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, the majority of really do not care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers the most flexibility and numerous tool options. You can find many 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, handbook and CNC prepared variations. Recently, they have included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Search the internet if you want a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Warfordsburg.
Taig likewise uses lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In fact, you can find a great deal of videos and posts referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items use much more stiff ways and normally more “heavy duty” overall. The Taig motors are quite weak, just like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like a completely different mill or lathe. Taig likewise offers a good CNC prepared mill and lathe. You can also select their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software application. 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 provide. We will do an evaluation of the 5C in the future. The nice thing is that they now provide a ballscrew option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both manufactures is the lack of serious upgrades.
Sherline uses many parts and attachments, however very little to make it a better machine. To start with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This suggests the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with really little mass suggests the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as good and based on vibration issues. For example, they offer lots of lathe devices, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole has to be small because the bearings are small. There is a similar issue with the mill. You can just utilize ER16 collets and this limits its use. Of course those in Warfordsburg, Pennsylvania 17267 may have different needs.
There are other machine alternatives too. You can likewise purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t genuine excellent. Numerous end up either very disappointed or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Outstanding upgrades are ballscrews, updated brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you want to go with a CNC machine, your best bet is the Centroid Acorn. The software application 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 constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for several years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at best and really only focused on amature use. Centroid is a well recognized commercial manufacture of mills. Many 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. Integrate 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 much better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many complain that the little chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On alternative is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open more alternatives for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you choose larger bearings.