Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for Watts Bar Dam, TN 37395
Numerous have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Watts Bar Dam, TN. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest numerous people. There’s just on place to get the at a reasonable cost which’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Opting for a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Of course, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a perk. 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 can be found in a range of designs from the factory. Generally ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very small. Sherline likewise provides WW collet sets for really small work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Most prefer ER25, ER32 or even ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle pass through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, a lot of really do not care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It provides one of the most flexibility and lots of tool choices. You can discover numerous reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also come in CNC, manual and CNC all set variations. Recently, they have actually added ballscrew variations for sale. This is far better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the internet if you desire a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Watts Bar Dam.
Taig also provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In truth, you can discover a lot of videos and posts describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide a lot more rigid methods 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 seem like a totally different mill or lathe. Taig also offers a nice CNC all set mill and lathe. You can also select their digital CNC system which uses closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the exact same problems as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they offer. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now offer a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The drawback with both produces is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline uses lots of parts and attachments, however very little to make it a much better machine. To start with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This implies the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with very little mass means the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as excellent and subject to vibration issues. For instance, they offer lots of lathe accessories, but you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the go through hole needs to be little because the bearings are little. There is a comparable issue with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this limits its use. Of course those in Watts Bar Dam, Tennessee 37395 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Watts Bar Dam
There are other machine choices too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other suppliers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Obviously the quality isn’t genuine good. Numerous 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 want to go with a CNC machine, your best option is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or a lot of the hardware choices in the market. You can do stiff tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it offers constant speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for many years. Nevertheless, they were cumbersome at best and actually just targeted at amature use. Centroid is a well recognized commercial 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. Integrate 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 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 alternative is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Specifically if you go with larger bearings.