Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for West Swanzey, NH 03469
Many are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the West Swanzey, NH. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, attract many people. There’s just on location to get the at an affordable cost which’s GlockCNC. Upgrading to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Going with a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Of course, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a reward. The availability of tooling for each of these designs is exceptional. 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. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline also offers WW collet sets for really small work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. Most choose ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a bigger spindle travel through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the very best. For Sherline mills, many really don’t care for the MT1 and barely like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It uses the most versatility and lots of tool options. You can find numerous evaluations on both the lathe and the mill. Popular models are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The likewise can be found in CNC, manual and CNC all set variations. Recently, they have added ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the web if you desire a review or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near West Swanzey.
Taig likewise offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In reality, you can find a great deal of videos and short articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide far more rigid ways and typically more “sturdy” overall. The Taig motors are pretty weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine appear like a totally different mill or lathe. Taig also uses a nice CNC ready mill and lathe. You can also go with 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 little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they provide. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now provide a ballscrew choice for their mill and lathe. Plus, the offer a “gang tool” lathe. The disadvantage with both produces is the absence of major upgrades.
Sherline offers numerous parts and accessories, but very little to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too small. This implies the spindle itself requires to be little. A spindle with extremely little mass suggests the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as excellent and based on vibration problems. For example, they use many lathe accessories, 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 comparable problem with the mill. You can only use ER16 collets and this limits its usage. Of course those in West Swanzey, New Hampshire 03469 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in West Swanzey
There are other machine alternatives too. You can also purchase from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, in addition to other suppliers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real good. Numerous end up either very dissatisfied 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 choose a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far much better than Mach3 or many of the hardware alternatives 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 clunky at finest and really only targeted at amature usage. Centroid is a well established commercial manufacture of mills. A number of which are 5 axis machines. The best servos to utilize 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 likewise produce reviews of the Taig CNC mill and Sherline CNC mill using the Acorn hardware.
What about a better jaw chuck for the lathe? Many grumble that the little chucks will not hold steel for cutting. The part will just fall out. On choice is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter built in. This can open up more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you go with larger bearings.