Sherline & Taig Lathe & Mill Upgrades, Reviews for West Wendover, NV 89883
Many have an interest in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the West Wendover, NV. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, interest many people. There’s only on location to get the at an affordable cost which’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is perfect for the mill. Choosing a 5C is ideal for the lathes. Of course, you would require to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is likewise a perk. The schedule 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 can be found in a range of designs from the factory. Usually ER16 and MT1. Both of which are very little. Sherline also uses WW collet sets for very small work. Generally watchmakers and clockmakers use the WW collets. The majority of prefer ER25, ER32 and even ER40 collet sizes with a larger spindle go through hole. The 5C collet for the Sherline lathe would be the best. For Sherline mills, most truly don’t care for the MT1 and hardly like the ER16. An R8 spindle with a low profile would be best. It offers one of the most versatility and many tool options. You can find many reviews on both the lathe and the mill. Popular designs are the 2000, 5400, 4000 and 4500 in metric and inch. The also come in CNC, handbook and CNC ready versions. Recently, they have included ballscrew versions for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the internet if you want a review or contrast of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near West Wendover.
Taig also provides lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competition. In truth, you can find a lot of videos and short articles describing Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide a lot more rigid ways and typically more “heavy duty” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, much like the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like an absolutely different mill or lathe. Taig likewise offers a nice CNC all set mill and lathe. You can also opt for their digital CNC system which utilizes closed-looped steppers and Mach3 software. The Taig spindles have the same problems as the Sherline. They are far too little. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock design they use. We will do a review of the 5C in the future. The good thing is that they now provide a ballscrew option for their mill and lathe. Plus, the deal a “gang tool” lathe. The downside with both manufactures is the lack of major upgrades.
Sherline provides lots of parts and attachments, however very little to make it a much better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses poor quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This implies the spindle itself needs to be small. A spindle with extremely little mass implies the lathe or mill the finish quality won’t be as excellent and based on vibration issues. For instance, they offer numerous lathe accessories, however you can’t get a 5C headstock or ER25, ER32 or ER40. Plus, the pass through hole needs to be small since the bearings are little. There is a similar issue with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this restricts its use. Of course those in West Wendover, Nevada 89883 may have different needs.
Video: Sherline CNC in West Wendover
There are other machine options too. You can also buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, along with other providers that use Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t genuine good. Numerous end up either really disappointed or doing a great deal of modifications to get the machine to do what they desire. Excellent upgrades are ballscrews, upgraded brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you desire to choose a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software and hardware is far better than Mach3 or many of the hardware choices 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. Nevertheless, they were clunky at best and really just aimed at amature usage. Centroid is a well established industrial manufacture of mills. Much of which are 5 axis devices. The 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 likewise 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 won’t hold steel for cutting. The part will simply fall out. On choice is to purchase a headstock with a jaw chuck adapter integrated in. This can open up more choices for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Particularly if you opt for bigger bearings.