Sherline & Taig CNC Mill & Lathe Upgrades, Reviews for Woodbridge, CT 06525
Many are interested in ISO20, IS030, BT30 and 5C headstocks for both Sherline and Taig mills and lathes in the Woodbridge, CT. Automatic tool changers, or ATC, appeals to many people. There’s just on location to get the at a reasonable rate and that’s GlockCNC. Updating to a ISO20 or BT30 is ideal for the mill. Opting for a 5C is perfect for the lathes. Of course, you would need to upgrade the headstock, bearings and motor. High speed balancing is also a benefit. The availability of tooling for each of these models is excellent. For 5C collet sets, you can get very good quality from Hardinge.
Sherline headstocks and parts come in a range of models from the factory. Typically ER16 and MT1. Both of which are extremely little. Sherline also offers WW collet sets for extremely tiny work. Mainly watchmakers and clockmakers utilize the WW collets. Many 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, many truly don’t 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 versatility and numerous tool choices. You can find numerous 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. Just recently, they have actually added ballscrew variations for sale. This is far much better than the older leadscrew type. Browse the web if you desire an evaluation or comparison of ballscrews compared to leadscrews. There are suppliers near Woodbridge.
Taig also offers lathes and mills. It’s Sherlines primary competitors. In fact, you can find a lot of videos and short articles referring to Taig vs Sherline. The Taig items provide a lot more rigid methods and typically more “sturdy” in general. The Taig motors are quite weak, similar to the Sherline motors. A high quality brushless motor can make the machine seem like an absolutely different mill or lathe. Taig likewise uses a good CNC prepared 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 same issues as the Sherline. They are far too small. The only exception is the 5C collet headstock model they provide. We will do a review 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 drawback with both manufactures is the absence of serious upgrades.
Sherline uses lots of parts and attachments, however very little to make it a better machine. To begin with, they headstock uses bad quality bearings and the bearings are too little. This implies the spindle itself needs to be little. A spindle with extremely little mass implies the lathe or mill the surface quality will not be as excellent and subject to vibration issues. For example, they provide numerous 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 little. There is a similar concern with the mill. You can just use ER16 collets and this restricts its usage. Of course those in Woodbridge, Connecticut 06525 may have different needs.
Video: Taig CNC in Woodbridge
There are other machine alternatives too. You can likewise buy from Grizzly or Harbor Freight, together with other suppliers that provide Chinese mills and lathes. Naturally the quality isn’t real great. Many wind up either very disappointed or doing a lot of modifications to get the machine to do what they want. Excellent upgrades are ballscrews, updated brushless motor, encoder for threading and so on.
If you desire to opt for a CNC machine, your best choice is the Centroid Acorn. The software application and hardware is far better than Mach3 or much of the hardware choices in the market. You can do rigid tapping and threading if you have an encoder. Plus, it offers continuous speed for turning applications. Mach3 and Mach4 were the standard for many years. Nevertheless, they were clunky at best and actually only focused on amature use. Centroid is a well established business 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. Combine 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 better jaw chuck for the lathe? Lots of grumble that the small 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 integrated in. This can open up more options for 5″ or 6″ chuck. Especially if you choose larger bearings.
