Sherline Cnc 4400 Lathe

[STIELJTES]

I Am Looking At Desktop CNC Lathes For Use In Turning Small Steel, Brass And Aluminum Parts. I Have Looked At The Microkinetics, Flashcut And
IM Services CNC Versions Of The Sherline 4400. The IM Services Version Uses Servo Motors, Whereas The Microkinetics And Flashcut Use Stepper Motors. The IM Services Version Seems To Be An Excellent Machine For The $$$$$.

Does Anyone Have Any Feedback Or Thoughts On These Or Any Other
Makes?

[tip]

I have the Lathe..Sherlins..I dont think this is a bad choice if you know how to use it, that is the MACH 3 or what ever the program is now and Cam- Cad progam for G-Code..Thats my problem..I have Bob Cam-Cad..Getting the Mach 3 to cut Bob Cad Cam G-Codes..

[DMF_TomB]

my experience with cnc lathes is the problem is not getting the normal Gcode in but modifying it by pulsing the feed to break long chips.

you do not need to reverse direction , usually feed for say 1mm at 200mm/min and feed 0.1mm at 10mm/min, just by pulsing the feed long stringy chips should break into smaller pieces.

sure carbide insert tooling helps and having free machining metals designed to make short chips helps.

it is no fun having a big blob of chips tightly wound around your work on a lathe. most cad cam will not generate "pulse" feeding. sort of a pain to manually edit the gcode but once done the cnc lathe is more likely to finish the job without long stringy chips wrapping around work piece.