alternatives to a DRO Sherline Mill (looking for robustness)

[runcyclexcski]

Hi all,

I have been using a Sherline DRO mill for about 4 years now, and I am ready for a change. Looking to the spend about the same as I did for a full-package Sherline (~2-3K), but something more robust (all-steel) and easy to fix. May I ask for suggestions? I mostly mill Alu and plastics, but I do an occasional run with mild steel, Ti, and Invar. I use 1-6 mm mills, anything bigger is a struggle, so I do not go above 6 mm. I sometimes, I attach a high-RPM spindle, and mill soda lime and borosilicate glass slides. I tend to be quite abusive to my tools, and I feel like I now spend more time fixing the Sherline than milling. I am generally fine with the low power and the XYZ range (I tend to work alone and in a hurry, and I would have been dead/injured by now if I had >500 W available). Thinking to get direct linear encoders, rather than indirect rotary ones like my Sherline has: I have had situations when the stage would get stuck, but the encoder would show travel.

Thank you in advance!

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[hackish]

Look at the precision mathews mills. I only ever touched a sherline once and it was a toy. The PM series are better than the grizzly by a lot, and for a home user, they're acceptable. You will probably find the speed is a problem, but since it's a belt drive, installing some new pulleys and modifying the motor mount shouldn't be that hard.

[runcyclexcski]

Look at the precision mathews mills. I only ever touched a sherline once and it was a toy. The PM series are better than the grizzly by a lot, and for a home user, they're acceptable. You will probably find the speed is a problem, but since it's a belt drive, installing some new pulleys and modifying the motor mount shouldn't be that hard.

Many thanks, these do look good! I will contact them to find out if they have a distributor in Europe (I am in the UK). It weighs 300 lbs, so I would not be able to smuggle one on a plane (to avoid shipping costs ).

[cncuser1]

You are looking to upgrade to steel and decrease the amount of time fixing your mill.
Do you have anything else you'd like to change? Like work area, tool holding system?

It seems that the diameter end mills you currently use require a speed of spindle that is not commonly found, so a spindle upgrade might be required.

generally speaking the next step up from a Sherline is the Sieg line of mills, then after that the next step up is the family of mills that precision Mathews and many others carry.

So as a next step up look carefully st the Sieg mills. They are bigger, steel, but cheap and require work to use for quality production.

You use a DRO, which implies a degree of precision greater than the Sieg mills offer out of the box.
The next step up in quality might suit DRO's, but the spindles might be too slow for you.

You might consider a used mill from watch makers. There are some nice, old machines in europe.

[runcyclexcski]

Thank you for the tip on the Sief! The Sieg, indeed, looks good, and is quite affordable. I can go for the bigger chucks, as long as I work out a safe work practice. The good thing is that I learned on a Bridgeport, so I have the original skills. The Sieg China-based, which I have accepted by now. Delivery might be easier, too, as they seem to have Eu distributors. Old machines might be much harder to get parts for, so I would go for a new machine.

I do not run production for sale, but I do use the mills for work (I make microscope parts and holders for my research). Outsourcing in the UK is quite expensive, and university managers are getting rid of in-house machininning. So that the saved money can be used to hire more managers, I suppose. So, I became self-sustained for small jobs.

[cncuser1]

Step 1: determine spindle RPM required for the work you intend to do.
Step 2 determine what, if anything is required to get the mill to turm at that speed?( change pulleys, motor, bearings, new spindle assembly)

[runcyclexcski]

Typically, I use 800 RPM for steel and Ti, and 1400 for Aluminium. 2500 for smallest bits. Sherline maxes out at 2500, I believe. For 20,000 RPM (i.e. milling glass), I just bolt a Dremel to the base.

[awerby]

You can get a high-speed pulley set for the Sherline that will boost the top speed to 10,000 RPM. The Seig mills are heavier than the Sherline and will take heavier cuts, but the fit and finish is of much lower quality. As the person who mentioned them warned you. they need extensive reworking before they'll hold high tolerances. The Jacobs chucks they come with aren't going to be adequate for holding the small tools you mention using. The runout of that system will cause them to break in short order; you'd need to switch to a collet-based toolholding system. If you're milling glass or other abrasive materials, you'll need to protect the slides from the dust or slurry, or they will be damaged.

[runcyclexcski]

awerby, Thanks for the warning. What about the Mathews precision mills then? I was not very happy with the Sherline finish, either... it only works out when I clamp everything as hard as I can, use smallest mills, and use Alu. Forget steel etc. Nothing compared to Bridgeport finishes.

Regarding glass on the Sherline: I run water continuously directly onto the spindle (I use 2 mm diamond bits) at about 500 ml in 5 min (non-stop squirt bottle nozzle), and make a dam/trough to direct the water away. The SHerline seems OK, although I suspect anodisation helps protect the Al milling table. The sherline spindle never sees the glass (see Dremel notes below). So I guess I can keep the sherline for glass work. I am aware of the 10K spindles by Sherline, but 10K is still on the slow side, and I am quite happy with the dremel-based attachment for the Sherline I made. A dremel costs less than most companies charge to make one glass piece 1x50x50 mm -- and a dremel can make fifty of these before I throw it away and get a new one. Eternal Tool bits work great. With a 2 mm bit, at Dremel max speeds, I remove 0.5 mm (0.02") at a time, at feed rates of about 1 mm in about 5 sec.

[cncuser1]

Those RPMs don't rule anything out .

[Iron-Man]

Hi all,

I have been using a Sherline DRO mill for about 4 years now, and I am ready for a change. Looking to the spend about the same as I did for a full-package Sherline (~2-3K), but something more robust (all-steel) and easy to fix. May I ask for suggestions? I mostly mill Alu and plastics, but I do an occasional run with mild steel, Ti, and Invar. I use 1-6 mm mills, anything bigger is a struggle, so I do not go above 6 mm. I sometimes, I attach a high-RPM spindle, and mill soda lime and borosilicate glass slides. I tend to be quite abusive to my tools, and I feel like I now spend more time fixing the Sherline than milling. I am generally fine with the low power and the XYZ range (I tend to work alone and in a hurry, and I would have been dead/injured by now if I had >500 W available). Thinking to get direct linear encoders, rather than indirect rotary ones like my Sherline has: I have had situations when the stage would get stuck, but the encoder would show travel.

Thank you in advance!

If you can find one, a Denford Novamill or Triac would be superior to any Sherline mill.
I converted and refitted a Denford Novaturn to Pathpilot, AC servos +- 10v system.

Hope this helps,


Iron-Man