sherline machines

[Mitchg07261995]

Any one here have their 3.5''x8'' lathe or mini deluxe mill, how well are these and what are the largest size material that i can work with on these?

 

[Tin Falcon]

My am surprised no takers on answering this question.
the sherline machines are AMERICAN made. and have a reputation for top quality. they are sized for model building. I have seen some great work done on sherline equipment.

The sherline lathe has a T slot cross slide a nice feature.
the Z axis handle turn a lead screw vs a rack and pinon feed found on larger lathes. The good news is makes easy conversion to cnc and you can precisely control z travel the bad news is lots of turns to get where you are going.
The sherline will not thread without extra accessories and change gears. or a cnc conversion with a spindle sensor.

sherline machines are great if you need portability and an excellent choice for a small mobile/portable machine shop or for apartment /condo dwellers .They will allow you to set up shop in a closet .

for an 8" center to center lathe you will need screw machine length drill bits.These are a little more expensive that jobbers bits.
these machines will build small models . You may find it necessary to scale models down to fit the machines.


I chose a grizzly mini lathe and a micromark mini mill for my first machines. I felt like better bang for the buck. More cast iron more machine bigger envelope etc.


Tin

 

[rebush]

I bought a Sherline from a friend last year. Have found it indispensable for making small parts and shafts. Every time I use it I'm amazed at how accurate it is. My idea when I bought it was to set the closet in my third bedroom (office) up with a mini lathe and mill so that I could work in the air conditioning when it got too hot to be in the shop. Haven't bought a mini mill yet but will be soon. Hope this helps. If you need any other info don't hesitate to ask. Roge

 

[Mitchg07261995]

thanks guys, I might just save for one and maybe have enough before summer time comes rolling in.
Rebush: what is the largest work that you have done on your lathe? Ie: diameter, length
thanks

 

[rebush]

Haven't done anything large with it yet. If it will fit in the chuck you can machine it. Starting a Stirling engine next, am planning to do the flywheel on the Sherline. I think the Sherline can handle good sized work as long as you take your time with the machining don't try to take too big of cuts. Hope this helps. Roger

 

[John Hill]

I have a Sherline lathe, it is one of the very early ones from when they were made in Australia. The bed and cross slide etc are all brass.

It is a very nice little machine and would be better if I replaced a few parts on it.

 

[Tin Falcon]

what are the largest size material that i can work .

I looked at the sherline web site . I do not see a lot of numbers listed.

so what do the numbers mean?
3.5 is swing over bed or 2 times the distance from spindle center to bed.
so you should be able to bolt a 3" flywheel to a face plate and turn it.

another number to look at is swing over saddle or cross slide. this is the largest diameter you can turn center to center.

center to center distance the length between a dead center in a head stock and a dead center in a tail stock. Add a live center and that number will be less.

If you are doing internal work like boring a cylinder then you will probably be able to do about a 2" long piece . for every inch of hole depth you need at least an inch of clearance for tooling.

I mentioned T slots earlier. these will allow you to bolt work to the table and put a boring bar CTC in the lathe and bore that way if yo like .

The largest piece you can hold in a chuck will be determined by the chuck. chuck diameter is physical size the biggest piece it will hold is typically smaller. although I could fit a 3" piece in the 3" chuck of my 5"lathe. .

I think the reason this question has not been answered is there is no. clear answer. It depends on the tooling and creativity of the operator, the part being machined etc.

also keep in mind the models built on a sherline will likely use number 0-1-2 size screws. so you need to be comfortable in this scale.
If you can get some hands on with any machine you are considering. May not be possible. At least look at the machines before you buy . a catalog picture does not uualy give a real good idea of what you are really getting. get to a Model engine show with vendors if you can.
hope this helps.
Tin

 

[Mitchg07261995]

Thanks Falcon, that helps a bunch!
Im not sure if I want to get a sherline lathe or one like we have in my machining class which are much larger that way if i need to do a much larger project, i would be able to do so
Mitch

 

[Tin Falcon]

the Chinese 10 x 22 seem to be well liked and IMHO a nice size for the home shop. I started with a 7x10 the 7 is ok but the 10 gets tight fast, one of the reasons I purchased a set of screw machine length drill bits.
I have a 9" long bed South bend the bed is 54" so plenty of z.
and as i mentioned I have a 5" cnc lathe.
Bottom line lots of choices you may want to read the sticky thread on lathe selection in the tool sub fora . lots to think about.


Tin

 

[Mitchg07261995]

recently i have been looking at the 7'' lathes but ill start looking at the 10'' laths like you suggested, thanks tin!

 

[PTsideshow]

You can get riser blocks for booth the lathe and knee mill. Go to their web site and you can down load the accessories list and all the info you could want. If I remember correctly it puts the max dia at close to 6 inches. for the lathe. never have turned anything even close to that dia yet. I like both of them I have the long bed lathe you can shorten it up easy, but you can't make it longer than it is with the short bed. The 8 axis knee mill with riser is also nice. I have the DRO's on mine and also have the cnc rotary table. Which is a great device, for repeatable hole patterns etc. with just a touch of the button.
I really have no need of full size machines. I have access to a friends equipment @ his auto parts store if needed.
Before you buy order their table top machining book has more info than most will ever need,
http://www.sherline.com/

here is the craftsmanship museum they sponsor to http://www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/ most stuff was built using their equipment.

Just a satisfied long time customer.