Sherline / Taig vs Harbor Freight:

[Stephen Richardson]

Hello all,
I am in the process of choosing a milling machine. I have whittled it down to three options Taig, Sherline and the last one, Mini Mill from Harbor Freight Tools / Grizzly. The Taig and Sherline are much more expensive as are the tools. Harbor Freight / Grizzly are much less expensive as are their tools. I would like to hear any opinions regarding these three options.

Thanks

[Kevin W.]

I would pick either the Sherline or the Taig.Grizly i know nothing about.Taig and Sherline should be no problem to get accesories or parts for, and maybe you will pay a bit more but perhaps worth it.

[Jim DuBois]

Stephen,

Long time no talk. Asking "which is better" is time to take out a bottle of a favored beverage, sit back, and watch the fur fly. Everybody has a favorite, and few will agree on one over the other. And each person may be right for thier purposes.

And to that point a lot of it depends on what you hope to accomplish with the mill. I have one of the Harbor Freight mills here at the house you can try out. I have owned several Sherline mills, never a Taig mill, as I personally did not like their lathe, so never tried their mill. Others will have different opinions.

Some of the reasons I prefer the Harbor Freight/Grizzly mills has to do with the mass of the tables and whole assembly as well as the fact they offer an R8 arbor system. The motor and controller on a Sherline is far better, and the fit and finish is far better on the Sherline. But, when it comes to tooling the Harbor Frieght has so many more CHEAP options from many sources, it wins over the better built product IMO.

Stephen, feel free to give me a call and come over and try out the el cheapo mill. You can also try out both a horizontal and verticle Derbyshire, as well as a Tormach, a Light Machines, and a Chinese gearhead mill if you care to try a number of different mills.....

And don't take my recommendations as a cheap shot at Sherline, they make a fine product that is able to make all sorts of stuff very well....and do precision work, take Jerry K's work as an example.....

[Kevin W.]

Stephen i am not prejudiced.I go by only what i know.I am sure not all Chinese made machines are poor but being in the poster is in the UK i am just using my common sense.I dont want to see this thread turned into a fur flying fight.
Jerry K is a good person to take advice from and knows much more than i on this subject.

[Jim DuBois]

Sorry Veritas, but Stephen is not in the UK. He is about 15 miles down the road from my location, in Magnolia TX. Hence, my invitation for him to drop by and try out some or all my mills.... he just happens to be from the UK:)

[Kevin W.]

That,s even better Jim for him to come and vist you.Then he can see first hand, which is the best for him.

[MShaw]

In the past I owned a U S Burke bench mill and now own a Sherline mill.

Unfortunately I parted company with the Burke before I got into clock repair. Would like to have it now!!!!!

I will say that the Sherline is very accurate and a pleasure to use.

The one major problem with the Sherline was the lack of a gib lock on the vertical slide. The leadscrew lock does not remove the looseness in the gib when taking heavier cuts.

I have added a gib lock and it makes a world of difference. I wrote Sherline suggesting this and never got a response.

Oh well.:/:

Malkin Shaw
York, Pa.

[Jerry Kieffer]

Hello all,
I am in the process of choosing a milling machine. I have whittled it down to three options Taig, Sherline and the last one, Mini Mill from Harbor Freight Tools / Grizzly. The Taig and Sherline are much more expensive as are the tools. Harbor Freight / Grizzly are much less expensive as are their tools. I would like to hear any opinions regarding these three options.

Thanks

Stephen
As Jim mentioned this is like stepping out of the frying pan and into the fire. Machines such as you are considering need to be evaluated side by side to determine personal preference. I would strongly suggest you consider Jims offer of playing with his machines and TAKE ADVANTAGE OF HIS KNOWLEDEGABLE ADVISE.
Personally I own both Sherline and a Grizzly Mini Mill. I have owned several brands of this machine since 1988. I also have owned and since sold a Taig Mill. I will give my personal reasons for using what I use.

The Taig Mill
The Taig Mill was of equal quality to the Sherline and far superior to the Mini mills. I did not like the non variable speed motor system. Set up was less versitle than the Sherline. For example the headstock is not designed to rotate. Spindle work holding options were also limited to a chuck or Taigs very limited odd ball collet system. I could have changed over to "WW" collet headstock but then I would have had no efficient way of holding endmills. Currently the mill is supplied with a ER-16 collet spindle or the standard spindle mentioned above The Taig Mill is a little larger than the Sherline. However the very small amount of work that can be done on the Taig over the Sherline is far better done on a much larger mill than either of these mills.

The Mini Mill (Grizzly)
To be up front, I have never been a fan of Chinese machines especially the Mini`s. If I had to list a positive aspect of a Mini mill, it would be as a modified machine setup for a specific application.
I will list my personal reasons for not using this machine for Horological work

Personally, the dry gear drive system sounds like it is grinding rocks and is distracting at least to me. I have corrected this in part by drilling holes in the headstock and lubricating gear contact areas with spray grease on a regular basis.

I find R-8 tooling is just to large and size limiting for the small tooling used an a daily basis in a Horological shop for general repair. It is also very time consuming and not very practical for example, when going from a spotdrill to a drill to a reamer etc.
Of course you can purchase a accruate $50.00 collet and a $300.00 Albrecht chuck for accurate drilling. However with the uncalibrated very crude "Z" axis system on this mill, I found myself busting small tooling faster than I can install it. To be fair it does have a seperate fine feed system if you can call it that. And would sort of work if only the ways were machined parallel so the gibbs could be properly adjusted. On this note, in the past I have remachined the ways on two seperate machines only to have the castings warp worse than before I started, almost immediately after machining.

I also do not like the fact that accessories and tooling for these machines is very limited for general everyday Holological work, and seldom interchangable with a lathe. For example on the Sherline system, I can mount a part in a chuck on the Lathe. Without removing the part from the chuck, I can transfer it to the mill spindle, Mill bed, Rotary table, Indexer, Adjustable angle plate and back to the lathe spindle, tool post or tailstock. For me personally, this is a very efficient method of dealing with each part that needs to be machined. In a general repair shop, it seems like no two parts or operations are ever the same. (Not the case in a Job Shop)

The Mini mill is slightly larger than both the Sherline and Taig. Again the work that can be done on the Mini and not the Sherline and Taig, is best done a much larger machine than any of these three.

Personally I do all Horological work within its envelope on the Sherline.
That covers about 90 percent of all work that is done. The rest is done on large heavy equipment.
The Sherline is used because of its accuracy, setup flexibility and adaptibility as well as interchangability with the lathe as mentioned above. The full line of properly sized accessories is the life blood of the system. The ability to use "WW" collets for small work is a major plus.
My tools are for working on projects not as projects. Personally I have found the mini Lathe and will to be more of a project than the projects they capable of doing.

As with Jims generous offer, I would also offer anyone to stop by and play with the machines to form your own opinion if your in the Wisconsin area.

Jerry Kieffer
-> posts merged by system <-

In the past I owned a U S Burke bench mill and now own a Sherline mill.

Unfortunately I parted company with the Burke before I got into clock repair. Would like to have it now!!!!!

I will say that the Sherline is very accurate and a pleasure to use.

The one major problem with the Sherline was the lack of a gib lock on the vertical slide. The leadscrew lock does not remove the looseness in the gib when taking heavier cuts.

I have added a gib lock and it makes a world of difference. I wrote Sherline suggesting this and never got a response.

Oh well.:/:

Malkin Shaw
York, Pa.

Malkin
I suspect your complaint on the old style "Z" axis lock got lost along with several of mine and probably many others. For the lack of a better description, it was pretty much useless.

The current production "Z" axis leadscrew lock offers two advantages.
First, it is fast and easy to use as well as being absolute.
Second, when held in the lightly locked position it eliminates all backlash in the "Z" axis when desired. This allows absolute repeatability or depth control if required, a feature no other manual mill I have owned has had.

Jerry Kieffer

[Stephen Richardson]

Jerry,
Thanks for your input. All these opinions help me weigh up the pros and cons. I understand everyone has a preference. This all adds to making an informed decision…….Thanks again!