- Joined
- Jul 8, 2009
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Over 10 years ago I purchased a used Sherline from a gentleman that was downsizing his shop and decided the Sherline could go. I got not only the lathe, I also got the tooling for the Sherline and every accessory he purchased for the Sherline. The box it all was shipped in had to be pushing the limit that the USPS would allow. To my shame all of it sat in that box, unused and un-loved until I retired at the end of September last year. At that time I started on one of my numerous retirement projects, radio control conversions for Bruder construction toys. While I MIGHT be able scratch-build something, converting the Bruder toys will get me to a usable point quicker. I've got a shelf in the basement that's filled with toys waiting for conversion.
What's this got to do with the Sherline, glad you asked. At least 5 of the models on the shelf are trucks, trucks that will require at least 2 differentials per truck - 3 per truck if I go with a 6x6 drive configuration. Do you know how much a differential for an RC truck costs? Let me put it in perspective for you, I paid less for my first full-sized car - granted it wasn't much of a car. I decided to fabri-cobble the differentials out of cheap Chinese clones of 1/10 scale RC car differentials using a little machining and some 3D printing - I've got the tools to do both.
To do the machining I needed the Sherline, now where'd I put that box? I found the box and started setting things up, unsurprisingly almost nothing wanted to work, all the oil and grease had turned to glue. That's when the Sherline started gettin' some love.
I took apart the carriage and the cross-slide and cleaned the glue that used to be oil off the dovetails, lead-screws, and lead nuts - then oiled everything and put it back together. The carriage and cross-slide work MUCH better now.
The headstock is another matter. The motor works, but sitting in one position for years didn't help the headstock bearings any as they are rough and noisy. I suspect that the grease in the shielded bearings has dried out and hardened. I've been dousing the bearings with light oil in hopes that will re-constitute the original grease, but so far other than slinging dirty oil everywhere it hasn't done much. I suspect that new bearings will be required.
I started using the lathe, but was constantly losing track of where the cutting tip actually was when I moved the hand-wheels. My hat's off to anybody that can use a manual machine and make usable parts with just the hand-wheels. I cannot, I am much too digitally inclined. So that was the next lovin' that the Sherline got, some digital scales with remote readouts. I knew that I could totally botch this up, so I got the cheapest scales I could find. I didn't want this to hurt the piggy-bank too much if I totally hosed it. (They appear to be a Shahe/Igaging DigiMag scale clone.)
And it worked, kinda/sorta/mostly. I installed the scales in the simplest manner I could think of using mostly the supplied hardware. ,That hardware is mostly bent sheet metal brackets. This installation wound up having the scale strips facing up which is not good to begin with, but it also burns up a lot of real estate on and around the lathe. This is a shot of the cross-slide scale.
And this is a shot of the carriage scale from the headstock end.
I also have an intermittent glitch with the carriage scale, it will sometimes forget where it is and starts over from 0. I have been doing a little research into this problem and found these scales are sometimes vulnerable to electrical noise. There are several things you can do to fight this problem: 1) Shorten the cables, this is do-able but not really worth the effort. 2) Replace the existing non-shielded cables with shielded cables, again not really worth the effort. 3) Don't loop the cables - Whoopsie, wish I'd have known that before I got bit by the Cable Management bug.
Would I do this again? I am doing this again, just not like this.
I'm not going to use the Shahe clone scales again, I'm going with the Igaging EZ-View Plus scales. The EZ-Views are only a few dollars more that the equivalent Shahe scales, but they have better resolution, they use shielded cables between the read head and the display, and most importantly - you can get an AC adapter for them. The Shahe scales are strictly battery fed, and mine do not have an Auto-Off feature.
I am also going to rotate the scales 90 degrees, so that the scale strip is facing away from the spindle. That way the hot chips should bounce off the metal scale support bar and not embed themselves into the scale strip. That hasn't happened yet, but it easily could. In addition to rotating the cross-slide scale I will probably move it to use the existing T-slot as an anchor point for the scale. The carriage read head will be driven back and forth along the scale that is fixed to the lathe base. The cross-slide read head will be fixed in position and the scale will be driven back and forth through it. I am currently planning on 3D printing one bracket that will do double duty. First it will fix the carriage read head to the carriage, and second it will fix the cross-slide read head in position. That single bracket will probably have to be in several pieces so I can align the read heads to their respective scales. It's yet to be designed.
I almost forgot, I ordered and installed an OXA QCTP on the Sherline, even though it is a little big. I really would have liked to get a Tryally QCTP, but not at that price. (Even though it's probably worth every penny.) I also set up 4 tools for the OXA in their tool holders.
Don
What's this got to do with the Sherline, glad you asked. At least 5 of the models on the shelf are trucks, trucks that will require at least 2 differentials per truck - 3 per truck if I go with a 6x6 drive configuration. Do you know how much a differential for an RC truck costs? Let me put it in perspective for you, I paid less for my first full-sized car - granted it wasn't much of a car. I decided to fabri-cobble the differentials out of cheap Chinese clones of 1/10 scale RC car differentials using a little machining and some 3D printing - I've got the tools to do both.
To do the machining I needed the Sherline, now where'd I put that box? I found the box and started setting things up, unsurprisingly almost nothing wanted to work, all the oil and grease had turned to glue. That's when the Sherline started gettin' some love.
I took apart the carriage and the cross-slide and cleaned the glue that used to be oil off the dovetails, lead-screws, and lead nuts - then oiled everything and put it back together. The carriage and cross-slide work MUCH better now.
The headstock is another matter. The motor works, but sitting in one position for years didn't help the headstock bearings any as they are rough and noisy. I suspect that the grease in the shielded bearings has dried out and hardened. I've been dousing the bearings with light oil in hopes that will re-constitute the original grease, but so far other than slinging dirty oil everywhere it hasn't done much. I suspect that new bearings will be required.
I started using the lathe, but was constantly losing track of where the cutting tip actually was when I moved the hand-wheels. My hat's off to anybody that can use a manual machine and make usable parts with just the hand-wheels. I cannot, I am much too digitally inclined. So that was the next lovin' that the Sherline got, some digital scales with remote readouts. I knew that I could totally botch this up, so I got the cheapest scales I could find. I didn't want this to hurt the piggy-bank too much if I totally hosed it. (They appear to be a Shahe/Igaging DigiMag scale clone.)
And it worked, kinda/sorta/mostly. I installed the scales in the simplest manner I could think of using mostly the supplied hardware. ,That hardware is mostly bent sheet metal brackets. This installation wound up having the scale strips facing up which is not good to begin with, but it also burns up a lot of real estate on and around the lathe. This is a shot of the cross-slide scale.
And this is a shot of the carriage scale from the headstock end.
I also have an intermittent glitch with the carriage scale, it will sometimes forget where it is and starts over from 0. I have been doing a little research into this problem and found these scales are sometimes vulnerable to electrical noise. There are several things you can do to fight this problem: 1) Shorten the cables, this is do-able but not really worth the effort. 2) Replace the existing non-shielded cables with shielded cables, again not really worth the effort. 3) Don't loop the cables - Whoopsie, wish I'd have known that before I got bit by the Cable Management bug.
Would I do this again? I am doing this again, just not like this.
I'm not going to use the Shahe clone scales again, I'm going with the Igaging EZ-View Plus scales. The EZ-Views are only a few dollars more that the equivalent Shahe scales, but they have better resolution, they use shielded cables between the read head and the display, and most importantly - you can get an AC adapter for them. The Shahe scales are strictly battery fed, and mine do not have an Auto-Off feature.
I am also going to rotate the scales 90 degrees, so that the scale strip is facing away from the spindle. That way the hot chips should bounce off the metal scale support bar and not embed themselves into the scale strip. That hasn't happened yet, but it easily could. In addition to rotating the cross-slide scale I will probably move it to use the existing T-slot as an anchor point for the scale. The carriage read head will be driven back and forth along the scale that is fixed to the lathe base. The cross-slide read head will be fixed in position and the scale will be driven back and forth through it. I am currently planning on 3D printing one bracket that will do double duty. First it will fix the carriage read head to the carriage, and second it will fix the cross-slide read head in position. That single bracket will probably have to be in several pieces so I can align the read heads to their respective scales. It's yet to be designed.
I almost forgot, I ordered and installed an OXA QCTP on the Sherline, even though it is a little big. I really would have liked to get a Tryally QCTP, but not at that price. (Even though it's probably worth every penny.) I also set up 4 tools for the OXA in their tool holders.
Don
