Sherline lathes and mills - what are the alternatives

The Taig is a slightly larger and beefier model than the Sherline and well worth a look at.

The Taig mill at the side of a sherline is only slightly bigger but far better made. As an example the sherline uses 1/4" screws as opposed to the Taigs 1/2" screws for the slide movements.

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

Thanks - that's the kind of thing I was looking for!

The micro lathe looks cheaper and faster etc than the sherline one too... the mill is more expensive, but then it's often a case of getting what you pay for in this life.

Anything else out there in suggestions land?

I see that link actually sells the CNC gear of microproto - ansd they look pretty good too...

Microproto is part of the Taig company.

Regards, Tony

Both the Taig lathe and mill are more rigid (and slightly larger capacity) than their Sherline counterparts; John S gave one example (the size of the leadscrews), but the overall construction of the Taig machines is more rigid and IMHO better engineered. There are some aspects of the Sherline system that are better - the range of standard accessories and the variable speed motor for example - but many of the Sherline accessories (and their motor/controller) can be adapted for use on other machines.

Regards, Tony