[Fboyles]

Hello everyone this is my first post here and I have a few questions if anyone can help.

1. What model is this Sherline, it was made in Aug of 84’?
2. What stepper motors are these?
3. Can you use stepper motors as a power feed? I have never used a metal lathe before and I don’t think that I want to take the time to set up the CNC and learn how to operate it. If you can use the stepper motors as a power feed what type of controller would I need.
4. What books should I start looking for that would help setup, operate and maintain this Sherline lathe?
5. I also bought the milling attachment off this guy.

Any words of advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[vlmarshall]

That's the model 4000 lathe, the shorter of the two models.
I see it has the AC motor,smaller speed controller box, single-speed pulley set, shorter crosslide, non-rocker toolpost, and the earlier style tailstock.

I think that it's a custom CNC conversion, made before Sherline offered their own CNC-ready machines, so, like my D&M-converted Sherline mill, it has the standard leadscrews with no thrust bearings.

Great little lathe, especially with the milling attachment!

I think EVERYONE should start with manual machines, and get a feel for cutting capabilities and performance, as well as dealing with things like backlash and deflection. Too often I've seen new guys jump right into machining with CNC, and then start blaming the machine, the tooling, and the material for every problem...


What tooling do you have?
How many wires are coming out of those steppers?

For power feed, you might want to look at buying a stepper driver for a single axis, like the Gecko drives... although, if you're buying a driver and power supply, it's a short step to buy one for the other axis at the same time.

Mach3 in demo mode will work as a power feed, as will the Linux-based EMC.

I messed around with Mach for a few years before I made the switch to the excellent, and free, EMC.

Oh yeah, welcome to the forum!

[Fboyles]

Thanks vlmarshall for the warm welcome and for filling in some of the blanks.

I received the milling column today I have to say that I was pretty bummed and I'm pretty sure it is going back to the seller. Keep in mind that I'm new to this and I didn't realize that they made these with the brass beds which this one is. Not that that was a deal breaker but in shipping the column broke free of the box and ended up bending the handle on the knob body 90* So I decided to call Sherline to look into ordering some parts and spoke with a Great guy, Fred. After about a half a dozen calls back and forth we figured out that the gib on the saddle was brass and they no longer make the part. So now I have to decide whether to keep the column and fix the knob and machine a new gib for it or send it back to seller. Any idea what the value is for one of these GEN. 1 mill columns?

As for tooling I bought/won 2 auctions on Ebay. I think it is a pretty good start?
First Auction
Second Auction

The motors have 6 wires coming out blue, white, yellow, brown, red, and black. Is it not possible to supply the proper amount power to a three way switch, in, out, and off?

What types of changes or improvement have you made to your 4000? Do I need to be concerned about this lathe only having the standard leadscrews?

I paid $190 for it? Do you think that I got a decent deal on the lathe?

[vlmarshall]

You got that lathe for $190? Very nice.

Sorry to hear about the milling column... yeah, the early lathe beds and mill columns were brass. You might want to look at buying a complete "mill base" and swapping the lathe's headstock onto it when you need a mill... it's Sherline's Special of the Month right now, I think they're around $300, but you 'll have almost a complete second machine. The headstock/motor/speed controller assembly comes off with a single setscrew.

The tooling you've bought will certainly be useful for the lathe, the endmills' value depends on the sharpness, but they look like a good deal from here!

Your motors are Unipolar steppers, they'll need driver circuit to move.

I don't have a 4000, my CNC'd machine is a 5400 mill. I have, however, just gotten a 4400 lathe, and I'm in the middle of a CNC conversion on it, too.

No worries about the standard leadscrews, mine were fine for years until I had one motor coupler weld itself to a thrust plate while moving at 60IPM.

Both machines are very nicely built, the mill has been extremely useful, and I'm sure the lathe will be, as well.