Hacking
a Sherline Lathe
Sherline
makes a very good small lathe. I
have been very happy with the one I got a few years ago. But Sherline does not make all of the
accessories that I would like to have.
So I hacked up a few accessories Sherline does not offer.
Crossslide stop: Sherline has a stop accessory that
works by limiting the leftward motion of the saddle. It is very useful but when I'm doing repetitive work (such
as making a few dozen stanchions for a ship model) it would be very useful to have a depth stop for the
crossslide. I based part of the
shape of mine on part of the Sherline Follower Rest (part #1090) and fasten it
to the saddle in the same way. (See the downloadable instruction sheet at
https://sherline.com/product/1090-lathe-follower-rest/ to see how the follower
attaches to the saddle.)
Saddle Digital Readout: Sherline has a digital readout
accessory for the lathe but it measures the number of turns made on the lead
screw, which is only an approximation of where the saddle might be due to
backlash and imperfect screws etc.
I prefer to have a measurement of the actual position of the saddle. Turns out this is quite easy &
cheap to add.
Crossslide Digital Readout: As with the saddle, Sherline's digital
readout reports turns of the lead screw.
Coming up with a digital readout that shows the actual position of the
crosslide is a bit harder than for the saddle but not too hard.
ER Collets: Sherline only supports small WW style collets on its
lathes. This article describes how
to add support for ER style collets.
ER style collets come in many more sizes and grip the stock far better.