News and Order Updates
01/17/24 – I’ve been out with some health and personal issues for a while now. However, here is the update. I will have to have an outside shop make parts I’ve been intending to make on my machines. That’s the motor mounts, headstock mounts and headstock casings. I wanted to both make parts and assemble them, however at this point it seems to be best if I have them made and I only do the assembly. I’ll be ordering those parts soon. There will also be an order for new spindles. Almost all the BT30 spindles I have left have some issue that I can’t track down. The runout is fine, but once the tooling is installed the runout is larger than what’s acceptable. It will cost more to regrind them then to have them remade. The R8 and ISO20 spindles will be remade again as well because the manufacture made them both too short. It’s been a struggle getting shops to put out good parts without requiring huge order quantities.
11/06/2023 – At the moment, I’ve listed all headstocks and motors as out of stock. It will remain that way until orders are either caught up or very close to caught up. In large part, this is because of supplier issues and deciding it’s not cost effective for me to build certain parts in-house. Purchasing for out of stock items will only open up when I have quality checked parts in stock. Pre-ordering parts from incoming parts orders will no longer be available. Chip blowers are always available. Also, I will be unavailable until around the middle of this month to take care of some personal and family needs.
11/01/2023 – Pricing increase within the next two weeks – Because of rising costs and needing to switch to more reliable suppliers, costs for us will go up substantially. This also means our product prices will need to go up substantially for it to make sense to even offer our products. For some time now, suppliers that are willing to work at the price points we previously needed just aren’t reliable in their quality and can take many months longer to ship than their estimate. It feels like every time we get in a parts order, they have to be completely remade or altered to work. If the parts have to be completely replaced, it takes all those months again to get the parts replaced. Plus, foreign suppliers don’t return the money if they decide they can’t do the job to our specifications. Because of this, we are now switching to higher end suppliers with more skilled labor, better equipment and lead times that aren’t off by 6+ months. I’m not sure what’s changed over the years, but it feels like many companies struggle to get people who know how to make things properly (or at least check parts before sending them).
I will also no longer offer custom work out side of the products as offered on the website…it’s just too time consuming and in the end doesn’t make financial sense to do. Costs for tooling and chip blower fans will remain the same.
10/27/2023 – I just wanted to post a general update. As some of you know, I’ve had to spend time helping with family health issues. I should be able to give an update with more info around mid November. Thanks.
10/03/2023 – Had some family health issues and run of migraines late August up to now and I hadn’t posted any updates. That’s the bum thing about migraines…sometimes the medicine just doesn’t feel like it’s working for periods of time. Anyway, some of the orders that needed balancing are now done and I can get working on putting those orders together. I’m still waiting on some spindles with a secondary grind to be done. The grinding shop is good and they are the only ones with a price that’s even remotely reasonable, so I just have to wait on them. The orders with HD headstocks (R8, ISO20 and ER models) I have almost all the headstock casings I made used and will make more of those and more motor mounts. I think I already mentioned this, at this point I’m sending out orders without an anodized finish.
I know some guys really want a complete ATC kit for the BT30 and a lever closer for the 5C. Those are still on the backburner until I get more things caught up. There will be some design changes coming for Sherline compatible headstocks. Because of the high cost of material and extra machine time, dedicated HD Sherline headstocks won’t have the 6 six mounting holes. I may also drop stop selling headstocks that use the small Sherline brand headstock casing. Their pricing has gone up and I want my focus on other current products.
8/17/2023 – I will be gone from the 8/18 to 8/23. I have a handful more of orders that I’ll drop off before leaving tomorrow morning. I have several orders that are waiting for balancing. I’m told those will be done in two weeks. Balancing and grinding services seem to be really backed up still. I have about 10 orders that are nearly ready to send, but I’m just missing either balancing, a single part or I had to replace a part that wasn’t right.
8/3/2023 – I’ve been trying to fit 3 weeks worth of order filling into this one week because have some parts made for assembly and shipping. I’m still in the process of filling orders tomorrow and into next week. Thanks for your patience. Also, I will have to make more HD headstock to Taig mill adapters. I ran short and won’t have a chance to make more until next week. It’s the adapter for ISO20 and R8 to the Taig mill.
07/26/23 – Quick update – For orders I said would go out this week or previous week, they will go out next week. I think a few will spill into the following week. Tracking numbers should automatically be sent by our ecommerce system. It looks like I’ll end up milling parts all the rest of this week and start assembly next week. I’m running only one mill at the moment. I have two main mills, each with different dedicated setups. However, one of the mills needs the bed to be reground. It’s off just enough that it feels like it’s creating work work than it’s doing.
07/14/23 – For the next three weeks, I will be making parts and getting out a handful of orders out each week. Mainly though, it will be dedicated to making improved jigs for part manufacturing and getting parts made. Last month up through now, I ended up remaking a bunch, and I mean a bunch, of headstocks and more still need to be made. Ones I thought were fine initially weren’t. I had made them with wrong dimensions because of a bore indicator calibration issue…which I’m still kicking myself for. Next week, I’m placing an order for parts we get from outside suppliers. I’m told those parts should be here 60 days after ordering…and that may allow me to get fully caught up over the next 90ish days…maybe even have parts in stock. The only part that’s up in the air for a date is the jaw chuck plate adapters. The supplier we originally wanted to use couldn’t seem to get us in line for production. I got the feeling that they had much larger orders than us coming in. Anyway, we’re using a different supplier for the plates. The chuck plates will now be steel instead of cast iron. Because this will be a new supplier, we are only going to get a few plates made and check them before ordering a bunch. Jumping in with a full order without testing the suppliers work is something I won’t do again.
June 2023
06/13/2023 – The new motor pulleys are good and I’ll start shipping some out as replacements to a few bad ones. They are from our new supplier of turned aluminum parts. I like this supplier because if something isn’t right, they just remake them instead of send them to me and hope I like them. It looks like I currently have about enough BT30, ISO20, 5C and R8 spindles for current orders. I’m thinking the next batch will be 90 days out. In case you’re curious, we get aluminum parts in about 60 – 90 days, but the ground spindles use a multi-step process using three companies. That means our parts have to fit the schedule of three companies and 5 total processes. This puts most orders at a minimum of 90 days. Turning, hardening, grinding, finish turning, and cleanup. Because I have to fix parts this week, I’ll have to put off making new motor mounts and HD headstocks starting some time next week. I’ll likely be producing those parts over the next 4 weeks in batches, then ship out, then go back to make another batch.
For the chuck plate adapters, our supplier hasn’t given us a completion date on them. So, I don’t want to guess on that. Because of that, I took them off the store until they can give us an approximate date.
For this week – This week will be spent fixing the bores of some 30 headstocks I made. My indicator was off by 30 microns on an already 20 micron interference fit bore. That error was enough to compress the spindle bearings too much once mounted. Re-boring is never fun because it’s time consuming to indicate each bore for re-boring…and the more steps involved on a part increases the chance of making a mistake.
Some of you know that my dad’s health has gone down hill. He seems to go back and forth from kind of ok, to really bad shape. He’ll be 90 this year. I’m doing what I can to respond to questions and emails as I can.
May 2023
05/17/2023 – I did receive some of the pulleys we ordered, they’re 2 step ribbed pulley blanks for those who need bore holes other than what we normally sell. You can find them in our store under GlockCNC Parts. I was hoping they sent the motor pulleys first, because those I need. Anyway, the supplier did tell me that they are done, however I don’t have any shipping info for them yet. As soon as I get the motor pulleys and inspect them, I’ll make an update and start sending them.
05/10/2023 – I was told the motor pulleys have been made and will be sent out to us shortly. I’ll inspect them and if they’re good, I’ll start sending them out. The past several weeks went toward setting up our newest mill with 4th axis for headstock casing production. Getting it setup and tooled for headstocks was a bit of a process. This week I should be completing a rather large order that had been waiting and couldn’t be done until the 4th axis was complete. That means next week, I can get started on other headstock casings that I wanted to do a few weeks ago. Anyway, the next several weeks will be for headstock casings, motor mounts and Taig adapters. Early next week I will be new fixtures for making headstocks casings. After completing a bunch of casings for that large single order, I see some things on my current fixtures that really need to be changed. I’ll post some videos of the headstocks being cut. I use our GlockCNC BT30 for all of the production. I don’t have a date yet for the 5C chuck adapter plates. The supplier we use has other orders from us to yet complete first. I’m sure they also have other much bigger customer orders in the mix too.
April 2023
04/25/2023 – I was out of commission for a bit with Covid. So, I’ll be catching up on emails and so on. The rest of this week and next will be devoted to making headstock casings for R8, ISO20 and ER units. As soon as those are made, I’ll start putting together BT30 and 5C headstocks. I don’t have any delivery updates for the pulleys yet.
04/04/2023 – We are now taking orders for the 5C jaw chuck adapter plates. Currently, the available plates will be for 5″ (125mm) and 6″ (160mm) chuck plates. They will be predrilled for common chucks, however you can select the option to have no predrilled holes. All plates will come slightly oversized to be finished on your lathe. This is the only way to get a truely accurate chuck plate. Our supplier estimates about 30 days before they ship them out. Keep in mind, that’s our suppliers estimate and nothing in this world is absolute. You may order them in our online store under the menu item: GlockCNC Parts
We will offer additional adapters and risers for Sherline and Taig lathes. The new adapters will allow you to move the chuck backwards to allow for more Z axis room. You may also choose to make your own if you want. Additionally, we will have tool holders available. The tool holders and adapters won’t be available to order until we have the design finalized.
04/03/2023 – I will have new 3 step 2L pulleys, 2 step ribbed pulleys, and BT30 tool ejection caps order late this week. We have no motor pulleys currently (the pulleys I have don’t fit correctly, so I can’t send them out). I’m asking our supplier to rush them out if possible. I will also be ordering more BT30 and R8 spindles shortly. I’ve made a few slight changes to the spindles and our supplier will need to get us samples before we place a larger order (I learned that lesson the hard way, twice…always get samples first!). The changes to the spindles are only to make assembly more easy.
My goal is to catch up 90% of all orders in the next 12 weeks. A lot of those orders require the pulleys that I’m ordering this week. So, it might be the last 4 weeks of those 12 weeks that a lot of the orders go out. We have some new products we’ve been wanting to launch, but it just doesn’t make sense to do so until we are more caught up. All those on our email list will get an email when we release those products.
March 2023
03/22/2023 – I should be getting quite a few orders out in April. I thought I had a tray full of 5 rib 2 step motor pulleys on my shelf…and they were actually different pulleys. So, I will order more 2L 3 step motor pulleys and 5 rib 2 step motor pulleys…and try to get them here as fast as possible. They are just too time consuming for me to make them. I won’t know a delivery date for those until they start production on them. They usually take 30ish days plus shipping time, but it’s a don’t quote me on that kind of thing. I should finally be getting to some ISO/R8 to Taig adapters done late next week. I owe those to several people. I’m sending out some BT30 headstocks without the tool ejection cap. All the ones I have fit too lose and wobble. The BT30 work totally fine without them, but they’re handy because you don’t need to tap the tooling out of the spindle. I’ve changed the design to use small brass setscrews. I’ll ship them out to everyone who didn’t get one.
As soon as I have an update on the 5C chuck adapters, I’ll post it here. It’s been a bit of a challenge finding a shop what will make them at a reasonable cost and not mess them up. Everything has really jumped up in price…materials and machine shop time costs.
Also, I just came across a super great deal on a fogless coolant spray system. Link to it is below. Anyway, this company made there own version of the rather expensive Fog Buster system. It’s a ton cheaper and I like the design better. I’ve been using it for several weeks and really like it. It’s worth getting…it blows the chips and sends droplets of coolant without the fog of a mist coolant system. Here’s the link: https://amzn.to/3yZpi8A
January 2023
01/30 – For this week, I will get some motors out and a handful of headstocks. I’m out of stock on the HD headstock Taig adapters. I won’t get to those until some time next week. Most of this week will be taken up by completing a lot of a CNC conversion on our new large benchtop mill. It’s one of those deals where I need to get the new mill running so I can fix our current large benchtop mill. For some reason, our current mill wants to randomly slam the head down and breaking things (plus, there are some mechanical issues I need to finally address on it). The brand new mill should be up and running next week. Some of the CNC retrofit parts I bought weren’t right and new parts are being sent out. At the moment, I’m working on the electronics, way lube system and coolant system. For this CNC build, I decided to use a wall mount server rack as my CNC electronics case…we shall see if that was a good idea or not.
November 2022
September 2022
09/27/22 – We just received word that our custom lapping tools have shipped! We’ve decided to start lapping the OD of our spindles for two reasons; 1) complete control over the spindle diameter where the bearings are seated, 2) lapping makes that bearing area on the spindle even more round…and with shrink fit bearings, it keeps any tiny out of round areas of the spindle from misshaping the inner race of the bearing. We are new to OD lapping, so I will need to get a little practice in and discover the best way to set things up for lapping.
09/01/22 – The new website should be up and running sometime in October if all goes to plan. We will be switching webstore platforms with the new website release. You will likely get notices twice about your orders getting filled…one notice from our current webstore and one from the new webstore. The new webstore will have a link to the current webstore, but here’s a link to the current webstore just incase something doesn’t go as planned when releasing the upcoming new webstore… https://taig-sherline-mill-lathe.ecwid.com
For September and October, my time will be divided between doing parts runs, shipping orders and getting the new website up for a better customer experience. We may also switch over to using a mix of steel and aluminum for the motor mounts. This will make the mounts stronger with less bulk. The weight will be about the same. Some new parts will start to be shipped with a polished aluminum finish instead of anodized. This is for two reasons..1) it looks cool, and 2) in theory, it will reduce build time and cost. As you may have read, I do finally have someone helping me now. I’m hoping to get my new helper trained for a few specific tasks this month and that will help greatly.
5C Chuck Plate Adapters – We’re finally getting around to having them made. We can’t make those inhouse, so we’ll have an outside supplier make them. The two sizes will be for 5″ and 6″ chucks and will likely be offered in finished and semi-finished versions. I don’t have a cost yet or ship date. As soon as I know that information, I’ll put it on this update page and in the store. The first batch will be small because I’m now pretty careful not to place large orders for new products…not until I know for sure the supplier can make them correctly.
Some new parts that you’ll see on the website soon. As we’ve started to make as many parts as possible in-house, we been doing a lot more cutting. A lot of the cuts are slotting and deep boring using 20mm screw-in insert cutters. The big challenge is chip removal…especially with hot aluminum turning gummy. So, I ended up designing and 3D printed fans that slide on to end mills, indexable cutters and BT30 tooling. They ended up working amazingly well at blowing chips out and keeping the part cleaner when done! We have a very good, very accurate 3D printer making these now. They are available in fractional sizes and metric sizes. Other available versions mount to ER nuts, the shafts of index cutters and blanks that you can drill to size. The version that mounts to a BT30 tool holder’s flange area really blows a ton of air…it’s my favorite.
Over time, we’ve had plenty of people ask about attaching an encoder to our headstocks for indexing…which is something we too want to use. You will soon be able to order 3D printed timing pulleys that will fit the 5C, BT30 and all other headstocks that have a 30mm ID (R8, ISO20, ER etc.). For the encoder side, you will have both fractional and metric bore options. We will have a 3D printed encoder mount available at some point, but I just don’t have the time to make that part just right now.
August 2022
Our website server went down and we lost a portion of our website formatting and data. The ecommerce store was unaffected because it runs on a different server. So, the website will look a little weird for several weeks while I rebuild it and also still work in the shop to make parts. For the next few weeks starting August 22, I’ll be spending most of my shop time doing production runs on parts. This will also include modifying some parts from a supplier. The headstock bearing openings need to be opened up a little bit so they don’t compress the bearings too much. For the R8 customers, pilot hole in the spindle also needs to be opened up a little (that one inch or so section at the top of the R8 tool is the pilot). We tried a few ways to open that up and best way seems to be lapping it. That way it’s not taking off too much material and actually makes it more round. We ordered a custom blind helical internal lap just for the R8. The lap company said 3 to 4 weeks and we ordered it 08/08.
July 2022
New motor mounts should be available on 7/28. They will look different from the mounts shown on the website. They are now made in the USA using stock that’s more readily available. We likely won’t update the images on the website until the new website goes up.
All orders with the optional secondary grind operation – The grinding shop we use received the broken parts replacements a few weeks ago to repair their machine. It’s my understanding that they will complete our parts about half way through August. Again, this is only for those who ordered the optional secondary grind operation.
I had a streak of migraines for several weeks recently. So keep that in mind as I continue to catch up on orders.
June 2022 –
New motor mounts should be available on 7/28. They will look different from the mounts shown on the website. They are now made in the USA using stock that’s more readily available. We likely won’t update the images on the website until the new website goes up. All orders with the optional secondary grind operation – The grinding shop we use received the broken parts replacements a few weeks ago to repair their machine. It’s my understanding that they will complete our parts about half way through August. Again, this is only for those who ordered the optional secondary grind operation. I had a streak of migraines for several weeks recently. So keep that in mind as I continue to catch up on orders.
- We are steadly shipping orders and slowly catching up. Right now all ABEC9 hybrid steel/ceramic bearings are about 3 to 4 weeks out from order date. All BT30 ER32 tooling is about 4 to 5 weeks out.
- In the downloads section, there are new documents for motors and headstocks. Also a video on setting the torque parameter for your 750w or 1200w motor driver.
- Within the next two weeks-ish, if all goes to plan, the website will be changing. The new website will have a menu item that takes you to the current ecommerce store for orders placed before the website change. We’ve been needing to update the website for awhile.
- I will have limited availability from April 2 to April 10th.
- I’ll be posting a video here and on our youtube channel showing a fun little demo using the Taig mill and BT30 headstock with 1200w motor…we’ll be cutting at 39 IPM using a 50mm face mill and 1/2″ end mill.
[text_block style=”style_1.png” align=”left”]February 8, 2022 – We are catching up on orders, slowly but surely. We have orders with motors going out and are waiting on more to be made for us. New headstock casings have also arrived. We couldn’t use quite a few headstock casings from the last batch, they were out of spec…but, the supplier did replace them..they weren’t fast about it, but I’m very pleased that they replaced them. We hope to be fully caught up on headstock orders in the next few months. Because of the chip shortage, we will send motors out as we get them in. Some headstocks will be sent out by themselves and the motor will be sent when get them them in (that is, if you ordered both a headstock and motor). As of now, any new ER25 orders will be have to wait until we get a new batch of ER25 spindles in…we don’t have a date for those just yet. Also, as we update orders with a tracking number, we may not be able to get the package dropped off the same day that we provide the tracking number.
Other notes… We are migrating our website to a new server, so hopefully there won’t be much down time. Just know that the website might be on and off while they do the migration. We’ve had a really hard time updating our website, so we’re upgrading servers to solve the issue (well, that’s what our service provide says anyway).
For new products… This spring after we’re caught up on headstock orders, we will have the adapter kit for using the BT-30 headstocks on Grizzly G0704 and Precission Matthews PM-25 mills. Along with that, the adapter to locate our current motors behind the headstock for those mills will be available. The high frequency 18,000RPM 4 Pole motor probably won’t be until late summer. The CAT40 might be this summer, but everything seems to go more slowly than I like..so, we shall see.
Website Changes… I’ve added a download page for motor/driver documentation and will also be adding headstock info shortly. I’ll also be adding a video section with instructional videos, demos and other cool videos I’ve found by others.[/text_block]
[text_block style=”style_1.png” align=”left”]October 29. 2021 – Good news! We got a bunch of parts in recently. Enough headstock parts that it looks like we’ll catch up on all orders to date for those parts. It also looks like we’ll be getting motors midway through next month. I’m not sure how many motors our supplier is allotting us…but we’ll take anything at this point. For domestic orders, if you have a headstock with motor ordered and we don’t have the motor yet, we will start doing split fulfillment. In other words, we’re going to send you the headstock with any other in stock parts and if you have a motor coming to you, we’ll send that as soon as we get it. The past few years have been challenging for us and many others. I again want to thank all of you for your patience.
As a general company news update… We’ve also purchased a new CNC mill to build more of the parts in house. The goal is to prevent out of stock issues on milled parts until our outside suppliers can get us parts, if that situation comes up. Turning and grinding spindles will still all be done by our outside suppliers. Secondary ID grinding will be done inhouse.
September 9, 2021 – We just got a shipment of aluminum parts and one steel part in. This shipment included: motor mounts, HD headstocks for ER, R8 and ISO20 models, R8 drawbars. The redesigned TaigTurn and Micro lathe adapters, new R8 low profile spindle arbors and ISO20 drawbars will be here in about 2 weeks. For us to send out more 5C headstocks, we will need to get the new headstock casing shipment in. They haven’t given me a ship date, but it should be just a matter of weeks. It’s the same for the new BT30 drawbars.
What we know there will be a delay on is the motor controllers. The chip shortage has affected us just like so many others. I haven’t been given a ship date on those because I don’t think the manufacture knows a potential ship date. I get the feeling that the bigger corporate players are sweeping up all the chip resources before the smaller guys can get chips. The reason I say that is because some suppliers have had chip manufactures back out of orders just to cater to their bigger customers. Some of you guys have told me you’re in the same boat with your business as well.
For those asking about the CAT40 for the Grizzly, Precision Matthews and other BF models…I’m guessing, and this is strictly a guess, that we will have them designed and ordered in the spring with a Summer delivery. We may however, offer a BT30 headstock adapter sooner than that. We don’t really want to get started on too much new stuff until we’re finally in a position to carry inventory for our current line up. Hopefully that makes sense.
I have spoken casually to some about an ID/OD grinder possibility. This would be setup that can be used with a lathe, mill or custom setup. This will likely become available this winter because it would be using existing part designs. That means the same headstock build time frames apply. It’s more of a tooling and pulley package to use existing headstock models as grinders. The BT30 will likely be the “go to” model for this. If you’re thinking about grinding, start thinking about your dust extraction strategy. You don’t want that stuff getting into any friction surfaces…it can and will ruin ballscrews and bearings if it’s not controlled. For some reason, grinding dust is pretty sneaky and gets into the oddest places.
August 13, 2021 – I’ll be available until next week to respond to emails and so on. Early this week, my wife was unexpectedly hospitalized. It appears she’ll be fine, but that pretty much put the whole week on hold for us. It’s one of those things that makes the week a blur and loose track of what day it is. Anyway, thanks.
Almost forgot, I’m waiting on an updated production schedule for the aluminum parts. That will give us a better idea of what will come when. Keep in mind, that’s the suppliers best guess as to time.
July 20, 2021 – We are still currently shipping BT30 and 5C headstocks. Those with motor orders…we are out of motor mounts and they should, in theory, be here in about 4ish weeks. Those with ISO-20 and R8 low profile headstocks, we are out of headstock casings and those also should be here in 4ish weeks. I can also foresee us running out of BT30 and 5C headstock casings over the next few weeks. The new casings will be in with that 4ish week order. We were shooting for June on the parts I just mentioned, but we got pushed back. I suspect from much bigger customers than us getting priority. For motors, we are sending out everything we currently have and more will be coming. I don’t have a date for the motors yet. The motors are custom wound for us and the drivers are also modified from what from what they normally produce. So, they are just an on the shelf product.
May 25, 2021 – Because this page was acting strange and wouldn’t update correctly, I’ve started it over fresh. Anyway, we have a long awaited shipment of 5C spindles that are schedule to arrive late next week. This is our first batch using our changed manufacturing process. We should have motor mounts and the headstock casings for R8, ISO20, ER here late June.[/text_block]