AXYZ parts book and availability of parts

Hi there, first post...

I'm considering buying a used AXYZ 6010 to replace my current Chinese router. I've looked at one and it looks really solidly made, the seller's staff say it's been totally reliable, but as with any used machine, I expect if I buy it something will need replacing sooner or later.
AXYZ UK say they don't have parts books and the list of parts on their website seems limited. They told me they consider this obsolete, which is a bit disconcerting as it's only been superseded in the last few years.

Does anyone know where I can get a parts book or repair manual from?
Are parts available from anywhere other than AZYZ?

Are there any other machines I should consider which are equally well-made but possibly easier to maintain and repair?

Thanks in advance!

I personally haven't worked on or converted any AXYZ routers but I have a friend who has done several conversions and they are very overrated and ridiculously overpriced and he doesn't rate them at all.!

However, they are easy enough to retrofit to a modern motion controller which is what commonly fails, the rest of the components like motors and drives can also be swapped out with modern units. So if they go down on you you are not stuck with a lump of scrap iron, well aluminium mostly in this case as they use bespoke aluminium profiles for a lot of the frame, unlike some of the more industrial routers like Biesse etc, which use bespoke electronics and components with heavy lumps of steel frames.

I have a modest amount of experience with an AXYZ machine and can agree that they are OK,but perhaps a little short of wonderful in some respects. A lot depends on the age of the machine as they were using a controller that would only accept a file name of less than eight characters until well into this century and this was a feature of lots of computers until Windows 95 came along.So you might conclude that keeping the software up to date wasn't a top priority for them as long as the machines did the job. Having seen the machine with the covers off, I was a little surprised by the modest size of the steppers although later machines ,I believe graduated to servos. The frame and gantry would be a decent basis for an upgrade project,but you probably want to be producing and not playing with nuts and bolts and re-calibrating.Which gets more challenging if you have to develop tool changing routines.

The cynic in me wonders whether AXYZ might just happen to have a trade in machine that they could have done a modest upgrade on and which might be better suited to a spell of factory support.It certainly seems that asking them about long term support might be a revealing question for a prospective purchaser to pose.

Thanks for your comments. The frame and gantry of the AZYZ 6010 (which I believe was their most heavy-duty model at the time) struck me as very solid and well made, top class welding and finish, far superior to comparable Chinese-made machines I've looked at.

My concern is that AXYZ don't seem very interested in providing long-term support (possibly due to recent change of ownership?) which isn't a major problem if there are alternative sources of parts and expertise available.

Do you happen to know if the parts likely to fail soonest (motors? rails? bearing blocks? racks and pinions? drive belts? motion controllers?) are generic or manufacturer-specific? And if there are alternative parts sources in the UK for these?

Thanks for your reply.

Do you happen to know which motion controllers, motors, drives, etc. would be suitable replacements for the AXYZ machines?
And do you know of a good supplier in the UK for these parts?

Without knowing the exact configuration of the machine and its age,the questions are difficult to answer.I don't suppose AXYZ manufactured every single component,in fact I would feel sure they bought in most of the components and assembled the collection of parts.Which probably means that if you can identify them,you ought to be able to buy them without a mark-up added.I would doubt that any machine from the last twenty years wouldn't have induction hardened rails although you might have to source ball bearings from your tame bearing stockist.Steppers and toothed belts are hardly scarce commodities and I would be a little surprised if they don't feature the very common 200 steps per rotation.The manual is very thorough and will very likely contain a page telling you how many steps/mm for all three axes and it may not be a simple,whole number due to the sizes of the toothed pulleys.

When we stray into the territory of motion controllers and VFD's for three phase spindles,I'm out of my depth.I have reported fault codes and pressed reset buttons but nothing more and then not with AXYZ.I also wouldn't know where to start with setting parameters for toolchangers so will contribute nothing on that topic.I believe LinuxCNC will do all you need if you know how to configure it and UCCNC seems to be well regarded.

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Originally Posted by SullyandChance

Thanks for your comments. The frame and gantry of the AZYZ 6010 (which I believe was their most heavy-duty model at the time) struck me as very solid and well made, top class welding and finish, far superior to comparable Chinese-made machines I've looked at.

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Yes, they are better than Chinese machines but so they should be at twice to three times the cost.!

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Originally Posted by SullyandChance

Do you happen to know if the parts likely to fail soonest (motors? rails? bearing blocks? racks and pinions? drive belts? motion controllers?) are generic or manufacturer-specific? And if there are alternative parts sources in the UK for these?

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Well, the first thing to say is that the AXYZ machines don't use any special mechanical components, they are all off-the-shelf components that can be replaced easily. Which given the high price they ask for these machines is surprising, mostly I think they are charging for the custom software.?

Usually, it's the electronics that fail first on most machines and not just AXYZ but machines in general, the rails and bearings last for a very long time if maintained correctly and I would be avoiding any machine that has worn rails or bearings out because they have either been neglected or done a lot of miles.

After the electronics, I would say the most common mechanical wear item is the Rack and Pinion along with gearboxes for the ratio often used on rack n pinion drive systems, some will use belts but most use gearboxes. Again, if gearboxes and to a lesser degree rack/pinons are worn out it's an indication of poor maintenance or high miles.


Components like Racks, pinions, Motors, drives, controllers, etc are all easily sourced in the UK or from the EU.
The motors could be either be Steppers or servos depending on the age and Spec of the machine, I think until recently the standard spec was stepper system with servo's being an upgrade. But again these are easily sourced in the UK as they are not bespoke components and just use the standard NEMA frame size.

Same with Drives and electronics, all easily sourced, however, the control software will change as AXYZ does have custom bespoke control software. But this is not always a bad thing and often performance will increase with modern software/electronics.

On the machines, I build or retrofit we use an Ethernet motion controller using UCCNC control software and this is the same controller/software my friend uses on the AXYZ routers he's converted and I know through him that they certainly increase performance and reliability compared to stand AXYZ controller.!

If the mechanicals is ok then I wouldn't let the electrical or mechanical put you off buying if the price is right and you are prepared to move away from the custom AXYZ software and fit an after-market controller because the rest are easily sourced.

Thanks very much for this info, reassuring to know that these machines can be maintained and repaired even if AXYZ isn't providing any support.

If the motion control system fails, roughly what does it cost to replace the original with the UCCNC system you mentioned?

On the mechanicals, are there any quick checks/tests one can do with a used machine to gauge how worn the racks and pinions and the rails and bearings are?

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Originally Posted by SullyandChance

If the motion control system fails, roughly what does it cost to replace the original with the UCCNC system you mentioned?

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It depends on your needs. Work out how many I/O you need then you know your options.
CNCdrive do a deal evry so often where you get a controller, bboard, cables & license in a bundle.
http://shop.cncdrive.com/index.php?categoryID=174

I bought a UC300eth, 2*UCBB's, license, a bunch of extra cabling, and some other small bits.
Cost me £260 + £60ish to import it. Pretty much futurproofs the machine tbf.

Or go all out with a UC300eth max from cncroom (UC300, UB1, UD1, license).
https://cncroomx.com/en/product/uc300eth-max/


I would've got away with a UC400 but I recently got a servo for a spindle change on the mill.
I want to separate everything to it's own dedicated inputs like the limits, faults, encoder. Worked out at 17 inputs needed.
The next plan is tool changer etc on the second board and servo's on all axis (but I may never get that far).

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Originally Posted by SullyandChance

If the motion control system fails, roughly what does it cost to replace the original with the UCCNC system you mentioned?

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Depends on which controller you use but the controller and I/O boards, plus software license will be around £200-£250. However, these are not direct replacements in terms of plug & play so you will need some experience in terms of retrofitting or will need to pay someone who does. How much this costs will depend on the machine and what's on it ie: ATC, pops-up's etc

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SullyandChance

On the mechanicals, are there any quick checks/tests one can do with a used machine to gauge how worn the racks and pinions and the rails and bearings are?

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The rails should be free of dents and nicks, the bearings should be smooth running not growling, and without any play when grabbed firmly and moved side to side,

Racks should have relatively sharp teeth not rounded over, similar with the pinion, but more importantly, there should be minimal play(backlash) between rack and pinion.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SullyandChance

Thanks for your comments. The frame and gantry of the AZYZ 6010 (which I believe was their most heavy-duty model at the time) struck me as very solid and well made, top class welding and finish, far superior to comparable Chinese-made machines I've looked at.

My concern is that AXYZ don't seem very interested in providing long-term support (possibly due to recent change of ownership?) which isn't a major problem if there are alternative sources of parts and expertise available.

Do you happen to know if the parts likely to fail soonest (motors? rails? bearing blocks? racks and pinions? drive belts? motion controllers?) are generic or manufacturer-specific? And if there are alternative parts sources in the UK for these?

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I have operated and programmed CNC machines For over twenty years. four of these machines were the the AXYZ original model line that your 6010 falls into. They made these for, I believe, over two decades. Of all the machines i have worked with, the four AXYZ machines were by far, the most reliable and robust of all of them. Two of the 8012 models i worked with for over five years, ran 16 hours a day and were never turned off, neither of these machines had any downtime at al during that time frame. These machines were cutting heavy acrylic plastic and 1" thick MDF all day long. The Current AXYZ machine i am working with is the only one i have had to replace parts on. i can tell you from experience that if the machine is not abused that bearings will be your first major failure on your AXYZ machine. You have a good machine. it is a workhorse.

All that being said, parts and service with AXYZ can be a royal pain if you don't buy one of their service plans. i personally have not needed one of these plans as any issues that have arisen, have been parts like cooling fans, Bearings, and other items that can be sourced very easily from the original manufacturer of the part. if you go to AXYZ website for a part, the descriptions can be vague but if you look twice and at the pictures you can find alll the information you need to find a replacement part. and, really the majority of their parts dont have that much mark up. hopefully your machine came with a wiring diagram in the control box. AXYZ has done an amazing job of keeping their product information, both parts and service, off of all the CNC forums. you simply wont find the info anywhere. you do have to have a little know-how but its really not that hard to figure any of it out.

the reason they say your machine is obsolete is because AXYZ updated their operating system and can make a lot of money by requiring you to buy the new system if any of your boards or control pendant fail. There is nothing wrong with the upgrade and it gives you a whole list of new features. the old operating system, like the structure of the machine is built like a tank. i can not tell you how many times our control box has hit the ground, but its a lot. its never been phased. in fact after twenty years of use, i have never even seen any signs of wear on the keypad buttons. these machines were built to last.

As for updates on the operating system file, they did come up a little short on upkeep and usefulness. they did however create a program that allowed third party CAM software to be used. their program, Enroute, worked but it was not very user friendly. Now, you can run your drawings through your choice of software. i currently use two different operating system versions, depending on what i need the machine to do. 90% percent of the time, it uses one of them. they do sell the original software suite and it comes with all of the versions. but really if you need help with locating them, just message me. when it comes to the software and what computer you have to have to run all of it, all of the forums will tell you that you will need a vista or XP machine. We do have a vista computer connected to the machine, but my laptop running windows 10 has no issue running the software or communicating with the machine.

there is no need to think you have to prepare for disaster or find away around a problem that you will likely never have. chances are, if people are doing all these upgrades to AXYZ machines, its because its easier to do so than other machines, not necessarily because they need it. Its a shame people see something simple and feel the need to complicate it.