Precix Router Industrial series

[juanleal]

Hi all, were I work we were looking for a router to cut specifically aluminum sheet metal and among other we choose Precix for all of the standard features, accuracy .001, repeatibility .001 and supposely zero backlash on all axes that they advertise on their webpage.

Now that we have the machine installed on the shop I have run the machine maybe a total of 15 hr and it is throwing bad parts left and right I checked the axes and thay are precenting backlash .008 on X-axis and .006 on y axis.

Does anybody have experience with this machine brand?

I need any information you all can provide me with.

PS This machines are Canadian but now they are assembling some of their machines in Mexico.

[DennisCNC]

Hi,

Did you get ballscrews or belt or rack for the drive? If it is rack and pinion, is it helical? By the looks of the machine probably not, I don't think you can get .001 with a regular rack, maybe if they used Alpha gear boxes (the blue $3,000 dollar ones) but unlikely.

Also the machine doesn't look rigid enough to cut aluminum, unless you take very light cuts.

[Eliuth]

When did you get this machine?

What kind of System are you using?

any machine that use rack and pinion system have to have back lash.

This is for Mechanical design.

[juanleal]

We are in the US but we bought this machine from Canada but in fact they build it in Mexico as far as I know. For system we use Mastercam. The last company I worked we used to make aluminum sheet metal parts on similar machines like Multicam, Fagor and AXIS and they all were able to machine aluminum sheet metal. Also the Precix seller recomend us the Industrial Series Precix for cutting aluminum sheet preciselly and accurately. Only
now that you mention it is that I know that rack and pinion allways have back lash because Precix, in their website, advertised zero back lash on this machine.

[Eliuth]

Hi Juan.

If you want I can send you some Articles to your email address about mechanical design in Pinions.

With thi some articles you can undestand about it.

I mean about Back lash.

I think that for the price this machine is ok for this tupe of work.

I saw Precix Machine working here with a friend and was working fine.

that he told me is that Precix have making routers in Mexico until March of 2007.

I'm Mechanical designer and I'm looking for a Router What Router you think that have the correct especifications?

cheers!!!

[axis]

do you have dual drive on your x axis or single this will make a big diffrence in harder materials and longer jobs. there will be a trailing slave side that will always try to catch up to the drive side you may need to slow down your feeds or take more cuts.rack and pinion can be zero backlash if the software can compinsate for any play you may want to check your settings for this.call precix

[aghobby]

www.electrobf.com

They have the best price performance ratio. They use twin drive on the gantry with a pneumatic pressusre applied tpo the drive unit that make a zero backlash. They use also a self made belt driven gearbox as the mechanical one, with gear, are almost impossible top find at a reasonable price...

Thanks,
Alex

[Roger N]

Hi,
We have had a Precix for 4 years, our was made in Canada. The only real issues with cutting aluminium is slow down. We cut 5000 lbs each of .125 and .250 al each year. 1000s of tiny parts for the RC industry. Our machine is the belt driven version and we hold to .002 with no problem. We could tune the drive servos some more but for industry we are in it is very good. The only issue with Precix is the phone, forget it and email directly to Hamid for service, Russ is good but only works 4 days a week. Some of the traveling techs are not too hot, but deal with the Surrey, BC Canada office and all should work out.

[juanleal]

Roger,
holding .002 on this machine is a dream, belive me, I did reduce the feed to half of what I normaly would use on other machines to finally achieve an acceptable finish at the cost of more time per part.

Eliuth,
quote: If you want I can send you some Articles to your email address about mechanical design in Pinions.

yes, please send me all the info you may have. I want to be able to understand how this machine works and maybe help it to make good parts.

Also, if you are looking for a router, I'd say the best one is the one who actually deliver what's been advertised in matters of capabilities of the machine.

Axis,
quote: rack and pinion can be zero backlash if the software can compinsate for any play you may want to check your settings for this.call precix

that sounds good and I think you are right but service support from Precix just don't answer our calls and I haven't seen something like that in their manual. Please let me know if there is a place in the Precix control, were I could input the value of the backlash for every axis (x and y), so the control will compensate these values.

JL

[Eliuth]

Juan

Send me your email address to be in touch with you!!!

I can send a PDF Files with some Rack and Pinion designs.

Im agree about Axis that software can compinsate.

You have to talk with Precix about this.

Best Regards

[xjdubber]

precix's head office is a 20 min drive from my house, I know their machines. Dont compare them to any other brands. Precix is kinda like practical cnc....crap.

[Roger N]

Originally Posted by xjdubber precix's head office is a 20 min drive from my house, I know their machines. Dont compare them to any other brands. Precix is kinda like practical cnc....crap.

Strong words xjdubber. Living 20 minutes from the head office does not give you much experience with the machine. We have had our Precix since 2004 and after nearly 4 years we are in a good position to say what kind of quality the machine has. Our take on the Precix machine is that for the money ($35000 roughly the machine ranks with any similariliy priced machine. We recently moved from an industrial building which had three shops with cnc machines. One had a shopbot, one shop had two Haas verticle machining centers and we had our Precix.
The Precix makes the shopbot look like the beginners machine that it is, OK for a cabinet shop or guitar maker. Our Precix on the other hand was no match for the heavy cuts that the Haas machines could take, however when the Haas machine was too small for a job in aluminium we got the job. We produce thousands of aluminium parts on the Precix and double shifted it for months with no more than normal failures. One Copely Servo amp and one MagMotor servo in 46 months of service. I admit that we take extra care of the machine and that is part of the reason it holds up so well. However, without maintenance no machine will last. The service from the Precix company has been off a bit this year as they restructure to produce their machines offshore due to the strong Canadian dollar and the failing US economy. This is happening to lots of companies bigger than Precix. The technical staff is as good as any other CNC company with Hamid and Russ being top notch problem solvers.

I hope living near to a head office is taken for what it is worth when someone is looking for advice on the quality of a machine.