• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

ShopSabre vs. AXYZ

Ditchmiester

Ditchmiester

New Member
We are looking at adding a new machine in the next week or at least ordering a new machine. We have narrowed it down to either a ShopSabre 4860 or an AXYZ 4004 series.

ShopSabre - 40K RPM HSK Spindle, Phenolic T-Slot/Vacuum Table Top Combo, 10 Tool ATC, Unist Mister, Raster Braille Tool, Ball screws all axises, 48x60 cutting area, Manufactured and Assembled in Elko Minnesota

AXYZ - 40K RPM Columbo Spindle, Aluminum T-Slot/Vacuum Table Top Combo, 7 Tool ATC, Unist Mister, 9HP Vacuum pump Dual Drive Rack and Pinion on Y, Single Drive Rack and Pinion on X, Z Ball Screw, 48x60 cutting area, Canadian Company with Rep out of Cincinnati including training facility

They are very similar machines in spec with both machines weighing in at around 2300 lbs and both having solid steal frames and steel gantries.

Shop Sabre doesn't have a demo machine at all for us to take a look at before we purchase it but has offered a tour of their facility

AXYZ has a show room in Cincinnati that we can come visit and run a very similar machine with a different spindle.

Anyone have real world experience with either of these companies and want to shed some light on it for me. Both machines are within 3K of the same price so there isn't a major factor there.
 
Zendavor Signs

Zendavor Signs

Mmmmm....signs
I think you have your answer. Bad reputation (or none at all, we've had CNC machines for 15 years, never heard of shopsabre) and no demo. I would highly recommend a 4x8 bed, I guarantee you will regret it later if you don't.
 
Ditchmiester

Ditchmiester

New Member
That is definitely a big help thank you. It has concerned me with there ability to deliver a machine on time. We made the mistake of purchasing a no name router before and it took almost 7 months for them to deliver what we asked for. We ended up selling that machine back to that same company a year later. This has brought us to where we are now. I don't want to go through the same thing again.

As for the 4x8 reference. We are limited by space and that is why we are looking at the 4x5 table size. And we don't do any large signs we are just looking at increasing our table size now from 2x3 so that we can cut more parts at a time.
 
G

GaSouthpaw

Profane and profane accessories.
It's been quite a few years now since I used one, but I remember the AXYZ tables as being well put together. Plus, I see it comes with a vacuum. The first router I ran didn't have one. It was hell. No way I'd buy a router without one.
 
Ditchmiester

Ditchmiester

New Member
Yeah that is an advantage that it has a vacuum pump that is included. I also like that it has an aluminum table top compared to the Phenolic of the ShopSabre.

I'm going to call ShopSabre today and see what they say about delivery times and how they will handle it.

Thanks for all of your help!
 
Ditchmiester

Ditchmiester

New Member
I did look at CamMaster they do look like good machines but not quite the build quality of the AXYZ and ShopSabre. There are definitely advantages to both machines we are looking at and they are both within a few thousand dollars of each other. So now we are trying to decide which one will do our specific need better.
 
Ditchmiester

Ditchmiester

New Member
The main difference being the Gantry material. We are cutting 95% Aluminum and Brass and need as strong and heavy duty of a machine as we can get and with their Aluminum Gantry we feel that there just isn't enough rigidity in the machine to withstand cutting Aluminum and Brass for the next 5-10 years. Where as the ShopSabre and AXYZ both come with Steel Gantry but the difference being Ball Screw vs. Rack and Pinion. Personally we are leaning toward the ShopSabre because it has the Ball Screws. Did a demo of there WINCNC Controller this morning and seemed very intuitive and still had a lot of nice features.
 
S

SignProPlus-Alex

New Member
I been cutting aluminum on my cnc all the time anything from .040 up to .25. If you look at chip load for aluminium you will be cutting at 12000-24000rpm 60-150 ipm with .25 single flute bit. Even cnc with aluminum gantry will do it mine is 6x8 .1875 <100lb gantry with r&p. Heavier base router is preferable, mine is too light it will resonates a little.
And I am personally using cold air gun instead of mister for cutting aluminum.
I used to use thermwood with 800lb gantry, double ballscrews, 800w servo motors and it still cuts aluminum at only 120ipm. If you go faster you will snap the endmill.
Just my opinion.
P.S. What about Multicam? They have steel gantry.
 
Ditchmiester

Ditchmiester

New Member
I haven't looked at Multicam yet mostly because i'm not a big fan of them as a company. I researched routers about 2-3 years ago and when I tried to get a quote from them it was like pulling teeth. They seemed very disinterested because I was looking for a lower end model. All they wanted to quote was 3-7 thousand series machines and I was looking at the 1000 series. I'm definitely open to looking at other companies out there but right now the only 2 I can see that are in my price range and offer a table size that can fit where I need to put it is AXYZ and ShopSabre.
 
Ditchmiester

Ditchmiester

New Member
ShopSabre was actually monitoring this post and gave me the full story of the post that was taken down or deleted not really sure why but that definitely wasn't the whole story and if delivery is the biggest concern of the machine We have written in our quote delivery of 6-8 weeks guaranteed. I was given the name of a shop in Indiana that has a shopsabre and we went out there to see the machine and it look wonderful and they were cutting aluminum like it was nothing. They had the machine a year and a half and had nothing but good things to say about it. So that is why this is a hard decision. I have heard both pros and cons of why to buy or not buy a ShopSabre and the Same goes for AXYZ. I think both machines are very capable and it is going to come down to the intangibles now. Support, Service and Gut instinct. We are planning on making a decision by the end of the month we are going to go see the AXYZ Demo room in Cincinnati and go and visit the ShopSabre and run some samples.
 
S

spectrum maine

New Member
cnc router choices

buy the techno hd series. heavy duty, parts are readily available if needed. the isel parts used are common to many brand name machines.
 
J

JS

New Member
Shop Sabre Best bang for your buck

Ditchmiester said:
We are looking at adding a new machine in the next week or at least ordering a new machine. We have narrowed it down to either a ShopSabre 4860 or an AXYZ 4004 series.

ShopSabre - 40K RPM HSK Spindle, Phenolic T-Slot/Vacuum Table Top Combo, 10 Tool ATC, Unist Mister, Raster Braille Tool, Ball screws all axises, 48x60 cutting area, Manufactured and Assembled in Elko Minnesota

AXYZ - 40K RPM Columbo Spindle, Aluminum T-Slot/Vacuum Table Top Combo, 7 Tool ATC, Unist Mister, 9HP Vacuum pump Dual Drive Rack and Pinion on Y, Single Drive Rack and Pinion on X, Z Ball Screw, 48x60 cutting area, Canadian Company with Rep out of Cincinnati including training facility

They are very similar machines in spec with both machines weighing in at around 2300 lbs and both having solid steal frames and steel gantries.

Shop Sabre doesn't have a demo machine at all for us to take a look at before we purchase it but has offered a tour of their facility

AXYZ has a show room in Cincinnati that we can come visit and run a very similar machine with a different spindle.

Anyone have real world experience with either of these companies and want to shed some light on it for me. Both machines are within 3K of the same price so there isn't a major factor there.
Click to expand...


I can’t say enough good things about Shop Sabre. I had a large project about 5 years ago that needed extensive CNC work for cutting PVC, aluminum and acrylic. I had to make thousands of signs for a national company and they were all the same size and shape so a CNC was needed.
I checked a lot of companies and looked for something used and finally decided on Shop Sabre for the price and size of the machine. I got the 4814 which was a 48” wide x 14’ long table, so I could cut 4 x 12 with no problem. I did not get the tool changer so I was actually able to cut 5’ wide sheets. Sounds weird but that’s how their table works.
I did not get the vacuum table which I did not need for this job but it would have been nice to have. I got the aluminum mister for aluminum and it was giving me trouble and they overnighted me another one, no questions asked.
I have never in my life used a CNC and had no idea how to make it work. The CNC was delivered exactly when they said it would and was basically ready to use except for some electric that needed to be done.
I bought the V carve pro from them (or it was free, I don’t remember, it was 5 years ago.). When I was ready to route I called the tech support and what’s nice with them is a live person actually answers the phone ready to help you. They give you FREE LIFETIME tech support (unrushed) from start to finish.
I had 3 files I needed to cut for my large project. The tech support actually help me set up each file so it cut how I needed it to cut and stayed on the phone with me to make sure the machine cut everything correctly.
The thing is, if they were not there to walk me thru using this I would have never figured it out. I never had 1 problem with the machine breaking or stop working. It actually did not fire up one day and it was my fault, but with them on the phone with me for an hour going thru everything I was figured out and I was to blame.
They are not high pressure and won’t try and talk you out of another purchase. They will be truthful with you and explain CNC’s very clearly and why you don’t need to spend a fortune on something.
I ended up selling the machine to a guy fairly close by and he loves it and he also continues to get free support as he also never knew how to use one. He uses it for channel letters mainly. If I ever need one again I will go to them again.

You can read my past posts. I never praise companies as most companies suck, but shop sabre does deserve every bit of praise.



 
Ditchmiester

Ditchmiester

New Member
JS,

Thanks for the great and honest review of ShopSabre. So far I have seen and read way more positives than negatives on ShopSabre. We are still weighing our options and aren't ready to pull the trigger yet. I can see advantages to both machines but we are hoping to have a deal done by the end of the month.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top