XXT head going bad???

[[Da...]]

We have been running a job for over a week with no issues. Today, one wall checked with space points, suddenly shows .0075" stock. I rechecked again , same thing ! tried a second part , similar results. Did a plate check to verify, but it returned good numbers.
When the probe does a straight on Z hit, the probe "wiggles a bit" Like it was taking a diagonal hit on a small radius.

Shut down the entire system, Restarted and it's all back to normal, so far. Probe still wiggles. Second job similar to the first one, has strange points appearing also. Now I don't trust the GOOD numbers. Trying to recheck a few previously checked parts 😮

waiting for Zeiss to call back.

[[Da...]]

As far as I know, there's a couple of very fragile plate springs in the XXT. Depending on how rough you remove the probe if you want to change in manually or if you want to clean it, it is not unlikely to damage those springs. Although I never killed one of our XXTs, I managed to kill a Renishaw SP25 sensor, which is based on similar technology.

If you absolutely have to remove a probe by hand, then I'd recommend doing it by pulling if softly down until you feel a stop, then take it off with a tilting motion to the side. Never push it up and then tilt to the side!

If your probe is damaged this way, there is no way you won't notice since the calibration will fail almost every time.

[[Er...]]

I have had multiple Z drives go bad. I had similar weird results in Z, plate vibrations, random drive kick outs... Turned out the bearings for the drive rollers on the column were bad. Once the bearings were replaced it was quiet while moving in the Z axis. I just got used to the noise as it gradually got louder. Now I can hear the Y axis bearings 🤣

[[Cl...]]

We just replaced our XXT. It was vibrating at the adapter plate.
Service tech noticed it and recommended a new one. All included
I think they quoted 15k.

[[Da...]]

Just got the new head as an exchange... Around 5K, I think.