Alarming Y-axis noise
My awareness of just how loud my MK3S+ Y-axis is probably comes from my recent delivery of a Bambu Lab A1 mini. By comparison, it sounds like a kid dragging a sledge along the pavement in the summer. This concerned me. Prusas are expensive (to me anyway) so I want to ensure that it is treated with care and regularly maintained. So I carefully removed the Y-axis and packed the bearings with lithium grease. The noise seems to come from the single-bearing side next to the power supply. The twin bearings on the other side appear to hold the steel rod more squarely. It appeared strange not to have two bearings on both sides. But I am no design engineer. Popping an endoscope into the bearings showed that all the balls were there. No fluff or foreign debris.
Is anyone else having the same experience? I don't want to injure my plastic-producing pal through ignorance.
RE: Alarming Y-axis noise
The three bearings are for reasons of static certainty. Note that a chair with three legs will not rock on any uneven surface, whereas a chair with four legs will rock on an uneven surface. But about the noise: lightly take the right front corner of the bed in your fingers and try to move it carefully up and down. You must not hear any sound (slight click) and the bed must remain motionless. If you hear any noise and feel some play in your fingers, it means play between the bearing and the rod. Replace the bearing with a new one, and if that doesn't help, throw away the polished rods and bearings supplied by Prusa and buy new rods and bearings from your local CNC hardware dealer. The rods supplied by Prusa have too minus a tolerance against the bearings.
RE: Alarming Y-axis noise
Many thanks for your input. Much appreciated. I shall take another look.