maintaining stainless steel rods
Should one rotate the stainless steel RODS by 45 degrees periodically to reduce the wear or will this cause problems with the bearings which have bedded in?
Any experience of this would be useful as I am upgrading my printer from MK2s to MK2.5s
Thanks
RE: maintaining stainless steel rods
Not an ME, so this is mostly opinion.
Grease is the better solution. Keeping the bearings and rods lubricated will extend bearing/rod life the most.
If the rods are hardened, you shouldn't need to do anything since most of the wear will be the bearings flaking metal. But Prusa doesn't spec whether or not their rods are hardened. So hard to say. And, if you need to twist the rods during normal use, it sort of means the bearings are already worn, and twisting the rods only delays the inevitable. If you replace only the bearings, that might be a good time to do a small twist ensure the bearings ride on new metal, but only if the same brand of bearings are used. If you upgrade to better bearings, then you need to buy new rods to match.
RE: maintaining stainless steel rods
But Prusa doesn't spec whether or not their rods are hardened.
That's not true at all. Prusa states that they use hardened smooth rods with a hardness of HRC 62.
You can simply look at the product description of the rods in the spare parts section to verify.
RE: maintaining stainless steel rods
Thanks to you both so I will replace with original Prusa parts the bearings and turn the rods through 45 deg 😊
RE: maintaining stainless steel rods
But Prusa doesn't spec whether or not their rods are hardened.
That's not true at all. Prusa states that they use hardened smooth rods with a hardness of HRC 62.
You can simply look at the product description of the rods in the spare parts section to verify.
The rods shipped with my MK3 printer were "unmarked" and simply labeled as "rods" and I have no clue whether they are or are not hardened steel. I can also say they are scarred as if the are the softer, unhardened variety. A few others have said Prusa changed from standard to hardened somewhere in the MK3 manufacturing timeline - which implies not everyone with a MK3 received hardened rods.
RE: maintaining stainless steel rods
Can someone advise how to rotate the rods as I could not see in the assembly instructions of any lock bolts- does one have to remove the X assembly to rotate the rods or is there a way to do it assembled?
Who makes the best replacement bearings & Rods for the Prusa i3MK2s?
Many Thanks