Heatbed (y-axis) does not move properly to the front
I have the Prusa i3 MK3S for more or less 1 year and since today I have the following issue with my bed:
When I slide it all the way to the back and try to move the bed to the front (LCD side) it requires a lot of force to do so. Because of this, all my prints are failing now. It doesn't matter whether the 3d printer is on or off.
First I thought the rods might not be parellel somehow, however when I'm sliding the bed to the back, it goes very smoothly, so this is probably not the case. Also I checked all the cables attached to the bed, nothing unusual there.
Before today, everything was working fine. Does anyone have any clue or hint on what it might be? I thought it might be a bearing issue, but it's also very time consuming to check that part, since i would need to dismantle quite some parts then.
RE: Heatbed (y-axis) does not move properly to the front
Yes, you were right, its sounds exactly like your bearings, your bearings need lubrication. Or they have gone so long without lubrication they might now be damaged. You wont know until you lubricate them and see. In the short term a light machine oil (sewing machine, gun/knife oil etc) applied to the rods and worked past the seals will help. Move the axis back and forth and some of the light oil will make it past the seals inside. But only in the short term.
You need to properly clean and re-grease the bearings. The only way to do that is to remove them and get the grease inside where its needed.
RE: Heatbed (y-axis) does not move properly to the front
Another check is to loosen the U-bolts and try sliding back and forth. The nuts need to be snug, but not tight as they can crush the bearing shells.