Trying to find an alternative to Prusa lubricant  

RE: Trying to find an alternative to Prusa lubricant

@clarmrrsn

Minimum hardness should be 165 HB and approx. 100 HB difference to the sintered bearing, since the bearing should wear rather than the rods. Surface finish should be Ra: 0.2 to 0.8 µm. Hard chrome plated rods would be particularly suitable. Rods tolerance f7/g6, sintered bearing H7.
Regarding the Igus shafts, I would at least ask for the surface hardness, surface roughness and tolerances.

I have installed these bearings (X/Y-axis): https://caspar-gleitlager.de/produkte/gleitlager/buchsen/50/buchsen-sinterbronze/?c=6

RE: Trying to find an alternative to Prusa lubricant

@karl-herbert

Thank you for the Information, very helpfull.

Grease Subsitutes

Look up greases that are used on shotgun screw in chokes.  There are several good manufacturers and many come in a 30 ml syringe already.  I have used it for many years and with the syringe the ease of application is effortless.  It is made for high temps and resists dirt and dust.  The Birchwood Casey comes in a squeeze tube at Walmart.  I use the Carlson's gun grease myself.

lubricant

I have been using Superlube grease with ptfe in the bearings (initial build and cleaning) and a drop of Superlube synthetic oil ISO 100 with ptfe on the rods when they get dry on my MK3S with the original bearings as supplied. No issues since the initial build over a year and a half (one print every day or two). 

Cheers and hope this helps.

Grease

Super Lube #21030 Multi-Purpose Synthetic Grease with Syncolon (tm) PTFE.

grease

I recently changed.  I use synthetic grease with PTFE.  

RE: Grease for a long life

I think that various types of grease and oil are good for lubrication, but only anti-corrosion oil or even just steel on steel is not enough and makes the bearings or rods wear out prematurely.

RE: Trying to find an alternative to Prusa lubricant

This worked for me. It wasn't cheap and made in the good ol' USA

Amazon.com: Caig DeoxITX10S Oiler, Precision Oiler Oil 25 mL - X10S-25C : Automotive

https://www.amazon.com/Caig-DeoxITX10S-Oiler-Precision-Oil/dp/B0018KK1TQ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1SER8LBI42KN&keywords=deoxit+x10s+precision+instrument+oil+pan+-+6+ml&qid=1640334470&sprefix=Deoxit+X10s%2Caps%2C88&sr=8-1

RE: Trying to find an alternative to Prusa lubricant

I used Deoxit L260NP on installing Misumi bearing as that is what I had plenty of.

https://caig.com/product/new-deoxit-l260dnp-plus-grease-l260-dn1/

 The Prusa tube seemed awfully small but might have been enough.

Any thoughts as to the suitability of  Deoxit L260? Is SuperLube a better choice?

RE: Trying to find an alternative to Prusa lubricant

I agree with @jsw.   Superlube 21030 is my choice.  Prusa grease is surely very good, but the cost per gram is not competitive.

In my case, I paid  at Amazon 19 Euro for a tube of Superlube 201030. It contains 3 oz =85 gram. That's 0.22 Euro/gram,

Prusa's small tube of 5 gram costs 4.6 Euro = 0.90 Euro/gram. 

RE: Trying to find an alternative to Prusa lubricant

As far as I know, Prusa's tubes contain this NLGI1-2 grease: https://www.prumex.cz/mogul-lv-1-ep-400-g-plasticke-mazivo/

Without calculating shipping costs, the price per gram here would be about 2 cents. The grease, of course, you can use almost anywhere and will be enough for a while.

RE: Trying to find an alternative to Prusa lubricant

I can see some of you are using very expensive "special" lubricants. Speaking for me, I just don't see a reason to pay that much to lube simple low speed motion linear bearings on printer. I am using this transparent lithium grease and have absolutely no complains.

RE: Trying to find an alternative to Prusa lubricant

Thanks for the link, but unfortunately it's the shipping costs that are holding me back from buying:

wbr,

Karl

RE: Trying to find an alternative to Prusa lubricant

@karl-herbert
You don't need to buy from exactly that store. The lube I gave a link to, is import-ware in my country and I'm sure you can get the same (or similar) in your country too. Important is, it's lithium, is transparent and that is cheap.

Liqui Moly LM 47 is a special grease for bearings and costs approx. 5€ per 100g

Liqui Moly LM 47 is cheap (5€), easy to get (every car and home improvement store) and soft like body lotion so that small balls inside the bearings don't stick together. I use if for all the bearings and gears (e.g., BondTech extruder) of my printers since 2012 (e.g., RepRapPro Ormerod 1, still in use today) without any problems. I also use this grease for many other things in our household, like door hinges, bike, scooter and car bearings ...

RE:

How different is the Superlub 21030 compared with the Prusa lubricant? I often found blocks of Prusa lubricant being pushed to the ends of the rods and also at the ends of the bearings. Perhaps I applied too much? I guess this could impede the bearing movements.

Can the orange cap with holes that came with the Prusa lubricant be used with the Superlub 21030? I disassembled my machine yesterday and found that I need to replace the rods and bearings of my i3MK3S/S+. Going to order LMU8 with PSFJ8 or SFJ8 rods. If the orange cape from Prusa can be used as the grease injector for the Superlub 21030, then I don’t need to put everything back and risk further damage when printing the below injector.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3678611

RE: Trying to find an alternative to Prusa lubricant

It's impossible to insert the "perfect" amount of lubricant into bearing and so the excess will be pushed out on rods. That's totally normal and doesn't influence printer's functionality in any way. If there's a lot of lubricant on each side of the rod (after installing bearings), then just wipe it off.
About the nozzle for lubricating bearings... Dimension depends on thread that manufacturer used on tube. But that shouldn't be a problem: you have 3D printer and so you can make any kind of nozzle. I've bought big (125ml) tube of cheap lithium grease, where M10 thread is used and I simply printed custom nozzle that fits perfectly. I mean, that's why we have 3D printer, right? 😊 

RE: Trying to find an alternative to Prusa lubricant

Thank you. What thread size does the Superlub 21030 uses? My printer is partly disassembled so if the one that came from Prusa lubricant can be used on the Superlub 21030, then I do not need to put everything back now and wait for all the parts to arrive before re-assembling. 

RE: Trying to find an alternative to Prusa lubricant

Usually these bigger tubes have an "opening" (tip) like this. And if that's the case, then Prusa's (smallish) nozzle probably won't fit. Anyway, if SuperLube uses the tip as on that photo, then you can simply use the tip as a nozzle (by cutting it at the very top). I mean, that's what I would do.

RE: Trying to find an alternative to Prusa lubricant

After replacing with the Misumi bearings and robs, how often are we supposed to take out the bearings and reapply the super lobe 21030 using the 3D printed injector? I suppose this method lubricate the small balls inside the bearings more than just apply the Prusa lubricant on the robs?