Mk2 Bed Bearing Failure  

Re: Mk2 Bed Bearing Failure

I personally use 3-n-1 PTFE Lubricant. I have noticed my prints turning out better with lube.

Re: Mk2 Bed Bearing Failure

Sewing machine oil info......

http://pds.mobil.com/China-English/Lubes/PDS/APXXENINDMOMobil_Velocite_SM_Series.aspx

ISO 10, 15, and 22 oils.

Bearing in mind (no pun intended lol ) these oils are used in a high fluff/dust environment, ie industrial sewing machines.

Re: Mk2 Bed Bearing Failure

Yes Peter the oil is applied to the bearings in China to prevent oxidation in transit, but also lubricates the balls within their plastic sockets, to keep them seated in with a meniscus and lubrication of same balls. Ball bearings need lubrication period. To reduce wear due to friction. Run them dry and cry sooner rather than later. Just my opinion.

Re: Mk2 Bed Bearing Failure

OK, for starters, my I3 bearings from factory appeared dry. Maybe PR was out of vegetable oil the day they assembled mine, I don't know.

Sewing machine oil is pretty much petroleum byproducts ("mineral oil")-- usually the lighter stuff. You might also know it as baby oil when fragrances are added, but that would take the romance out of it.

What I was more interested in was whether or not this oil would damage the rubber or plastic parts in these bearings, which is a question you guys seem to openly ignore. But I looked it up and haven't seen any indications that it would cause damage, so it sounds OK. You're not doing outright damage at least.

I still see PJR's side of all of this. Whatever was in those bearings from factory probably was really there for protection and should be cleaned out to start with. In fact from what I understand, for some bearings it's standard recommended procedure to remove the oil/grease that is shipped from factory and replace it with a proper... lubricant.

What that lubricant is supposed to be used seems to be a religious matter, and to make matters worse, I had to remove "3d" and "printer" from my google search results to filter out the noise you guys have created.

Reading between the lines from a certain manufacturer, you use oils for high speed bearings. In units of m/s. (We measure in terms of mm/s.) And the lightest oil that I see recommended for typical use is something like Klüberoil GEM 1-46, which is ISO VG 46. A more standard situation appears something like Mobilgear 630, which is ISO VG 220.

Mineral oil is more like... something you might put in your sewing machine (because you don't want it to get everywhere and stain your garments) or radiator. Or more like the initial oil you put in a bearing to protect it while shipping...

With what I've read, I'm not going to necessarily recommend running them dry (despite the fact that that is what I'm planning to do), nor am I joining the Cult of Baby Oil.

Re: Mk2 Bed Bearing Failure

Just to put my two cents in (based on my experience, not theory) - I greased bearings in my first 3D printer with the same light-brown grease I'm using for bearings in my bike. I put a little of it right onto balls by wooden toothpick and shuffle a bit, just to make the grease get deep into housing. Putting oil or grease on rods is useless, it won't get inside enough.
I repeated this procedure in about half-year period.
The printer worked almost daily for about 2 years without any significant wear of bearings, later I purchased MK2 and previous printer is retired, so I even don't know if the bearings were about to fail or not.
Of course, it is necessary to keep it clean. Dust or other garbage on rods or in bearings is bad.

Re: Mk2 Bed Bearing Failure

gz1 - Glad you looked into it and see the advatnages of lubrication. Yes, applications are indeed spec'd out by the traveling speed of the moving elements, which is why i believe using a grease would actually be better than an oil in this case since it's relatively slow speed. To get to the specifics of what type of grease, we should look at the NLGI scale and see that something like a 1 or 2 would probably work well. No need for EP additives since we have such a light load and probably no need for any other specialty lubes like high temp ones.

Just as some background info, i've actually worked as a maintenance engineer for a little while and taken castrol's lubrication training - not trying to toot my own horn, but rather show that i'm not just making this stuff up 😀

Re: Mk2 Bed Bearing Failure

Just to reiterate... For me, experience has shown lubrication of bearings to be a very bad idea, but that is because of the environment I am printing in.

For some others, lubrication will not cause an issue and may even help prolong bearing life and reduce noise.

I would simply add that most of these printers are being used in a domestic environment and not in a ideal industrial one. Dust does tend to be an issue in many homes and for me it is the lubrication + dust that is causing bearing degradation.

I really don't care what anyone else does; I know what suits me best.

Peter