What's the word on Drylins?  

RE: What's the word on Drylins?

I have them on one printer.  No big benefit to me.  

RE: What's the word on Drylins?

Just looking for my "100 days printing has elapsed, time to replace all of the linear bearings..." options.  Never add grease - tempting.  I'm sure they wear - but they are cheap. Any downsides?

RE: What's the word on Drylins?

@dan-rogers

None that I have noticed. Mine are 14 months old.  I am also printing on 3 yr old standard bearings.  

RE: What's the word on Drylins?

Good to know.  I walked by my printer today and happened to have my hearing aids turned on.  I can hear the bearings on the X axis - so at least those aren't so bad to tear down and repack w grease.  I printed some of those bearing holder improvements from the Mk3s+ set for the Y axis - so I was thinking a set of drylin's all around for $10 bucks is worth it since I've been putting off a number of tweaks anyhow.

No upsides, no downsides.  I'll try a repack all around first - they got me this far.

RE: What's the word on Drylins?

@dan-rogers

Worth a try, but check you X axis tension screw.  

RE: What's the word on Drylins?

X axis tension screw - do you mean belt tension?   I used the little PETG prusa belt tension tool and checked - X axis belt is right in the middle of the sweet zone.

RE: What's the word on Drylins?

@dan-rogers

Look at step 4:

https://help.prusa3d.com/en/guide/3-x-axis-assembly_67064

If too tight, it can click.  

RE: What's the word on Drylins?

Thanks - I'll check it.  My hearing aides have a mode that gives me somewhat super-motor-head hearing.  In this mode, what I am hearing is the balls in the bearings rattling around as the head zots around fro and to.   Not a clicking - but I'll go back and listen again.  Its a useful mode - all of the noise cancellation and environment modeling/speaker shaping are turned off, and higher freq's are accented.  Lets me hear the birds when I walk the dog.  Lets me listen to motors, gears and the road.

RE: What's the word on Drylins?

Posted by: @dan-roger

Ball less dry lubricant block bearings - in LM8UU form factor.  

Anyone have hands on experience?

I like my Drylins.  I only use them on the Y-axis bearings, biggest reason for me is not having any grease or oil means the bearings and rods don't pick up little bits of filament and other junk.  I don't get that so much on the X or Z axes, so I didn't bother there.

They do need a little "squeeze" when mounted in order to set properly.  I use these:  https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2969556   Print a bunch of different sizes, then trial and error to get good slide action for your specific bearings and rods (note it is very difficult to make polymer objects to high precision, so expect some tweaking).

RE: What's the word on Drylins?

Today was upgrade day at brown dog fishing.  

• Replaced X and Y bearings with Drylins - did discover that "just enough squeeze" setting them in
• Packed Z bearings with grease
• Replaced Y motor bracket with the upgraded bracket that is floating around on the print library - no more Z bracket buzz - shimmed the motor/frame with two sheets of polyethylene
• Replaced X and Y steppers with Moon ms171d2p4100 steppers
• Replaced X and Y pulleys 
• Reseated all Einsy box connections
• Tightened all terminal block connections at Einsy
• Retorqued frame
• reseated bed while heated
• Set belt tensions with the little tool from the print library

Calibrations all passed no issues - which is nice.  Troubleshooting that many changes I was not looking forward to.

Outcome - still doing some prints that are usually riddled with vertical fine artifacts to see if there is any improvement - going in with low expectations so it  will be what it is.

The first thing I noticed though - it is whisper quiet.  These motors are super quiet.  There is zero bed noise.  There is zero X axis bearing noise.  Y axis is so quiet I thought it was broken at first.

RE: What's the word on Drylins?

@kenryan

Great find!  I might have to install those.  

RE: What's the word on Drylins?

@dan-rogers

I have installed oiled maintenance-free sintered bronze bearings on all axes and also Moons (0.9 MS17HA2P4100). At lower print speeds, you can only hear the printer's fans whirring. The Moons are more expensive, but worth the money, as well as the bronze sintered bearings.