Lubrication and Cleaning Questions  

Lubrication and Cleaning Questions

Hi everyone.  This is lengthy, and I'm sorry!

I have a few questions about the maintenance topics listed in the handbook and on the support site. I know many of these have been covered here before, but I’m having trouble reconciling some of the slight differences in instructions between models (MK4, XL, and CORE One).  For example, concerning lubrication, a CORE One set of online instructions will send me to an MK4 page which is close in information, but not exact.

1. Lubrication Questions

Smooth Rods

• Both the handbook (Section 11.3: Bearings) and CORE One online maintenance page says: “Every couple hundred hours, the smooth rods should be cleaned with a paper towel... apply a little bit of the included lubricant on the smooth rods... move the axis back and forth a couple of times."
• "Moving the axis back and forth" sounds like they are only referring to the 10 mm Y-axis smooth rods, not the 8 mm Z-axis smooth rods that go into the heatbed bearings.
• Question: Are the thinner 8 mm Z-axis smooth rods ever lubricated, or should they only be cleaned?

Linear Rail (I have the correct lubrication set):

• The handbook says: “It’s a good practice to apply lubricant to the linear rail every 3–6 months.”
• I found a support article for the XL describing the “X-rail lubing” procedure: "How to lubricate linear bearing rails (XL)"
• Question: Can I assume this same procedure be safely followed for the CORE One as well?

Bearings

The guide talks about possibly lubricating them, but from what I remember during assembly, the bearings would be very difficult to access once the printer is built.

• Question:  How often is bearing lubrication realistically performed?
• Do users typically wait until major issues appear before servicing them?

2. Nextruder Cleaning Routine

I’ll likely fall into the category of users who print heavily at first, then settle into a “one project per week/month” pattern. And my question is very similar to the topic "Procedure for shutting down the printer for an indefinite period (cleaning and emptying the nozzle?)"  

• When done printing for the day, or for the week, it seems the consensus in that thread is to only Unload and if some time passes, do a cold pull before starting to print again.
• Question: Can cleaning filament be used instead of the cold pull (or maybe in addition to?).  I was under the impression cold pulls were for more solid clogs that needed a more aggressive clean-out.  Note: I'll mostly be using PLA.

As always, thank you for reading!