Z leadscrews lubrication?
The assembly manual didn't mention anything about lubricating the Z leadscrews, and it's only mentioned in passing in one sentence in the maintenance guide.
Is the printer supposed to run without any lubrication on them?
RE:
In theory the POM nuts on the Z leadscrews are self-lubricating. It should be safe to run them dry; they should not suffer from early wear.
But multiple users have reported that their Z drive "groans" during extended travel, even after they have ensured that the leadscrews are not under lateral tension. (Move the heatbed all the way down, loosen all mounting screws for the three trapezoidal nuts to let the nuts settle in the right positions, then tighten the screws again.) Lubricating the leadscrews has fixed the groaning noise in all cases I am aware of.
RE: Z leadscrews lubrication?
In theory the POM nuts on the Z leadscrews are self-lubricating. It should be safe to run them dry; they should not suffer from early wear.
But multiple users have reported that their Z drive "groans" during extended travel, even after they have ensured that the leadscrews are not under lateral tension. (Move the heatbed all the way down, loosen all mounting screws for the three trapezoidal nuts to let the nuts settle in the right positions, then tighten the screws again.) Lubricating the leadscrews has fixed the groaning noise in all cases I am aware of.
Do you know if there are any downside to lubricating the z leadscrews?
RE: Z leadscrews lubrication?
you know if there are any downside to lubricating the z leadscrews?
Dust, increasing the wear on the leadscrews, so you need to regularly clean them and the POM nuts and regrease them.
If you run them dry, no maintenance is necessary for years.
Which is why I'd recommend to use some ptfe dry lubricant spray.
Print a tiny bowl, spray the ptfe spray into that, use a Q-tip or toothpick to apply the ptfe spray to the leadscrews and then run the bed up/down before it's dry.
No dust and some basic lubrication that might be enough to reduce the noises.
Btw, POM isn't really self-lubricating, like brass between steel is. POM is just very hard and smooth, resulting in low friction and very little wear.
Brass bushings for steel parts will actually wear off and "lubricate" the steel.