I’m building my LR3 and curious what everyone opinion is on cleaning the linear bearings. I recently built a voron printer and people there were soaking the bearings to remove all the factory lubricant and staring fresh with new lubricant. On the voron printer I skipped this. I know a 3d printer moves around a lot more than the LR3 ever will, but I was curious what everyone here thought about it.
The factory stuff isn’t really lube, it’s a grease protectant. Keeps them from rusting. It’s actually too thick for that style of bearing, the balls won’t circulate properly. I clean mine out, then use light machine oil on them.
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Do you take the carriage off the rails and clean the linear bearing and balls?
Yea, I tear them all the way down when I clean them out. Takes a few tries to get them back on the rails though. I usually file the groove out a touch on one end of the rail. Gives it a small chamfer so the sharp edge doesn’t try to push the bearings out. There’s a keeper wire that holds them in place.
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I cheat. I just drop some in and hope it thins it out a bit. I have used 3 in 1 and this super thin teflon stuff I have. Then clean up the rails after a few dozen back and forths.
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We just received new saws and boy were they coated with think cosmoline grease. There was not a spot of rust on the machined surfaces, but took the mechanics a whole day to get it all off. New bearings normally get a good amount of good grease pumped in before being installed. Haven’t had any issues with the bearings though.
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