On my gridbot (not a V1 machine), the pulley for the leadscrew sit on top of a bearing, which sits on top of a printed PLA part. Something has been squeaking for a while and in frustration, I sprayed that part with IPA and the noise stopped.
So I took it apart and the bearing had gotten so gummed up it worn a channel into the pulley:
The bearing is on top. The worn pulley is on the right and the new pulley is on the left. My foot is in the lower middle out of focus.
I am oretty sure I have another bearing somewhere. But I just cleaned and lubricated everything and I’ll see how long this one lasts. The other side has been fine.
Shoot that is a bummer, that bearing must have been missed during assembly for the lube. Seems like that sort of load on the bearing would last forever otherwise.
Don’t follow my path. But I happened to have IPA in front of me, so I cleaned the gunk off with that. Then I applied 3 in 1 oil. Then I wiped that off and I put a small amount of teflon grease in between the bearing and the pulley.
I know the cool kids will remove the racers, pull out the actual bearings and clean them, then re apply grease and the racers. I’m just not willing to do that on a sub-$5 part. If this thing creaks again in the next few weeks, I am going to order a new one or find the spares I have somewhere.
3 costs to everything. What the part costs, the time and labour to replace it, and what failure costs.
I have cheap parts that get lots of maintenance because failure is expensive, and of course ones where I’m perfectly willing to replace it when the time comes. Other cheap parts are just treated as wear items even if I could make them last indefinitely with maintenance, because the work involved is more than the part is worth.
Curious if belt teeth against the smooth idlers ever shows up as artifacts on your prints? Especially curious because my teethed idlers grip belts enough that I wonder if they’re a source of resonance, and ironically artifacts too, as the belt twangs as it releases from each tooth during rotation. Have been wondering whether smooth idlers like this would be lesser evil.
